The first question to come up when in installing a point of sale system or barcode system is usually this: should I add old customer data? The answer depends on several factors, but to sum it up, the answer is “will it help increase sales or customer satisfaction?”
The first thing to consider is the time and money that will be spent entering the old data. If you have customer records going back several years, it will take a long time to enter all of that data. By this time it is likely that much of the information has changed already and you’ve spent several months entering less than accurate records. Also, while entering the old data, you are doing business and accumulating new data. And all this time you still aren’t using your new point of sale system.
Assuming you narrow the set of records to essential information (e.g. frequent customers and contact information) the next question is what type of business are you in? Is there an immediate use for this old information, or would you benefit just as much from adding customers to the database as they check out on the new system?
For instance, a local discount store I frequent has a discount card program. I receive occasional emails from them, and receive a discount on purchases in exchange for allowing them to send me that information. They ask about membership at checkout, and add anyone without a card to the system then. This gets new customers into the system with minimal effort or impact on the flow of business. In this case there is no need to enter old records.
On the other hand, my local pharmacy has an automatic refill program in place. They know more about my medical information than I do, and a pharmacist always pulls me aside to discuss any new medication. While that is all rather personal information, it has immediate health benefits and I’m glad they’ve got years worth of my info in their system.
To summarize, you will get the maximum benefit from getting your point of sale system up a soon as possible. This means entering a minimum of old data and finding ways to add customers to the system without disrupting business at the point of sale.