Clover Networks, a First Data company (merged with Fiserv July 2019) offers a modular suite of Point of Sale systems (PoS) for restaurant and retail. This modular suite features fixed PoS stations, a customer loyalty program and gift card, an analytics module, as well as a mobile point of sale that Iplugs into the users smartphone and tablet to accept secure credit card swipes, as well as dips and taps like Apple Pay®, Samsung Pay™ and Android Pay™.
$9.95
per month
Talon.One
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Talon.One, from the company of the same name headquartered in Berlin, is a promotion engine that enables users to create targeted and customized marketing promotions built around customer and session data. WIth it, users can create, manage and track discounts, coupon codes, referral, loyalty and product bundles in one platform.
Clover is well suited for high-volume environments where quality and dependability are paramount. The hardware can scale easily and always looks good on the counter. I have even seen Clover hardware used in small mom-and-pop type stores. The ability to swing the monitor around for signature is really nice. Customers appreciate the ease of use. The stations we have to use nice large bright screens. Not familiar enough with the Clover product line to know if the smaller screen sizes are available for applications where space is a concern.
I see Talon.One as best suited for small or medium sized businesses - less than 50k customers. The reason being, I do not see the scalability of the tool; it is the classic what-you-see-is-what-you-get. On the positive, because you get all of it out of the box, it makes it very simple to have one or two people dedicated to administration and development. Additionally, Talon.One won't be contacting you for more money just to use a feature
There are numerous aspects to Clover's usability: the usability of their point of sale systems, the usability of their CRM and web dashboards, and the technical side of integrating with other third-party services. All are top tier. Clover's usability is excellent and I have never had a problem figuring out how to use their services at any level. The POS system has a very low barrier to entry and an easy learning curve for newcomers.
We rarely have problems, but when we do, they are major and the system becomes unusable. While Customer Support does eventually respond and fix the issue, they can take a long time. If a major problem occurs on a weekend during the dinner rush, it can be catastrophic to sales and customer returns.
Clover is great because they have their own equipment, but it would be nice to make it more mobile and use it on an app from anywhere. Sometimes we go to events and have to use Square, which is another great option. For small businesses I would definitely recommend using something like Square because it doesn't have the monthly fees, it is by transaction only.
For clarity, I am only comparing the discount code feature from Salesforce vs. the entire platform. In Salesforce, creating a code was an arduous process, then we had to wait for the sync job to run with our web services engine (every 10 minutes) to see if what we had created was functioning correctly. Do the math: If configuration takes 10 minutes, you have to wait a total of 20 minutes to test it, then if it doesn't work, try again in 15-20 minutes. Over an 8-hour day, you aren't accomplishing anything! TalonOne made it so simple. 10-15 minutes of configuration time, then near immediate testing time. We were able to create and troubleshoot a discount code in a couple of hours rather than a couple of days
Clover has positively impacted our finances as we regularly purchase from our local shops for meetings or lunches and now we can save money/earn promotions.
