Matt Gingell on using OMNIS to handle everything from custom orders and customer service to warehousing and delivery schedules
Material Things launched OMNIS Retail at its Portsmouth store two years ago and it continues to grow with the help of Iconography’s unified system. ‘People in furniture
said to me: “I’m told that Iconography make the best websites,” so we spoke to Iconography. We changed primarily because our Shopify website was very lacking.
We’d started to outgrow what we had and looking back to the way we were doing things, it’s night and day,’ says Matt Gingell, Material Things sales director.
‘One major difference is we’ve converted from using emails to using the tasks module. Seeing a full history of interactions per order is so transparent, I love that aspect of it.
It’s horrible getting a customer say: “Somebody said they’d call me back and they haven’t.” Having this information to hand means that anyone in the team can respond.
‘First and foremost, we want to understand the customer’s needs. Getting into the
nitty-gritty, we grab a laptop, sit down with them and build the order together. We’ve uploaded all the relevant options to choose from so there’s a journey to follow, but we can also skip them as necessary. Custom options can be added to any product – we
use that functionality a lot.
‘When things change, we can amend purchase orders without losing information. Waiting on customers to chase for updates normally ends in cancellation, which costs us
money. OMNIS lets us easily check on purchase orders that haven’t been sent or acknowledged in a certain timeframe to prevent this.’
Switching to OMNIS has given Gingell greater understanding of the business’s stock position and made deliveries more organised. ‘Seeing what is on display versus free stock so we don’t have to go looking through the showroom or the warehouse has
been great. If a customer cancels last minute, the stock doesn’t just vanish, it has to
go somewhere, keeping us accountable. For stocktake, it’s never been more accurate
– it’s so refreshing.
‘On the journey planner we assign orders daily to a specific vehicle and log if the
delivery is morning, afternoon or a set timeframe. It’ll also show any payments due,
which is really important for ensuring we follow up before delivery. ‘OMNIS’ reporting
has been invaluable. We get a clear and simple snapshot on the dashboard but can
also drill down further into the data, whether that’s on my phone, my iPad or my laptop.’
