From Counterman.com: It's Not Just Software Anymore

by Mark Phillips

Mark Smith says he realized there was a problem when, at the end of the day, he’d head home from his store only to find dozens of pieces of paper in his pockets. But unfortunately, those pieces of paper weren’t money. They were special orders customers had called in throughout the day.

“Let’s say you call me and need a set of running boards for your Chevy truck. I find out I need to order it from a warehouse in St. Louis,” says Smith, president, Wholesale Auto Parts, Summersville, W.Va. “I’d have to thumb through a catalog, write down the information by hand on slips of paper. By that time, a customer may have come into the store, and I’d get sidetracked.”

Those orders then might find their way into his pants pockets where they could be forgotten. In the end, the order wasn’t filled and the customer returned wondering what happened. “As a customer, you would walk out of here thinking we’re incompetent,” Smith said.

A BETTER WAY

Smith realized the solution was in a business management system, which is more than just a software package. It’s a solution that lets parts professionals quickly place orders, research parts and simplify the invoice process for customers. “It addresses so many core problems that we’ve had so long,” Smith said. “It’ll revolutionize how parts are sold from the warehouse on down.”

Recent Counterman research shows that inventory management ranked third in importance among a list of nine uses for a store’s computer system. Invoicing and pricing/quoting were first and second on the list, respectively. Smith’s use of a business management system has quickly showed him inventory management is tops. After all, it’s allowed him to see between a 3 and 4 percent decrease in returns. The primary reason is the customer gets the right part the first time. “It’s not that we’re doing anything dramatically different,” Smith says. “We’re just doing it better and more efficiently. A lot of things we manually did before we don’t have to do now.”

INSTANTANEOUS INFO

Now when customers call, Smith cannot only order instantaneously through the system, but email customers photographs and descriptions of parts while he’s on the phone with them. “We now have the ability to provide them with the same info we have at our fingertips,” he said. With an integrated note-taking function, a parts professional can mark down any particulars of the conversation with a customer. If the customer calls back at some other time, any employee can pick up where the last one left off. “You need the information whether I’m here or not,” Smith said. “The customer has a better experience.”

About 70 percent of Wholesale Auto Parts’ customer base is retail DIYers. And in a town of just 3,400 people and several other parts stores, differentiating his business from the others is paramount. But a business management system also helps Smith in his relationship with larger customers. One client’s headquarters is in Europe. “At the end of the month, we have to make copies of signed invoices and send them to the company’s headquarters,” Smith said. “In some instances, we were 120 days out in receiving payment. Now it’s 30 days. That’s real money in the bank.”

The business management system has not only saved between eight and 10 hours a month of paperwork, but Smith has eliminated two full-time employee positions due to its efficiency. In addition, larger account holders have the ability to access their purchase info online through a secure Web site. “They can go in and reconcile their own statements 24 hours a day,” he said. “This sets us head and shoulders above anyone else.”

But the beauty of the system, Smith said, is the data he can cull from the myriad transactions his business conducts each month. He can create reports that analyze trends, review returns on certain items and identify money-losing inventory.

“I feel like we’re in so much better control of our inventory now. It didn’t need to be that way,” Smith said. “For example, if I sell out of diesel fuel conditioner in April, why do I need to order five more cases?” Smith’s business management system helps him determine which sales were lost due to lack of inventory. “This system is what I’d call a relationship database — you can determine what data you want to look at. It’s very adaptable,” he said, adding while the data is comprehensive, it doesn’t need to be overwhelming.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT ANY SYSTEM

* Does the system offer bar code scanning, signature capture, credit and debit card processing?

* Is the system available at any workstation?

* Does the system accommodate single and multi-location stores?

* Can the system process transactions even when it’s not connected to a server?

* Can parts and service lookup be done through VIN or description?

* Can the system accommodate email or faxing of invoices and statements to customers?

* What inventory management tools are available?

* What e-commerce capabilities are included or available?

IN-STORE COMPUTER USE

In Counterman research published in 2006, parts professionals weighed the importance of the use of a store computer, with a score between 1 and 9. The lower the number, the more important the task.