South Coast Window Furnishings is a new business based on the NSW South Coast (Bateman’s Bay) which specializes in external and internal window coverings. Our team has over fourteen years’ experience in the industry working with architects, builders, interior designers, and residential customers. We pride ourselves on supplying our customers a premium service and high-quality products.
We provide an extensive product selection from a wide range of suppliers. We sell blinds, plantation shutters, external awnings, curtains as well as motorization and home automation. We needed a system to manage all the product options we offer to our customers. It had to help us get quotes out quickly and be flexible as we also quote in the customer’s home. I was speaking with friends in the industry from Canberra who are using Drape and Blind Software (DBs) in their business. They thought it would suit SCWF as well.
Steven arrived from Melbourne to the Bay to show us how to use DBs. We found the training to be great and we easily understood what he was showing us. DBs was up and running from day one of training with the basics (quotes). Our customers continue to ask for different options and this system saves us a lot of time because we can copy quotes and then just change products over easily i.e. from rollers to verticals or shutters. Quotes can be updated easily and because DBs is simple to use we have managed to increase the number of quotes we do daily.
All of our manufacturers have their own file with all additional items listed. Prices had already been placed into DBs with our discounts and other special offers. When suppliers send out an updated price list we only have to email this to Kendell who spends no time at all updating DBs for us. This has made it easy to quote as we only need to select a supplier, items required, additional items, installation costs, and the system calculates everything for you.
DBs is also great for tracking orders and doing new quotes for returning customers. We can look up their old jobs and match up products without searching through paperwork. I can check profit margins easily and then apply discounts on individual products or a percentage on the overall quote. This means that we are always in control of how much money we make on a job. Once quotes have been accepted it is easy to push them through as invoices in Xero with a touch of a button. When orders are raised and the supplier has made the products it is very convenient for us to schedule installation dates with the customer in the diary and print off installer sheets with all the details.
We knew DBs would save us a lot of time and help with issues we were previously facing because it is tailored specifically for the window coverings industry. All aspects have been taken into consideration when setting up this program. This makes it easy for someone without industry knowledge to use. We can now confidently train a new employee in no time.
As time has gone on Peter and Steven have both been very helpful over the phone explaining how to increase our knowledge of the system. If we ever have an issue they are only a phone call away and more than happy to jump into team manager and show us how to rectify any issues that arise. We are yet to use 100% of the features DBS has to offer, but we are excited to potentially have the full features in place as time goes on.
Recently, we shifted our system to DBs Cloud which has given us even more flexibility. I was able to go away on holidays and still keep an eye on the business. DBs has enabled South Coast Window Furnishings to grow quickly with a small team. We are impressed!