| Oberer’s Flowers is gearing up for some very big changes. On the weekend of June 4, Ohio’s largest florist will be installing 40 new computer terminals and a new state-of-the-art software system.
“The McShan Abner Sytems (MAS) software the best in the industry,” says Chief Technology Officer Greg Turner. “It’s going to help us do everything more efficiently. One of the biggest changes will be our ability to send email delivery confirmations to our customers, something we cannot do with our present system. As of June 7, every customer will receive an email when the order is delivered. The days of worried phone calls are now over."
There will also be big changes on the selling end of things. "Our order takers will be able to access pictures and descriptions of our products in order to better accommodate a customer’s needs, and our Internet orders will be processed automatically. Up until now, these orders have been manually transferred into the local data system.”
Since Oberers receives some 52,000 Internet orders, the system upgrade will free up a lot of time for enhanced customer service.
“The new system will allow us to find customer data more quickly, which will cut down the time it takes to place an order and eliminate errors," says Turner. "And our sales will be automatically routed for our delivery drivers, which will cut out paperwork, room for error, and the time it takes to organize our orders for delivery, especially during holidays. We will also be able to make notes about the specific likes and dislikes of a particular customer and access these notes with the click of the mouse. These are just a few of the immediate advantages of the new software. But the system provides so much more, and we will be utilizing its more advanced capabilities in the near future.”
For example, the MAS software has the capacity to provide turn by turn GPS assistance to delivery drivers. It also offers a complete inventory management module. “This new system will not only cut down order and delivery time,” says owner Randy Oberer, “but it will also provide better coordination among our various locations. I am very excited about the change. It will make a big difference in our overall expansion strategy.”
The system change is part of Oberer’s quarter million dollar commitment to use cutting-edge technology to enhance customer service and manage its rapidly growing operations, which have now extended beyond Cincinnati to Northern Kentucky. The fifteenth largest florist in the United States, Oberer’s Flowers has plans to broaden its operations to Columbus and Indianapolis in the near future. To this end, Oberer’s hired Greg Turner, a Purdue graduate, to head the technology division of the business “We have a great product and we offer great service. We plan on being nationally competitive. For this, being ahead of the technology curve is key.” says Turner.
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