Sometimes big growth means bigger problems, but for Stone Design Concepts in Ottawa, it means the realization of changes put in place months ago – changes that position the company for rapid expansion.
“This is our busiest summer ever,” says Stone Design Concept’s, General Manager Ignacio Manso. “We will do more this summer than we did all of last year. We couldn’t have handled this kind of business before we made the changes.”
What are those changes? According to Manso, it all hinges on four basic tenets:
- We do a much better job of customer service.
- We now have a positive attitude.
- We are better organized.
- We deliver on time and with the job built to spec.
“We had problems in the past with all of these things,” he confides. “We made a conscious effort first to improve our attitude. It took changing some people out with new personnel who understand what it is we are trying to do, and who buy into our philosophy. We have automated many aspects of the company, which is important and makes us a much better company, but the key is having the right people to implement the new systems.”
Investing In The Future
Stone Design Concepts produces granite, marble and quartz countertops, fireplace surrounds and stairs for both commercial and residential applications. Quartz surfacing brands include Zodiaq, Hanstone, Silestone and Caesarstone. The company was founded in 2009 and employs 12 people.
The company has recently invested in laser technology for templating, which integrates well with its CNC machine. Perhaps the most significant improvement was giving their builder customers direct access to JobTracker.
“It has reduced the number of customer service calls by 80%,” Manso says. “It used to be my guys would get four or five calls a day from our builders looking for information, now their phones have stopped ringing. We spend our time creating value, as opposed to non-revenue generating activities, such as chasing down job information.”
Empowering The Customer
Setting up the password protected online access for their customers was a snap, according to Manso.
“We called Moraware Customer Support and were set up within half an hour,” he says. “The biggest challenge that we had was that some of these builders’ employees were not particularly computer savvy. We had to walk them through the logistics of getting registered in the system. It took most of them about a week to get up to speed – the younger ones even faster. For those who just can’t quite make the transition, no problem, we generate a report and fax it to them.”
When the company first implemented the change, Manso’s shop manager went to the job sites blind. Questions were asked and he had to wait to get back to the office to research and answer them. Later he carried an iPad fitted with an Internet air card to the jobsites. If a customer had questions regarding a particular job the shop manager would bring up JobTracker on the device and get status reports. “But that is happening less and less now because most of our builders access Moraware themselves. This is huge. It makes all the difference in the world.”
Want to know more? At Moraware, we make software for countertop fabricators. CounterGo is countertop drawing and estimating software. JobTracker is scheduling software that helps you eliminate the time you waste looking for job folders. RemnantSwap is a free place to buy and sell granite remnants with fabricators near you.
