There are a couple of different types of queue management systems: in the first, customers take a numbered ticket (known as ‘take a ticket’ or ‘take a number’ systems) and come forward when their number is called or displayed on a screen; in the second, customers queue as normal, but the first in line is called forward automatically when the next cashier is available. Both types can benefit your business:

Increase Sales and Profits

Many customers are put off by long queues and may not want to wait in a long line. In some cases, they will choose to leave rather than make their purchase. Both systems can help remedy this situation in different ways. In take a ticket systems, it’s not always evident how long the queue is because people are generally sitting down instead of standing in a line. Customers with tickets are also given an indication of how long the wait will be. Both of these factors increase the likelihood that a customer will stick around to make their purchase.

Call forward systems tend to move queues more quickly, because there’s little hesitation from the person at the front of the queue. Again, if people can see the queue is moving quickly, they are more likely to be willing to wait.

Increase Customer Retention

The efficient, fast-paced nature of queue management systems not only means that your customers are more likely to stay and make their purchase. It also means they’ll leave as satisfied customers – ensuring that they’re that much more likely to come back again. Customers who get frustrated at the waiting times are more likely to shop somewhere else next time.

Increase Staff Productivity

Queue management systems can help increase staff productivity both directly and indirectly. Directly, queue management systems mean staff members can serve customers more quickly – always a good thing. Indirectly, they also mean that fewer staff members may be required on the tills (because the customers are served faster) and so can carry out other work throughout the store. Taken to an extreme, queue management systems can even reduce the number of staff needed in total.

If you have a problem with too many customers, then count yourself lucky – that’s a good problem to have! But it is still a problem. A queue management system can help manage your customers more efficiently, making both your customers and your employees happier, and lining your pockets as it does so!

If you’re interested in implementing a queue management system in your business, check out our range of both take a ticket and call forward systems.

Let’s take a look at some of the different attributes of banknote counters:

Counterfeit Detection

One worry of business owners is that banknote counters won’t detect any counterfeits, which could cause problems. Fortunately, many banknote counters are designed with this in mind, and so are easily able to pick out any fraudulent notes. Ultraviolet and magnetic technology, density detection and IR spectrum analysis allow these machines to pick up on any counterfeits notes.

Multiple Currencies

Some businesses deal with a number of different currencies – something that could get expensive if a different machine were required to count each one. Thankfully, a lot of machines are able to work with several different currencies, as long as the notes fit in the machine.

Batch Counting

While the ability to count large amounts of notes quickly is useful, it’s even more useful when banknote counters are able to count notes in batches. Some machines are designed to sort notes into batches, for example 100 x £10 notes, which makes it a lot easier to bank them and removes the need to separate the notes manually.

Portability

Many banknote counters can be quite cumbersome, however some are specifically designed with portability in mind. This is especially useful for business owners that work on a number of different premises and do not wish to invest in multiple machines. Portable banknote counters are compact and can sustain up to 8 hours of battery life. They also usually come with carry cases, mains chargers and in-car chargers.

Mixed Denominations

Sorting out different denominations of notes can be almost as time consuming as the actual counting. Luckily, many banknote counters are able to carry out this function. Using advanced mixed note detection technology, these machines are able to separate the notes into their different denominations and then commence counting. Some of these machines can even display the total amount of cash included in groups of mixed denominations.

Other Benefits

Backlit screens make some banknote counters easier to read and use, and mean it is easy to spot any error messages or notifications of fraudulent notes. In other machines, an alarm will sound if counterfeit notes are detected during counting, making it almost impossible for a fake note to slip by unnoticed. While up to 1000 notes per minute is a fairly standard speed for banknotes counters, some are able to count almost twice as fast as that, with up to 1600 notes being processed per minute.

If your business needs a banknote counting solution, check out our range of quality, reliable banknote counters to see which one is best for your needs.

Glory of Japan have completed their acquisition of Talaris from the Carlyle Group for £650 Million. The new combined business will be known as Glory Global Solutions.

“By acquiring Talaris we aim to become the world’s top brand” for money-handling machines, Hirokazu Onoe, Glory’s president, said  at a news conference in Osaka. “We are targeting overseas markets that are expected to grow.”

Talaris equipment is recognised the world over as the pinnacle of cash handling machines and Count On Us are one of the UK’s largest suppliers. We look forward to working with Glory to enhance the range and provide the very best hardware and service.

See the full range of Talaris / Glory Money Counters.

Tighten a Screw

Need to tighten up a flathead screw but only have a Phillips screwdriver to hand? No problem! You can just use a coin instead. Pennies tend to work best, because they’re fairly thin and about the right size, although 2p, 5p and 20p coins may also work – depending on the screw, of course. This trick often works for unlocking bathroom doors or stalls from the outside too… although we’d only recommend this in an emergency!

Fix a Wobble

That rickety old table about to shatter your nerves? Better fix it, quick! If you’ve no beermats to hand, a coin or two will do the job in a pinch. In fact, coins can serve as a permanent solution rather than a temporary one – just add a bit of superglue to the mix and you’re golden. Just make sure to turn the table upside-down before you try this. You don’t want to stick the table to the floor… or maybe you do? Sure would solve the problem.

Fluff Up Your Carpet

Is your carpet looking a little lacklustre? Once again, coins to the rescue! We prefer a 2p or a 50p coin for this task, because they’re bigger and will get the job done quicker. A quick back-and-forth (or is it side-to-side?) with your coins will fluff up the carpet in no time. But don’t fear – you probably don’t need to do your *entire* carpet. Just look for the most trodden paths, and in front of any chairs where you often sit – they’re the areas that’ll need the most attention.

Straighten Your Curtains

If you have fairly lightweight curtains that just won’t hang straight, try pushing coins inside the bottom hemline. Depending on how unruly your curtains are, you may just need to put coins in each corner, but for wilder curtains a more full-on approach may be necessary, with coins balanced evenly throughout. It’s a good way to kill a couple of hours and test your patience, anyway.

Glue a Coin to the Street

Admittedly, this isn’t the most sensible use for a coin – but with April Fool’s Day just a round the corner, we couldn’t resist throwing this one in. For maximum impact, glue a pound coin to the street, because more people will try to pick it up. Choose a spot near a bench, so you can relax with the paper while you enjoy the show.

Whether you’re up to mischief or simply need a solution for a household task, the trusty coin can help – and you can find out just how much help your coins are by totting them up with one of our reliable coin counters.

This recent turn of events got us thinking – which is better, the coin or the note?

The Benefits of Coins

1. Coins are easier for the blind to distinguish between, particularly the pound coin which is a lot thicker than the others. All British coins are very easy to determine by touch, due to their differing shapes, sizes and thicknesses.
2. Coins are handy for day-to-day use. Bus tickets, vending machines, trolleys, picking up a couple of things at the supermarket – coins are just useful. Not to mention you don’t have to figure out which way round they go when paying for things via a machine.
3. Coins last longer and are less likely to suffer damage. Notes wear out much more quickly than coins, particularly the lower denominations which change hands more frequently. On average, coins are in circulation for 30-50 years, whereas notes circulate for just 3-10 years. And there’s only so many times you can tape a note back together.
4. Generally speaking, coins are more economical. Although they may cost more in materials and production costs, because they last longer they don’t have to be produced nearly so often as notes.

The Benefits of Notes

1. Notes are much lighter than coins, meaning it’s easier to carry more money around in your wallet. For this reason, notes are also ideal for transporting in large sums, which is useful for businesses that deal with large cash transactions.
2. Going hand-in-hand with the lightness of notes, they also take up far less space – although accumulate too many and you could end up with a bulging wallet.
3. Counterfeit notes are easier to spot. Counterfeit banknotes are created using three different printing processes, meaning one-dimensional fakes are easy to spot. Their larger surface area also makes fake notes easier to spot than fake coins. The one pound coin is the most common fraud, and only a keen eye is likely to notice the difference between a real and a fake at first glance.
4. It’s clear neither is better than the other, although each has its own purposes. If you’re dealing with large amounts of cash, notes are obviously much easier to handle, but when you’re gasping for a drink from the vending machine or are just picking up a few items on the way home, coins are the clear winner.

Whatever your preference, we’ve got the machines to help you sort your cash. We stock a range of money counting machines, including banknote scales, coin sorters and counterfeit detectors.

Our Take a Ticket type systems now start from just £179.10 +vat and we have a new range of multi display systems for larger organisations.

We can design a complete bespoke queue system for you completely without obligation , just call our friendly people on 0161 882 9343 and we can demonstrate just how efficient managing queues can be with a surprisingly small outlay.

But some inventive people have found a few rather bizarre uses for our beloved coins. Check out these creative coin experiments that have found their way into the Guinness Book of Records:

Most People Simultaneously Tossing Coins

On 6 October 2012 in Ireland, 36222 people simultaneously tossed a coin into the air. This huge endeavour was pulled off during half-time at a rugby game. It seems hard to verify the exact number of participants involved and coins tossed, but around 500 volunteers were brought in to help. The coins were then counted using coin counting machines.

Longest Coin Spin

The UK currently lays claim to this incredible feat, with Mark Kinder from Berkshire managing to make a coin spin continuously for 25:56 seconds on 2 December 2011. That might not sound like a lot, but we’ve tried it and we can barely make it past three seconds. On the bright side, we’ve finally learned to spin a coin using only one hand, and that’s good enough for us – it’s all in the wrist action!

Farthest Coin Flick

Over on the other side of the planet, Alastair Galpin from New Zealand has managed to flick a coin the furthest distance on record. Back on 12 November 2009, he managed to flick a New Zealand ten cent coin (their smallest denomination!) 39 feet 9 inches. We’re not even sure we could throw one that far.

Farthest Distance to Blow a Coin

Serial record breaker Ashrita Furman blew the competition out of the water when he blew a coin a whopping 16 feet 2.76 inches with only one breath; now there’s a man with big lungs! Incredibly, this was Furman’s 76th broken record, achieved on 9 October 2010 in a gymnasium in Jamaica, New York.

Farthest Ear Slingshot

American Monte Pierce broke the unusual world record of farthest ear slingshot on 16 Feb 2008, in Madrid. Pierce propelled a coin a distance of 11 feet 8 inches, using his earlobe as a slingshot. It sounds impossible to us, but this man has incredibly stretchy ear lobes.

Whew, that’s a lot of wacky uses for coins. Are you tempted to set your own coin-related world record? Perhaps you’d like to try building the tallest coin tower or balancing as many coins as possible on your face? If you do decide to try your hand at breaking a coin world record, you’d be wise to have a coin counter on hand – otherwise you could get stuck for hours totting up the totals. Because we’re betting you could build a pretty tall tower.

You may be wondering why a country would choose to part ways with something that’s been a part of its cultural identity for years. It’s simple maths: inflation reduces the value of the coins, and the coins themselves cost more to produce than they are actually worth.

Why Canada Ditched the 1 Cent Coin

It makes sense on the face of it: the penny generally does more harm than good. Aside from the obvious negative economical value mentioned above, there are significant handling costs for retailers and financial institutions across the board, and the impact all those unnecessary coins have on the environment can’t be ignored.

From the taxpayers point of view, leaving the penny in the dust can only be a good move, as it will mean savings of around $11 million a year – taxpayers’ hard earned cash that will now be spent elsewhere.

The change will take some time to adjust to, of course, and retailers can still choose to accept the coins if they wish. Although if it means paying higher handling fees, why would they? The alternative is to adjust transaction prices up or down to the nearest $0.05 increment or to accept cheque and card transactions, which are obviously not affected.

What Ditching the Penny Would Mean for the UK

Currently there are no plans for the UK to phase out its beloved penny, but with other countries forging ahead and proving the scheme’s worth, it’s definitely a possibility in the future.

There are currently £113 million worth of pennies in circulation in the UK – that accounts for nearly 40% of all the cash floating around – although most of them are probably in the bottom of old lady’s purses and stuck behind sofa cushions.

So would it really matter if we did without them? You can no longer buy a bag of 20 sweets for 20p, and penny arcades might as well be renamed tuppence arcades for the lack of penny machines found in them.

Many retail businesses across the UK have already phased out penny pricing, with all items on sale ending in a 0 or a 5. But that doesn’t mean customers have stopped paying with them and, by and large, most people still pay for things with cash. There’s also the fear that charities will miss out on much needed donations if we see the demise of the 1p coin.

Perhaps one day we’ll live in a plastic world, where good hard cash is obsolete and everyone’s wallets is stuffed full of credit cards. But until that days comes, we’ll be here for you. Whatever happens, we’ll still have coin counting machines at the ready to help you sift through those 1p coins. (And those 5p coins.)

Our COU3001 low price coin counter and sorter

Coin counting machines are commonly associated with banks, post offices, supermarkets and other huge corporations – all places that have to deal with vast amounts of cash daily. Needless to say, it would be a huge task to manually count the sort of money turned over in these places each day.

But we must spare a thought for our small, independent friends too – those local businesses that have to deal with an unusually high percentage of cash. If you run a small business that brings in large amounts of coinage, you’re not alone. Here are some others that share your pain:

Pubs & Bars

There’s no way around it – people prefer to pay cash when stumping up for a round in the pub. Card transactions are a nightmare when continuously spending throughout the evening, and let’s not forget that there’s often an extra fee applied or a minimum spend amount.

And then there’s the jukeboxes and the quiz machines to think about. Customers merrily plunge their spare change into these addictive machines as the night goes on, which can add up to a fearsome amount come the end of the night. To count it all would surely induce a migraine, or at the very least a severe case of grimy-finger syndrome.

Snooker/Pool Clubs

A close kin of the pub, and with just one purpose: the only thing to be done requiring a competitive spirit and a fistful of change, snooker clubs and pool halls are the likely winner of the ‘Most 20p’s Accumulated in an Hour’ award.

Butchers, Bakers & Candlestick Makers

Small, locally-owned and independent businesses, such as butchers and bakers, usually receive the bulk of payments in cash. There’s something old-worldy about this traditional exchange of goods: coins for meat and bread. Real live money is something of a rarity in today’s plastic-driven world, but that doesn’t make counting it any less of a chore.

Market Stalls

It’s rare for a market stall owner to accept card payments. For some, it’s downright impossible. When people visit markets, they fill their baskets with an assortment of delightful pastries and preserves, and they pay with cash. After a long day standing around in the bracing cold, counting the takings – coin by fiddly coin – would be a cruel punishment. Much better to pour a mug of beer and rest up by the fire, while a coin counting machine does the work.

If you’re a small business owner, your time is precious. You shouldn’t have to spend it counting money, when you could better spend it by adding the finishing touches to your latest display, preparing the next batch of your product for sale, or simply just relaxing after a long, hard day.

As Seen on TV

Here at Count On Us we are no strangers to the big screen, our machines have been featured on Big Brother and Sky Sports.

Our latest audition was for some banknote counters (COU2001) and coin and banknote scales (COU6155) to be shown on the new SKY1 comedy “A Touch of Cloth” starring John Hannah and Suranne Jones.

Written by Charlie Brooker , A Touch of Cloth is a parady of all the very best and worst of British crime dramas made in the last decade. Look out for this one off special on SKY 1 HD soon and if you would like your very own money counters as seen on screen click onto our main website.