Summary

Mattress By Appointment had a manual system to account for every transaction, using spreadsheets and paper receipts. This was time consuming, difficult to use, and prone to errors. For Julie LaFond, Smartwerks all-in-one point of sale was simple to use and the most cost-effective on the market. Migrating her entire point of sale process and accounting functions to Smartwerks saved LaFond countless hours of data entry. Smartwerks provides her with the tools to control every aspect of her business, from inventory management to sales and accounting:

• Sales history integration
• Open order tracking
• Inventory management
• Sales reports
• Customer database
• Intuitive programming
• Training and support

For Mattress By Appointment, the biggest advantages Smartwerks offers over the competition is customization and superior customer service. Every time LaFond reaches out for help, Smartwerks is there to answer her questions, working with her to create new reports and functions for her unique business.

Challenges

LaFond used spreadsheets to maintain her database of transactions. This is a common struggle for entrepreneurs, who are trying to keep their costs to a minimum, while being as efficient as possible. “There was no way to cross-reference the data,” said Lafond. “If I wanted to do something like a sales report, I had to find the information hidden in multiple spreadsheets.” Many of these spreadsheets were not “linked,” or “linkable,” to create reports or perform simple calculations, such as sales tax calculations.

The major challenge for an unstructured data entry system is that everything has to be manually entered into a spreadsheet—line-item by line-item. “It took a couple minutes just to process a simple sale,” said LaFond. “Those minutes add up over time.” Simple data entry kept her away from her customers and proved to be a frustrating and error prone process. She knew she needed a better, more cost-efficient way to solve her point of sale and accounting problems.

Another unique challenge was finding a point of sale software to fit her specific business needs. During her research, she learned that most of the programs only offered a fraction of support and functionality that she required. She was also planning to grow her business, and needed a system that would grow with her company. Scalability of her point of sale system was also important.

Smartwerks: Integration and Ease of Use

LaFond found that Smartwerks’ had the best, most cost-effective point of sale solution available, but their customer service was the deciding factor for her decision. Smartwerks’ customer support was available every time she needed it. She was able to make the switch from a manual system to an automated one, “Because the Smartwerks team worked with me every step of the way,” said LaFond. “They made a difficult transition much easier.”

She also received extensive training on how to use the point of sale interface, the many back-office and accounting functions, and reporting modules. Any questions she had about the system were answered with a quick phone call. “Smartwerks really is so easy to learn and use. It’s an intuitive system.”

Because her business is unique in the retail industry, some of the features she wanted had to be custom built. Smartwerks was the only point of sale software with the ability to build customized reports and modules according to her specifications. This was key to the expansion of her business into new markets.

Smartwerks automated inventory control and customer transactions allow LaFond more time to spend with her customers. “It’s like having two employees,” said LaFond. This allows her to give each customer her undivided attention and process every transaction quickly. Now, she can focus on providing a great customer experience.