Gary Evans — Furniture Today
Focus on Achieving Your Potential

Jonathan Montgomery of Myriad demonstrates the use of a Myriad program.
SAN DIEGO — Using technology to unlock growth was a key topic of discussion at the 12th annual Myriad user’s conference here.

Under the theme, “Achieving Your Potential,” the San Diego-based company’s executives previewed future features being developed for its Eclicktic software program and coached 150 attendees about how to get the most out of the technology they already have.

Myriad founders Carolyn Crowley and Russell Higgins said the company experienced a year of strong growth and indicated that the future will hold more of the same.

“2012 was a great business year for us,” said Crowley, noting that Myriad expanded both its staff and its headquarters here, as well as opened a new space in Las Vegas.

Kathleen Tanselli, left, Kaufman Scroggs, Aberdeen, Wash.; Linda Pellegrino, Myriad; and Christi Sayres, Kaufman Scroggs.
Myriad is a major player in providing furniture retailers with technology that does everything from maintaining inventory to delivering products. The company targets midsized retailers with annual sales volumes of $2 million to $70 million.

It also is a key supplier to dedicated stores, with over half of the conference’s attendees coming from Bassett, Lane, Norwalk and Thomasville.

In the opening session of the four-day event, Crowley and Higgins shared Myriad’s direction with attendees, showing videos of three clients that Crowley said were “definitely achieving their potential.”

Kim Anderson, left, Myriad; and Eric Tessau, Thomasville Furniture Inds., Thomasville, N.C.
These videos highlighted the Harrison family, which started furniture retailing in the 1950s and now has four Thomasville units in the Clearwater, Fla. area; fast-growing Bassett and Lane stores in the Eastlake section of Chula Vista, Calif.; and family-owned Wilcox Furniture, a three-store company based in Hermiston, Ore.

Crowley and Higgins also detailed enhancements that have been made to Myriad’s inventory, sales browser, data exchange and executive summary modules. The inventory browser was “written specifically for people who do not have desk jobs,” said Higgins, and, being bar code- centric, can provide “all the information you need.”  The sales browser frees the salesperson to walk the floor with a customer and build “a shopping cart,” according to Crowley.

“It’s an awesome tool,” she said, noting that salespeople can record both what customers buy and also what they were interested in and didn’t buy so “it becomes a tool for the future.”

Karen Wilford, left, La-Z-Boy, Riviera Beach, Sunrise, Fla.; Russell Higgins, Myriad; and Marie More, Decorum of Virginia, Norfolk, Va.
A key ingredient of the Myriad event is the exchange of ideas among attendees. To encourage that process, Myriad organized a variety of panel and roundtable discussions.

One, “Achieving Peak Sales Performance,” included a lively discussion of how to track customers by panelists Monica Stantliff of Bassett, Seattle; Douglas Hodis, Bassett of South Florida; and Ken Fliegelman, Bassett of Northern California.

Using Myriad’s customer relations module (CRM), the panelists said they track how long a salesperson spends with a customer, whether they’re new or a “be-back” and other information that might lead to future sales.

Key contact information — name, address, phone, e-mail — can be collected quickly without slowing down the salesperson, according to the panelists. To encourage consumers to share this information, attendees suggested holding an ongoing raffle or engaging them in a room plan design.

Once all obstacles are overcome and data collected, “You’ll be amazed at how useful it is,” said Hodis. In addition to capturing customer information, the tracking technology can track sales goals and closing rates and compile a to-do list that includes sending notes on birthdays and anniversaries and providing updates on products in which the customer has shown interest.

Stantliff tells her salespeople not to rely on their memories, but to put everything in the CRM system. Not only does it keep the information accurate, “if the salesperson leaves, the information is still there and you can turn it over to another person,” she said.

Delivery turned out to be the main topic in a Business Strategies roundtable, with store executives trading information about how to find good employees.

A newer Bassett store operator in Florida uses a third-party service and warehouse and receives letters of praise from satisfied customers about his deliveries. The retailer said it was more cost effective for the company to use an outside firm currently, at about $5 million in annual sales, but once it reaches $6 million, he thinks it will be better off with its own warehouse. Bassett’s quick-ship program also helps in reducing warehouse space.

Janice Holt of Decorum of Norfolk, Va., said that delivery people often encounter unexpected problems, like new subdivision streets not yet included in maps and apartment complexes that allow freight elevators to be used only at certain times of the day.

And, of course, delivery people often confront stairwells that are too small for maneuvering furniture. One of her delivery crews was taking a sofa up a stairway when the deliverymen got stuck — and couldn’t go up or down. Eventually, they got free. 

“It didn’t make the 6 o’clock news, but it could have,” joked Holt.