REGAL FABRICS
Before Regal Fabrics implemented SalesPad, it struggled with an order processing system that required clicking among multiple different screens, with little to no visibility over its inventory. Now, order processing is free from worries about inventory status.
The Company
Based in Boston’s North Shore, Regal Fabrics is one of the top designers and distributors of fabrics in the country. Its customers include leading furniture manufacturers and upholsterers.
Regal Fabrics was founded in 1987 by Herb and Arlene Kahan, and has remained true to its founding values of quality and service. Its in-house design studio focuses on creating original designs in a variety of strong, reliable materials — both for residential and commercial applications — all at competitive, affordable prices.
The company prides itself on outstanding fabric design, construction, and quality, as well as excellence in customer communication and service. The customer’s needs come first at Regal Fabrics — transforming each relationship into a lasting partnership is the goal.
The Challenge
This emphasis on exceeding customers’ expectations means Regal Fabrics has to be picky when it comes to ERP solutions. Responding to customer requests quickly, efficiently, and accurately can make or break the sale.
Cathy Hall, senior customer service representative at Regal Fabrics, interacts with a lot of customers throughout the course of the day, and she’s only one member of an entire customer service team.
“I probably talk to 30 or 40 customers a day, and we process, on average, 50-60 orders in a day,” Hall said.
When that many customer interactions are on the line, the ability to field them successfully is critical — and the choice of ERP solution is key.
The Solution
“One problem SalesPad by Cavallo® has helped us solve is [increasing our] speed when giving answers to customers, Regal Fabrics President Steve Kahan said.
“Before, when customers needed answers about deliveries, or when something was coming in from China, or if it had already shipped, our customer service people had to check in many different places. With SalesPad, the information is all together, so they can give the customer a quick answer.”
STEVE KAHAN PRESIDENTSince we switched to SalesPad, order processing has gotten better. The number of transactions is always increasing, our business has been growing, and SalesPad has helped us be able to keep up with that faster pace.
Turning Up the Order Processing Heat
Hall handles the majority of Regal Fabrics’ larger accounts, typically furniture manufacturers. An order from one of these accounts can contain anything from one to 150 line items — predicting the complexity of any given order is no easy task.
Recalling the days before SalesPad, when entering order information usually involved multiple screens and a lot of back-and-forth, is not a pleasant experience for Hall.
“The difference between our prior system and what we have now with SalesPad,” she explained, “as far as processing orders, is the actual data-entry key punching of the order has definitely improved a lot. It’s much quicker to do now — it used to be more cumbersome to enter the line item and the quantity, and just get to the information you needed to get that order entered. Now, you’re pretty much just on one screen and you can get the order in the system.”
Kahan agrees. “Since we switched to SalesPad, order processing has gotten better. The number of transactions is always increasing, our business has been growing, and SalesPad has helped us be able to keep up with that faster pace.”
Regal Fabrics’ overall order accuracy has also improved since implementing SalesPad. Hall reiterated that having the data that the customer service reps need right in front of them when they’re entering orders is a game-changer.
“You can quickly check inventory availability and pricing against the customer’s order,” she said, “which allows us to prevent mistakes from happening.”
Accurate Inventory Data at the Click of a Button
Easy access to current, accurate inventory data is Kahan’s favorite aspect of SalesPad. Regal Fabrics’ inventory library is complex: Any given fabric product has hundreds of attributes associated with it. SalesPad provides a reliable method of tracking all of that data, and finding the data you need when you need it.
“I turn to SalesPad when I need to check information about inventory items, what the name of the supplier is, or what the original cost is when we’re making decisions about setting prices or giving special breaks to big customers,” Kahan said. “I go in there to find the information that I need.”
Hall said she also appreciates the way SalesPad makes it easy to access inventory information, especially when it comes to conveying that information to a customer.
“If you’re dealing with a customer on the phone,” she said, “you can easily get at what you need to see; if you’re checking stock you can go in and just quickly view what the inventory situation is, and you can then relay that to the customer. It’s helped us get information to our customers in a much more streamlined way.”
When it’s all said and done — when the phones have stopped ringing, the looms power down, and the warehouses close up for the night, it’s all about creating a smooth experience for Regal Fabrics’ customers from start to finish. And for Regal Fabrics, one of the key players on its team is SalesPad.
“If you’re a GP customer, and you don’t have SalesPad,” Kahan said, “I think you would notice a huge difference. SalesPad really is a game-changer in that, for a relatively small percentage of the overall cost of the system, it gives us a much better user interface and access to our data. The data was always there before we had SalesPad, but now we can really interact with the data much more directly, and more efficiently.”