Newsletter

Newsletter #12

Hi,

Well, we've been pretty busy here at VMT adding all sorts of new fangled features in the program to help you make some more money. But before I tell you about these new features, I just want to talk about Email marketing for a minute.

We've been doing kind of an informal survey on the phone when we talk to folks. We've been asking if they've been doing any marketing for their store. Answers varied from "We've put a sign in our window" to "I collect as many customers email addresses as I can, and send them all an email each week."

We can't help you with the sign, but we can sure help you with the letters and Email part of your marketing efforts. People using email marketing have reported very good results and an increase in their revenue!

I've had some stores tell me that they do not have internet at their store. But, they have internet at home (as most people do these days). With our software it is easy to take your data home with you, restore it, and run reports or send emails from your home computer. You can get what we call a "Back Office Copy" for $50 so you have a separate license to run it from home (not from another business).

So just because you don't have an internet connection at work doesn't mean you shouldn't get your customers email address... start collecting them now. Tell your customers you will be offering them a free movie occasionally, or some sort of bonus, but get their email address. It is the cheapest marketing available (besides putting a sign in the window)!

I had a customer ask us how to compete with RedBox. I've been doing some thinking and asking questions about this. I've watched people in our Albertsons store waiting in line to get a $1.00 movie from a machine. I kept thinking how impersonal it was.

So Don went down and rented at Redbox to see how it worked. He rented a movie. Then when he got home, he got a receipt for the movie in his email. When he returned the movie, he got a receipt again in his email. Later on he got some offers for a free movie and information about new releases soon to be available.

Pretty slick stuff. The machine is using Email for marketing. (By the way, Email receipts will be coming soon with our software.)

Our goal is to give you the tools to compete with RedBox, Netflix, Blockbuster, and anyone else. But, there is one thing you have to do... use the tools!

What is the one thing in common that the above competitors are doing? They are all doing Email marketing! So get in there and get your piece of the pie!

Touch Screen

The latest feature we've added is Touch Screen. This gives you an opportunity to put a kiosk on your floor and perhaps gain some real estate. If you have an adult section you could put the movies on the kiosk instead of using up an entire room. Or if you need more floor space for your new releases, you could take a bunch of old movies off of the floor. Then assign those movies to be listed on the kiosk. Perhaps you could clear off enough floor space to add pizza or tanning or some other enticement to get your customers in the door!

It's simple. We want you to be successful! The more marketing (and advertising) you do, the more successful you'll be. And if you are doing well, you'll want more tools from us, and yes, that will make us successful as well!

If you don't have our software yet, or have an old version, give us a call so we can get you running on the latest and greatest right away.

If you want or have some idea's, give us a call. We will be happy to discuss them with you.

VMT Software

P.S.

Here are just some of the new features:

(Please Note: We've added so many things we didn't get around to documenting everything, so this list is from memory (typical programmer trait!)...

	Added NEW Package Pricing. Now package prices have to be set ahead of time. Clerks can only apply pricing that qualifies. Packages can be limited to certain days of the week. You can set up pricing for all items, or individual pricing for each item in the package. You can also include sales items or sale item types in the package. Rent a new release and get a soda for free. Rent 2 New releases for $3 for 2 days and get 3 regulars for 3 days for $3. Once you've applied a package price, those prices can remain unchanged so you can apply a different package to other movies on the screen.
	Added Days Closed. Just select the days you are closed and if the item is due on the day you are closed, it will adjust it to be due the next day you are open. You can set up days of the week and up to 5 exact dates.
	Added Query to Inventory Utility so you can select inventory and (create a list)by anything you can imagine. And of course with the utility you can change certain fields, print lists, print bar-codes, etc., with the selected list.
	Added to Inventory Utility capability to do sales inventory, with quantities. As you scan in sales items, the quantities will increase so you can do a complete inventory of your store, whether the items are sales or rental items.
	Added to Inventory Utility a selection by ISBN. ISBN can be anything you want it to be, a part number, an actual ISBN, or even a store number if you have multiple stores.
	Created a new program called GetInv which will allow you to receive inventory from Ingram data.
	Fixed Security for inventory delete.
	Added closed days and dates feature to make it very easy to close your store (I know, about time!)
	Added a new query system to the customer list so you can create any kind of customer list you can imagine for Emailing or mailing letters and labels. The new query system remembers your queries and you can make as many as you like, and use them in the future. For instance you could create an Email or Mailing list for customers that the last date rented was in a certain date range. Or, a certain date range, and they are in a certain zip code, and they have late charges. The possibilities are endless.
	Added a New screen to the browse cash file so you can see the associated Inventory History for each invoice#.
	Added a New screen to the browse cash history so you can see the associated Inventory History for each invoice#.
	Added a new Query system to the browse cash and cash history screens so you can filter the cash records or cash history records by anything you can think of. For instance, I can see how many transactions I do between 8am and 10am and determine if it's worth being open during those times. Or I can view just transactions for one clerk. Unlimited possibilities.
	Fixed regression on Inventory Delete so you can delete your inventory.
	Fixed POSINFO.exe so Rentrak will always receive the correct version number of the Video Shoppe Software.
	Added an info screen under File so you can see information about your operating system, memory, current folder, and much more.
	Updated Help Files and PDF manual.
	If you have Rentrak, the DOS Rentrak interface has been deprecated and the new Windows Rentrak Interface has been approved for version 8.3c and beyond!

Call 1-800-457-7818 for more update information.

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