Epos Now is an AI-powered point-of-sale (POS) and financial services provider found in more than 85,000 locations and 70 countries. Formed in 2011, it refuses to shake-off its bootstrap mindset.
One of the company’s key innovations is Sidekick, an AI-driven solution designed to optimise support efficiency. Today, Sidekick automates responses to 75% of inbound customer queries, providing fast resolutions while intelligently escalating more complex issues to human experts. Today, over 60% of Epos Now customers have engaged with Sidekick, benefiting from its ability to streamline interactions.
'Beyond support, AI plays a crucial role in Epos Now’s broader strategy. Every customer interaction – every issue, solution, conversation and piece of feedback – is captured. And what do we do with all that data?' asks Richard Nolan, CPO and COO at Epos Now. 'We push it all into Slack. This continuous flow of insights informs product development, improves customer experience and enhances decision-making across the business'.
We capture every customer interaction – every issue, every solution, every insight – and seamlessly push it into Slack. This visibility enables precise project management.
Capturing feedback to inform product improvements
For Epos Now, the bootstrap mindset is not about doing things on the cheap. It’s about exploring new ideas, innovating and not being afraid to be unconventional. Sidekick, and AI-assisted customer support, is the latest example.
'We’ve never had the luxury of huge amounts of capital to pump into our product stack', Nolan says. 'Our goal has always been to address two problems for the customer: give them the financial services they need to be successful today, and the knowledge they need to grow their business tomorrow'.
Generative AI is helping customers find the support they need, faster. Being known for slick support is burnishing Epos Now’s reputation. But it is also much more than this. The information contained within these AI support interactions, fed into Slack, is then informing the next round of product and process improvements. Customer feedback is summarised, flagged and directed to the appropriate teams by vertical. Management then monitors how this feedback is being acted upon, with project management using Slack Lists.
'We have an AI lens sat across all our customer interactions, the output of which automatically feeds into Slack', says Nolan. “We’re fixated on moving from a transactional AI experience to one that helps inform our products. An improved product experience will mitigate demand for future support. Slack enables us to focus on what’s needed next'.
Bringing structure to a fast-moving workplace
Epos Now adopted Slack during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the business – like many others – rapidly transitioned to fully remote operations. Slack quickly became the platform of choice to bring structure, agility and efficiency to both individual and team workflows.
'Slack enabled us to build a cultural strategy around two core principles', says Nolan. 'Keeping the customer at the heart of everything we do and fostering meaningful, intentional communication with our staff'.
Since 2020, Epos Now has experienced significant growth. Headcount has increased tenfold, and annual revenue surged to nearly 70% by 2023, and continues to scale 65% year-on-year. The business has evolved from a POS-focused company to a broader financial services provider for the SME sector, now serving customers across 55 verticals.
With new team members, multiple verticals, expanding territories and rapid product development, maintaining structure could easily become a challenge. Nolan acknowledges the potential for chaos –but Slack helps bring process and order.
'We now have process mapped within Slack for everything that happens through the lifecycle of the customer. That starts with the way we onboard new customers', he says. 'With Slack, the best value is the reduction in noise. Slack means we waste no time trying to find the right person to contact about a specific topic'.
We have an AI lens sat across all our customer interactions, the output of which automatically feeds into Slack. We’re moving from a transactional AI experience to one that helps inform our products. Slack enables us to focus on what’s needed next.
Visibility of global performance at a team and individual level
Today, Epos Now has Slack channels for every product, every vertical and every territory. There are cross-functional channels that bring together product, sales and service teams. 'Every channel has its own cadence and its own reporting', Nolan explains.
Prior to Slack, employee surveys ranked Epos Now’s internal communications as needing improvement, he continues: 'We typically scored three or four out of 10. Today, we consistently score 7.5 to 8. Embedding Slack as the framework of our communication has proven very successful for us'.
At a personal level, Nolan says Slack is invaluable in keeping him up to date, with business, teams and individuals. 'Each morning I have visibility of the reports that are important to the business. I can see how a new team is getting on, review sales figures from Mexico or celebrate the success of new colleague'.
Supporting customers through retail insight
Epos Now is passionate about information sharing, which Nolan believes is the company’s competitive edge: 'Industry figures tell us most small businesses fail within the first two years. The people who create SMEs tend to know a great deal about their passion, but they’re not always experts in business. Epos Now helps plug that knowledge gap'.
What this means in practice is Epos Now sharing business insight with customers. It can share best practice on pricing or retail trends or how to cope with seasonal blips. It can share advice on how to deal with common business dilemmas. Much of this insight is processed by AI, and all of it is housed within Slack.
'We give this stuff away for free, every single day. Anything that helps our customers is good for us. A customer that goes out of business will no longer be our customer', Nolan points out.
'We’ve seen a 60% reduction in churn since launching our AI platform last year. Our strategy is to provide entrepreneurs with the tools to realize their dreams'.
