Age UK Lincoln & South Lincolnshire use Tengo Software’s charity shop EPoS and CRM systems, and found that their expertise were invaluable. The system is now helping the charity to raise invaluable funds which are being redirected back to the elderly in the communities they support.
Amanda Sowerby, Operations Director at Age UK Lincoln & South Lincolnshire, had the following to say about the software and their experiences with Tengo as a whole through the installation and training process, and ongoing support:
“We first used Tengo in 2018 when we added the system to our shops as we were having trouble with using a traditional/old fashioned style till. Initial contact was prompt and from initial contact to remote installation was much quicker than I had anticipated. Setting up the system was straight forward, the screen is clear and easy to use and since introducing the system has improved our ability to oversee all our shops and has taken our shops into the 21st Century!
Our ability to quickly and easily run off accurate reports from the cloud based CRM system has dramatically improved our reporting processes. The impact this has had on our retail business is fantastic and I can’t thank the Tengo team enough. The support from the team has been invaluable, their ability to respond to queries quickly using the remote log-in to allow the technical support team to see for themselves what we are talking about without visiting site is brilliant.
Thanks to the introduction of this system into our shops it has allowed our Charity to support even more lonely or isolated older people across Lincolnshire! Thank you!”
Amanda Sowerby, Operations Director at Age UK Lincoln & South Lincolnshire
Berkeley Castle have been with Tengo Software since 2015, using their visitor attraction EPoS and on-line ticketting platform TripGiving.UK. They have boosted ticket sales by using the system to sell tickets to their amazing charitable visitor attraction both on-line and in person on-site, as well as handling donations.
Jackie Pennington, Operations Manager at Berkeley, had the following to say about the service:
“TripGiving has been a great addition to our website, the system works seamlessly with our tills and enables our visitors to purchase their admission tickets in advance of their visit. This benefits us in many ways; it speeds up the admission process, enables UK tax payers to gift aid their ticket whilst making their on-line purchase and also gives us an indication of anticipated visitor numbers for upcoming events. We also take our online donations through the system, as it is cheaper than other options. I would recommend this facility to other attractions!”
Find out how Tengo’s software is helping NHS charities in the UK – written by Tim Diggle, Head of Charity, Leicester Hospitals Charity, and Alison Reynolds, Volunteer Service Co-ordinator, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
Till in use at Glenfield Hospital shop
“We had a charity shop at one of our hospitals for 25 years that used the very basic system of writing each item sold into a book and working out the totals and change in your head. This shop was run solely by volunteers and was doing very well but the system left people open to making mistakes and there was no gift aid being claimed in the shop. In 2017 we recruited a charity shop manager, rebranded the shop we had, opened a second shop and decided to implement retail gift aid into both shops.
We met with several companies but Tengo Software was the only one that offered a full EPoS system that was at an affordable price for a charity. We ran comparisons of all of the systems we looked at and none of the more expensive systems could offer any more than we were going to get from Tengo. The process from order to implementation was very straight forward and communication was great throughout. We had conversations with Tengo about the items we sold in the shops so that the day the Epos system was installed our till screen was ready to go. It had been completely customised just for us and Tengo had even designed the buttons in our charity colours because we had explained that our volunteers struggled to identify with the new branding.
The install day was very straight forward and much easier and smoother than we had anticipated, we had a number of our paid staff trained so that they could train volunteers and everyone took to the system very quickly. Most of our volunteers only work one day a week so we spent the next couple of weeks working closely with each volunteer explaining how the system worked and how they could help us maximise on gift aid sales. With most volunteers only seeing the system a couple times they felt confident to be in the shop alone and serve customers, take in donations that could be gift aided and cash up at the end of the day.“
The support we have had from Tengo has been great!
Tim Diggle, Head of Charity, Leicester Hospitals Charity (NHS)
“We had a lot of resistance to the new EPoS system before it was installed but we have now had feedback from our volunteers telling us that they actually enjoy using the tills and it has made their lives easier.
Along with the EPoS system in the shops we are using tengoCloud CRM which allows us to look at shop sales, as well as other useful information, from anywhere, at any time. This has been extremely helpful because we have been able to see when shop volunteers have made a mistake, been able to look at what sells well in each shop and also see if there are particularly busy or quiet periods each day or each week. It is a really easy system to use and you can find and export the information you want within a couple of minutes.
Leicester General Hospital charity shop
The Tengo EPoS system has enabled us to claim gift aid in our shops for the first time which has been very successful. Initially our volunteers were concerned about the additional step when receiving donations but they have taken to it well. In the office we use tengoCloud CRM to manage all gift aid donations. Through the cloud we can submit gift aid claims at the touch of a button and Tengo ensure that our gift aid claims are compliant as they are a HMRC approved supplier. The tengoCloud can also offer an automated system to send out the annual letters you need to send to your gift aid donors. We use the tengoCloud to manage the data we hold on the donors who have agreed to gift aid their donation. We can edit information if they inform us of changes to their circumstances and we can also export the data to create a mailing list for marketing purposes.
The Tengo EPoS system and CRM also enable us to ensure we are GDPR compliant. The EPoS system has a customisable GDPR questions page that pops up after anyone has agreed to be a gift aid donor. This data can then be managed on the Epos system or within the CRM so that you can amend an individual’s preferences if they change their mind at any time. The support we have had from Tengo has been great; their new support portal seems very easy to use although we must confess that we haven’t used it because we have not had an issue that requires input from Tengo.
We are delighted with the Tengo EPoS, Cloud and CRM systems. They have made our shops easier to manage, increased revenue, allowed us to capture the data of a new group of supporters and made life easier for our wonderful volunteers.“
It was announced on the 31st October by the ICO which provides clarity on the direction the UK is taking when it comes to the new data protection regulations. The Information Commissioner announced what many of us have been suspecting, that the UK is effecting the new GDPR regulations in May 2018 as originally planned.
Northumberlandia, who use Tengo’s EPoS & Back Office software
Tengo Software are proud to be working with Wildlife Trust visitor centres up and down the country, helping them to generate more revenue, whilst saving time and money on administration.
Age UK first installed tengoPOS and tengoCloud charity Gift Aid EPoS and Back Office systems from Tengo Software in 2010. Since then sites all over the country have benefitted from the system that allows the organisation to claim Gift Aid on the sale of items that are donated to them.
The system is really simple to use, the donor simply gives their name and post code, and the items are tagged or labelled with a unique scan-able reference. When the item is sold, Age UK are able to claim Gift Aid on the donation with the original donor’s details. The system is integrated with HMRC so that Gift Aid claims can be made simply and quickly on line.
Tengo Software first installed tengoPOS at National Trust property Bodnant Garden in February 2009. The visitor attraction quickly saw benefits, clocking an increase of 34% on completed Gift Aid declarations. Following successful installation at Bodnant, a host of other National Trust properties also had the software and hardware installed, bringing not just a massive boost in Gift Aid revenue, but also significant cost-savings from reduced admin and paperwork.
Here are a selection of comments from people within the National Trust that were involved in the project:
“Since having our new tills in place, with postcode look-up facility, we have found that our Gift Aid data capture has increased by an additional 34% as this information is now taken at the time of the transaction – rather than requesting the visitor to manually complete a card and leave it with us before they left (which, of course, many did not thus resulting in lost potential additional revenue). Tengo Software were a dream to work with on this project, they provided valuable advice and support at the preliminary stages, and fully incorporated our needs within the software program. Additionally they sourced the best possible hardware (tills, printer, scanners etc.) to meet our requirements whilst keeping within our budget, and had endless patience when responding to the many changes we made along the way! The support they have provided to us post-installation has been excellent – there is always someone at the end of the telephone to answer queries or deal with any problems which, very infrequently, arise.”
Ann Smith, Visitor Services Manager, Bodnant Garden
“The introduction of the Gift Aid software has dramatically increased the revenue that we are able to process. At a busy property like ours, time is of the essence and not only has the Tengo solution speeded up the process of collecting visitor information, it has also drastically improved the accuracy of the information collected. This means that nearly 100% of visitors electing to Gift Aid can be processed successfully – despite a projected drop in Gift Aid revenue due to the recession, we have exceeded our yearly financial targets in less than 5 months of using the software. In addition, the tengoPOS tills are incredibly user friendly and the support we have received has been phenomenal – we couldn’t be happier with the solution that Tengo has provided.”
Sarah Merriman, Visitor Services Manager, Lanhydrock House
“The new software has made a big impact – compared to the same period last year, we’ve seen the percentage of usable Gift Aid declarations increase from 8% to 75% – to put it another way, the tills (hardware & software) will have paid for themselves in just 4 months!”
“Regarding the till software, we have all been pleasantly surprised how easy it has been to use, we do not have the easiest of set ups but everything has worked well and your support has helped with the transition (from a manual entry system to Electronic Point Of Sale).”
Martin Jeffries, Property Manager, Penrhyn Castle
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