When owning a business, the software you use behind the scenes is as important as the product you put on your showroom floor. Relying solely on pen and paper—or a non-flooring-specific software—can not only clutter your business processes but create difficulties down the road. That’s where QFloors comes in.
QFloors is a business management and accounting system designed to specifically aid flooring dealers in running their businesses successfully. It features a user-friendly interface with clear labels for each section: leads, sales, materials, bills/credit, checkbook and employee/subs. With everything at one’s fingertips—virtually—all aspects of the business are better organized and profits can begin to increase while the customer is better taken care of.
One of the key benefits of QFloors is its tracking of processes. “QFloors electronically moves employees through the steps required to take care of a job—start to finish,” explained Chris Ogden, director of marketing. “Leads and customers are tracked, materials are tracked, payments are tracked, trends are tracked, finances are tracked. When the customer calls about her order, it means all of the information is right there on the screen for the person taking the call. It helps you avoid wasted time sorting through stacks of papers or files or tracking down a co-worker for information. The customer is taken better care of because there is an ongoing flow of information between sales, ordering, warehouse/receiving, installation and accounts payable/receivable.”
Trent Ogden, CFO, QFloors, noted that in many small businesses, particularly mom-and- pop stores that have one, two or three employees, the information is often stored by hand. “[Owners will ask], ‘Have we given this customer a proposal? Where are we keeping those proposals? Have we ordered their product yet? Has that product been received?’ All of that information is kept within the owner’s mind or it’s on a piece of paper in their desk somewhere—and that’s not an efficient way to track things in a business.”
QFloors software also addresses a major pain point for dealers—easy access to the information. “In many cases, software requires a pretty steep learning curve,” Chris Ogden explained. “As a result, what you typically find is a company has one or two people who know how to use it. Nobody else in the company touches it (or understands how to get information from it). Because QFloors is very user-friendly, and it’s relatively easy for people to get trained in using it, everyone in the company uses (and thus benefits from) it.”
Rice Capitol Carpet, Marshfield, Wyo., is approaching it’s seventh year with QFloors. Kerry Lenz, CEO, said QFloors has aided her in making critical financial decisions. “What we love about the software is that it’s [in] real time,” Lenz said. “So, if we need to see where we’re sit- ting for the year in real time, we can look at any of the reports and make decisions ahead of time— not December 31. We’re already projecting what this year [will] bring.”
Since using the software, Lenz said she is able to see what improvements need to be made based on the company’s budget. Additionally, she said she can always count on the data to be accurate and up-to-date.
Joplin Floor Designs, Joplin, Mo., made the switch to QFloors from Quickbooks, Excel and pen and paper. According to Holly Hukill, vice president, QFloors allows the business to keep track of its leads and jobs—won or lost—which she said gives them a much better idea of what’s going on in the business and allows them to improve. “We often follow up with lost jobs to find out why we lost a job,” Hukill said. “Some customers are just not ready to purchase, which happens often. That means we still have a chance to help them later.” Hukill also praised the staff at QFloors for their customer service and ability to train dealers on how to use the QFloors software.
Kimberly Quinn, president/owner, Kimi’s Carpets Plus, with two locations in North Carolina, also gave praise to the QFloors team. “They are phenomenal people,” she said. “They took the time to sit down and talk to my husband about the financial aspects of our business. [They] literally took our financials and helped him do an analysis. The owners will hold your hand through all of it.”
After using QFloors software, Quinn said the business saved a huge sum of money. “After six months of us signing on, the amount of money we saved by tracking where spending was going—what was wasteful spending; the percentages—was astronomical. We could not believe the needless spending and how QFloors allowed us to keep on top of every aspect of our flooring business.”
