The holidays are a wonderful time to relax, spend time with family, and kick your feet up. The not-so-great part about the holidays is that it marks the slow season for nearly all contractors – including countertop fabricators and installers.
It’s easy to become complacent during the slow season, working short hours, slugging around, and crossing your fingers that things will pick up again in the new year.
However, this is the perfect opportunity to cross two very important items off your to-do list that you don’t typically have time to address. One item is for growing fabrication shops and the other is specifically for existing Moraware users – there’s something for everyone this slow season!
1. Onboard New Software to Improve Your Business
Getting started with new software is the last thing you want to do when your schedule is packed. However, it’s a healthy part of growing your fabrication business.
The majority of small businesses are willing to invest in new tech, with the primary reason being to increase productivity.
In fact, 41% of small businesses surveyed said they have plans to increase technology spending.
While cost is the first barrier you have to knock down, the other is time. According to a Business Insider State of Small Business report, 51% of small businesses don’t want to start using new technology because they’re afraid it’ll take too long to implement and learn.
When you look at the big picture, that fear is quite irrational, as the right software will save you heaps of time in the future. The concept behind onboarding new software is simple: spend some time now to save a whole lot of time later.
And what better time to spend time than during the slow season?! (Have you counted how many times we said time?)
What Software Does My Countertop Shop Need?
If you’ve warmed up to the idea of implementing new software for your countertop shop, you might be wondering what exactly you need to increase productivity.
Here at Moraware, we specialize in two industry-specific bottlenecks:
- Fast and effective countertop quotes
- Scheduling and tracking jobs from start to finish
Onboard CounterGo For Better Countertop Quotes
For quotes, the software solution is CounterGo. Starting at just $100 per month (with no contract), CounterGo is as powerful as a full-time employee. In fact, Robby from Northern Stone says he’s been able to grow his company to several jobs per day without having to hire someone to do quotes.
With CounterGo, you can draw, layout, and quote a countertop job in as little as 3 minutes – it’s that easy to use.
Read More: 4 Key Ways Countertop Fabricators Can Give Better Quotes
Drawings can be done with your mouse – or with your finger if you’re using a touch device like an iPad – and you can even add specific details like edge profiles, radius corners, and bump-in arcs.
Once you’re done with the drawing, you can layout the countertop on slabs to help you determine where the seams will fall. If your customer is interested in a unique granite pattern, for example, you can upload a photo and show your customer how the finished countertop would look.
The final step is to present the quote! You can print or email it, and if you do email it, you’ll be notified as soon as the customer has viewed the quote. Many CounterGo users also appreciate that they can draw up the quote right there with the client and get instant feedback.
The slow season is the best time to implement CounterGo in your countertop shop. You’ll have time to learn the software (which doesn’t take long, by the way), but you’ll also have time to learn some cool nuances of the product. For example, you might experiment with exporting contacts in CounterGo, editing multiple edge dimensions at the same time, or adding unfinished edges to notches.
Take advantage of the extra time in your schedule by investing in a product that will change the way you do business – and set you up for faster growth in the new year.
Onboard Systemize For Streamlined Processes In Your Countertop Shop
Issues with quoting are typically the first concerns growing countertop shops face. What follows is all sorts of problems relating to staying organized.
Perhaps it’s making sure your sales staff and labor force is communicating well. Maybe you’re having issues with scheduling and juggling several jobs per day. It could even be logistic problems, like making sure your multiple crews aren’t overlapping routes all day long.
These are all concerns that Systemize, our flagship scheduling software, can smooth over.
Read More: The Ultimate Guide to Streamlining the Processes In Your Countertop Shop
Systemize is a very powerful software that we’ve spent years developing with input from hundreds of experienced fabricators. Once implemented, it’ll not only save you hours on end, but it’ll take away many of the headaches associated with growing a business.
Systemize helps with communication, fabrication and installation scheduling, lead management, inventory tracking (this is an upgrade), and reviewing your metrics.
With Systemize, you can do something as cool as AutoScheduling fabrication three days after a template is finished to finding out which salesperson is generating the most customers.
If you’re scratching your head about how to stay busy this slow season, consider making Systemize a part of your business. It pays for itself in saved time, and the reports you can run could help you find cost savings – and potential for growth.
2. Take Advantage of Free Moraware Support
If you’re already a Moraware customer, take advantage of the slow season by utilizing our free support!
We have an incredible team of highly knowledgable individuals that can help you put together a better game plan for 2020. We’ve said it before, but it’s so true – every countertop shop is unique.
Many clients ask us what the best way to set up Systemize is, and the truth is that there is no best way! We can make suggestions based on what seems to work the best for most people, but this software should be specific to your needs. Our team can help you make sure you’re getting the most of the software.
There are three specific things that our support team would love to help you optimize:
- Custom calendars
- Reporting possibilities
- Fine-tuning your forms
Creating Better Custom Calendars
We hear from clients all the time that the calendar function in Systemize has changed the way they do business. There’s so much you can do, and so many different views you can set up based on what you need.
We want to make sure your calendar views make the most sense for you and your staff.
Here are some things to consider when optimizing your countertop shop’s calendar:
- Is the default calendar view for everyone working well, or can it be improved?
- What activities are displayed on your calendar?
- What details are appearing in your calendar boxes?
- Have you tried printing activity packets from your calendar?
- Have you color-coded the calendar by assignee?
- Have you utilized the mapping service?
- Have you set holidays on your calendar?
- Have you set recurring calendar appointments (if needed)?
- Have you tried filtering the calendar by location or division?
- Is your calendar displaying well on large screens or your workstation?
Since the calendar feature is such an important part of Systemize, we want to make sure it’s working for your shop. If you think there could be improvements but aren’t sure how to go about it, contact us! We’d love to help you improve your process.
Running Better Reports
Once you’re set up with Systemize, everything you enter into the system can be tracked and reported on. You can quickly gather valuable information about leads, customers, jobs, and even your sales staff.
The best way to start is to write down any questions you’d love to have answers to. For example:
- Has my business been growing month over month?
- Which salesperson is making us the most revenue?
- How many of our leads actually turn into sales?
- How many square feet am I doing each week?
- Where am I the least efficient?
All of these important business questions can be answered by Systemize reports. Ultimately, we hope that Systemize users are able to cut costs by finding inefficiencies and increase profits by pinpointing what’s working!
If you’re not currently getting a lot of value out of the reporting, lean on our free support. We’d love to help you track the data that matters to your growing fabrication business.
Fine-Tuning Your Forms
We get a lot of questions from countertop fabricators that want to see what other peoples’ forms look like.
We can help you fine-tune your forms to make sure your process runs more smoothly. Great forms also help your team by making sure they have all the information they need at their fingertips.
Job Forms can be used to collect the cabinet, sink, edge detail, and color sections. Before you start creating forms, you want to make sure you understand a few things:
- Who will be using the form?
- Will the form be printed, used electronically, or both?
- What kinds of fields need to go in the form? (For example, a signature line, checkboxes, etc.)
If you’re not the one who’s using the forms, keep communication open between yourself and your team to make sure the forms are working well. Everyone’s needs are different, but we can help you by guiding you in the right direction.
Learn More: Collecting & Communicating Information with Job Forms
Fabricators – Stay Busy During the Slow Season!
Everyone is so busy during the holidays that the last thing they want to tackle right now is a new kitchen remodel. While you can offer seasonal promotions and do special advertising to help boost countertop sales during this slow time, you’re still bound to have extra time on your hands.
We encourage you to make the most of the slow season by setting up your fabrication processes for success in the new year. You’d be amazed at how onboarding new software and optimizing your existing software can drastically improve your business’ efficiency.
If you’re new to Moraware, don’t forget to schedule a free demo, and if you’re an existing customer, take advantage of our free support! We exist to help countertop shops grow, so don’t hesitate to lean on us for help.
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