Discover how digitalisation has improved Emerald Tiles daily operations and customer interaction.
About the company
Emerald Tiles is an established retail business supplying high quality tiles, bathroom suites and wood flooring. The business is based in Urlingford, Co Kilkenny with another retail outlet in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
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The Challenge
There was opportunity to improve business efficiencies by applying lean principles to the associated workflows. These include tracking of goods and also reduce communication waste to free up management and staff time to work on business improvement activities.
Emerald Tiles needed a sales enquiry and order management process/system to optimise communication between central stores and various sales outlets in order to minimize loss of sales opportunities, but also optimise sales conversion timelines.
What did they do?
As a result of the Digital for Business Programme, Emerald Tiles have been successful in adopting new digital tools for certain business processes. It has also identified areas where further digitalisation could enhance efficiency and customer experience.
By adopting these new digital tools they have improved – Accounting and Expense tracking, Customer note tracking, Marketing and online presence and Warehouse tracking.
How did it help?
- Accounting and Expense Tracking:
The use of a cloud-based accounting package across both premises provides real-time access to financial data and streamlined management of business expenses. This system is likely improving financial oversight and decision-making.
- Customer Notes Tracking:
Digital note-taking for tracking customer interactions in-store demonstrates an understanding of the importance of capturing and accessing customer data efficiently. This supports personalised service and builds stronger customer relationships.
- Marketing and Online Presence:
The company’s up-to-date website and active social media presence are strong assets. These platforms are effectively leveraged for marketing, increasing visibility, and driving customer engagement.
- Warehouse Tracking:
The use of a tracker by the main administrator to monitor ordered items adds a layer of digital organisation to inventory management.
Conclusions and future outlook
Emerald Tiles have been successful in adopting digital tools for certain business processes as a result of undertaking Lean for Business and Digital for Business. The company is now exploring further digital projects that will simplify management and operations including a stock management system and analytics capabilities for social media platforms to improve customer engagement.