“How today’s affordable technology can make your business more efficient, accurate and profitable.”
In today’s increasingly paperless world, do any of us really need to be printing things on paper in our stores anymore? Having observed some of our largest florist clients going paperless over the last few years, let me give you seven reasons this make sense on so many levels.
1. Paper gets lost.
No matter what size system you have, a board or a box for each day of the week, we frequently see lost orders with our clients. Every time you lose or misplace an order, you lose a customer, and you lose the value of the order itself. Multiply this by a typical shop handling 1,000 orders a month and an average error rate of one percent (10 orders per month), and you’ll see that this can add up quickly, not to mention the undue stress this creates for all involved. The computer never loses an order. It never forgets. And many times, it even reminds you when you forget.
2. Updates get missed.
Every time a customer calls back and changes an order or card that’s already printed, you have to hunt down the original order, and that takes time – sometimes a lot of time, especially during holidays. Because of this, some shops end up sending duplicate orders because they cannot locate the original order fast enough.
3. It’s much faster
When you go paperless, there is no more line of people at the printer waiting for orders to print.
4. Tablets are less than $100 now.
With name-brand tablets falling below $100 at major retailers, each designer can have a personalized tablet to see all orders assigned to them each day. You can even configure tablets to work only on pick and production screens to avoid employees wandering off to other sites.
5. It will save you money.
When you factor in the cost of errors, duplicate or missed orders, and lost customers, as well as the cost of paper, print cartridges and even new printers, you should see that a $99 tablet for each designer will save you thousands of dollars per year as well as make you more efficient and accurate.
6. Designers will stay put rather than wander.
When a designer completes an order, many times he or she has to wander over to a computer, printer or who knows where else to see what is next in the production queue. When designers have personal tablets and the point of sale is assigning them the orders, there is no need to wander around.
7. Trees will love you!
If for no other reason, do it for the environment! The less paper you print on, the less carbon footprint for your company, and the happier Mother Nature will be.
Alex Frost has founded and operated multiple technology and marketing companies in the floral industry for more than 25 years. He has also developed unique supply-chain software for the flower industry. Contact him via email at alex@quickflora.com.
