I started my own business as a painter and decorator when I was nineteen and never thought that I would ever be selling drapes and blinds one day. I had not worked in retail before and had no formal training or studies. In 2002 aged 22, I had back surgery and could not continue with my painting business. I started Now Interiors in 2003 with my uncle (who owned a Carpet Choice store) selling tiles, European appliances, joinery, design & construct. We were involved in window treatments because my uncle had a small display of curtains that Carpet Choice would outsell and we also wanted to offer a total interiors package to our customers. By the end of 2005, we had decided to only sell window treatments because of the demand. It was in this same year we came across Drape and Blind Software and have never looked back.
Customer service is important to us and we were always were trying to be more efficient. We really wanted to spend less time doing the quoting, ordering and tracking so we could have more time for selling and meeting customers. We were using Excel spreadsheets and we could never seem to keep track of our quotes and orders properly as the window coverings industry is so complex and you can’t keep all the information in your head. With DBs we were able to do offer our customers a high level of service.
We needed a system that our staff could happily work with. Any good business operator would never physically make his/her curtains or blinds so why would he/she attempt to write their own program for drapes and blinds. I had a look at a couple of other systems but never got the service or expertise I was expecting and then I got some information in the mail about DBs. I felt confident with them from the start and the real reason I dealt with DBs was because of the human approach and empathy towards helping businesses like mine to grow and that they employ current technology. We were lucky because we saw DBs as a huge partner to our business and never wasted time or money with anyone or anything else.
We implemented DBs and we were in full swing from the start. DBS was installed in Now Interiors just as we were beginning to grow. I had just arrived back from being in Europe for 8 weeks and staff levels were low leaving huge pressure on me. That month because of DBs the business never skipped a beat. Sales and client quotes remained at a high level affirming we could operate with less and there was no need to hire more staff because the people we had were more productive as the right systems were in place. The support has been second to none. Never ever once has the team at DBs ignored me or my ideas.
From my point of view, the DBs system has made a huge impact in the drape and blind industry because it enables retailers to run their businesses far more efficiently without expert computer or software knowledge. You must understand when choosing a program like this you need to have a paradigm shift and in an industry like this lots of people don’t like change. Change is inevitable and if we are to survive in business we must have an open response to this. I can understand why older businesses would be hesitating in changing from their methods. I would say to those businesses not to miss this opportunity of using DBS to grow their business.
DBS has been great. It has enabled me as an owner to work away from the office when need be. From 2006 our business has grown by 12% each year without fail. DBS contributes to this achievement by constantly keeping us in line when work gets busy. There are plenty of months when we have been able to achieve a higher turnover than normal. I would have at least 4 jobs a month when I can quote and then produce orders for a sale worth 15-20K within 1 hr. In my opinion, this could not be achieved any other way than with a well-developed program and a system.
Now Interiors for us has always been fantastic. The only thing stopping us growing our business now is people. The systems have been sorted with the Drape and Blind Software.