Edition #49: Why A Tablet POS Is A Budget Breakthrough, Not Just A CX Project
Telcos have never been under as much cost pressure as they are now. Margins are compressing, competition is fierce, churn is stubborn, and the cost of running a retail estate keeps climbing. On top of that, customers expect more and more from every visit.
As telco decision makers sharpen their pencils, there is one investment they can make that pays dividends: a tablet-enabled Point of Sale. Historically seen as just a customer experience project, moving to a POS that supports tablets is actually a powerful cost cutter that unlocks endless opportunities.
In this edition of Telco Talk, we'll examine why tablets are a hidden gem for the budget-conscious, as well as the other opportunities that these solutions can bring.
The Prerequisite
Running your POS on a tablet sounds easy – but only web-based solutions can do it. What does this mean?
Instead of a traditional software app that’s installed on a computer, you need a POS that can be accessed through a web browser. This means the solution has the flexibility to be accessed from any device – whether that’s a tablet, phone, or a desktop computer.
If your current POS solution is not web-based, this may mean an upgrade is in order. However, as you’ll see, the benefits are quite significant and can justify the switch.
The Immediate Result: Hardware & Support Savings
The most obvious cost savings relate to hardware. Tablets let staff perform transactions from anywhere in the store, and not just at fixed checkout terminals. Investing in tablets does have a cost, but it is significantly less than the fixed terminals they replace.
Now, you can say goodbye to the bulk of your in-store hardware costs: desktops, monitors, keyboard, mice, receipt printers and cash drawers – as well as the desks they sit on. Arming staff with tablets means you need to just keep one or two fixed stations per store, and the savings compound quite quickly.
The even bigger impact of leaner hardware is the cost of the support that comes with it. Fewer fixed terminals mean fewer Windows licenses to buy, antivirus subscriptions to renew, and spare parts to carry.
The estate is managed as a fleet, not as a few thousand individual computers – with no updates to manage, as POS upgrades appear automatically via the access link.
It also slashes the hours spent on desk-side support, security patching, OS upgrades and warranty renewals. Failed units can be swapped rather than repaired on site. This means fewer IT tickets, fewer on-site visits, and less downtime in front of customers.
The Implications:
- PC hardware is scaled to the number of counters; tablets scale to the number of staff. Streamlining to one shared station reduces hardware requirements while increasing the number of people who can simultaneously serve customers.
- Support hours don't disappear - they get redeployed. The same IT team covers more stores without growing.
- Savings compound across your estate; modest savings at one store are significant at scale.
The Obvious Improvement: Customer Experience
Switching to tablets does more than just save money – it also radically improves your customer experience.
- Line Busting: During peak hours, staff can take orders and process payments directly in the queue rather than waiting for customers to reach a counter. Wait times drop, walkouts drop, and the store stops losing sales to impatience.
- Serving Customers Where They Are: Advisors can check inventory, pull up specifications, set up a delivery or handle a return without leaving the customer to go and find a terminal. The conversation never breaks.
- Run The Whole Store From One Device: Greeting and queuing, selling, casting content to in-store screens, processing a transaction and signing a contract - all from the same tablet, in the same hand.
The Implications:
- The queue stops being a bottleneck and becomes a sales opportunity.
- Fewer customers leave unresolved because the answer was three steps away at a counter.
- Staff stop being transaction handlers and start being advisors. That's a service model change, not a hardware swap.
The Future Enabler: A Streamlined Store Design
Here's the benefit most business cases never get to. Once terminals are no longer bolted to bulky counters, the store layout stops being a constraint.
A typical telco store is 200 square metres. When you replace fixed terminals with tablets, an even better sales experience can be delivered in under 100. That's roughly half your leasing cost, per site, multiplied across the estate, and it compounds into fit-out, power, maintenance and reconfiguration.
From there, the flagship store can be restructured altogether: moveable tables instead of a permanent counter, semi-private service areas for longer conversations, a tech and collection area at the back, self-service lockers and payment kiosks at the front. Minimal fixtures, more room for staff and customers, and a layout that can be reworked as the portfolio changes.
None of that is a separate project. It's what the tablet decision quietly enables.
The Implications:
- Footprint reduction is the largest single saving in the model - and it's only available after you move to tablets.
- A smaller store is cheaper to build, cheaper to run, and faster to reconfigure.
- Omnichannel journeys like click and collect are what make a leaner footprint feel like a better store, not a smaller one.
Time To Take Stock
Four questions worth asking this quarter:
- Can your point of sale run in a browser today, or is it limited to desktop applications?
- What do you actually spend each year on desktops, licenses, antivirus, patching and desk-side support across your store estate?
- If your fixed terminals disappeared tomorrow, what could you do with the space they were occupying?
- How much could you save if you could cut your retail footprint in half?
Curious to see how much you could save with a smaller flagship? Take our Telco Retail Savings Calculator.
Final Thoughts
Moving to tablets isn't just a hardware refresh; it's the decision that makes every other saving available - the licensing you stop paying, the peripherals you stop buying, the maintenance you stop scheduling, the queue you stop losing customers to, and the half of the store you stop leasing.
The savings start immediately. Is a tablet point of sale on your roadmap for the year ahead?
