RB Pool & SpaRB Retail & Service Solutions updates SQL
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By PoolPro on behalf of RB Retail & Service Solutions
It’s the dream — one piece of software that will manage all the nuances of a hot tub and swimming pool retail and service business. While there are lots of great point-of-sale options on the market, few can handle, without heavy customization, all the facets that this industry requires. One made-for-the-industry options, RB Retail & Service Solutions, just released one of its biggest upgrades to date of its RB Pool & Spa SQL program.
After listening to feedback from its more than 600 existing customers and potential customers industry-wide, the company’s new RB SQL program leaves almost nothing untouched, from the overall look and feel, to scheduling, customer information, sales and inventory. Companies that already use the RB Pool & Spa software, and those that have just checked it out, will find that SQL can more than meet the needs of a complex business.
Company Setup
The most painful part of any new software, whether it’s brand new or an update, is the setup. RB Pool & Spa makes this process much more intuitive, condensing each section of the program into more user-friendly tabs, so businesses owners aren’t spending valuable work hours trudging through complicated setup processes.
When setting up employees, management can now use SQL to see how profitable employees are, particularly service techs, by tracking how much time is spent on a job by each tech and what the pay rate is of that employee. And the employee setup screen has been broken up into tabs for easier navigation to include notes, signatures, pictures and pay rates.
Valley Pool & Spa in the Pittsburgh metro area has been using RB Retail & Service Solutions programs since 2004. Valley updated from the RB Access database to the SQL system in April 2019. One of the upgrade features that stands out to Eric Cassidy, Valley’s vice president of sales and operations, is the ability to resize screens and customize the information that is visible on them. “It may seem minimal, but it’s not,” Cassidy says. “Every employee’s view can be different. This is great if your job leans toward a different set of responsibilities than another employee.”
Sales
RB Pool & Spa Software allows pool and spa retailers to make the checkout process at the counter quick and easy with the use of barcode scanners, credit card processing and a built-in loyalty rewards program. Users can also run sales reports, create specials, build quotes and work up contracts.
“Before our RB integration, the process of quote preparation was handled by one or two individuals and those quotes were not always readily available to all relevant staff members who were handling customer accounts in real time,” says Ruth Garavalia, co-owner of Monarch Pool Care in Stafford, Virginia. “The turn-around time for quotes often took days, rather than hours. Today, with the help of RB Systems and RB Mobile Live, any of our staff have the capability to prepare and send a quote, and with the integration of templates, insta-text, inventory, scheduling and customer contact information, most quotes can be completed and sent within minutes and that information is then easily accessible by other staff members.”
RB Mobile Live is a recent addition to the sales portion of RB Pool & Spa SQL. Sales floor and service staff can use a tablet to look up customer profiles, inventory, complete transactions and email receipts right from the showroom floor or service route. And employees can now see images when looking up inventory to verify it’s the correct item.
The industry is moving away from hanging an impersonal piece of paper on a customer’s door after a service call, with many companies now opting for doorhanger emails that provide more details about the services provided through a personalized and convenient email to the customer. With the SQL update in RB Mobile Live, employee and job pictures can now be added to those doorhanger emails to more thoroughly communicate to customers what was done and who completed the work.
Customer Information
Keeping track of customers, their purchases and services is vital for continued quality customer service. With that in mind, RB Retail & Service Solutions created a customer CRM that automatically generates customer profiles, including contact information and directions, purchase history, pool and spa details with images and schematics, previous water treatments and more.
“The customer management of the RB software is a favorite because it tracks the complete pool and hot tub data of every customer,” Cassidy says. “We can easily reference what the customer has purchased from us in the past, along with all of the parts and accessories that the customer would need in the future.”
Service Routes
RB Retail & Service Solutions recognizes that, of all the things a pool and spa business does, coordinating service routes can be one of the more time-consuming tasks.
“The scheduling and service tool in the SQL program allows businesses to track customers, dispatches, billing, inventory, service history, technicians and more,” Garavalia says. She says the Revolving Service module in the scheduling system makes calendaring their weekly maintenance contract customers’ service dates a breeze. A one-time setup is all it takes to manage recurring cleaning and maintenance customers.
“The sales orders being tied into the service scheduler automatically is great for fast scheduling and then collecting payments for the work online with the RB bill pay,” Cassidy says.
The drag and drop scheduler supports unlimited users from multiple locations at the same time, automatically optimizes service routes as customers are entered into the scheduler and links all jobs to an invoice so no billing goes unaccounted.
“On the billing side, the AR link allows us quick, easy, immediate access to our accounts receivable listing at each store, and again, with integration to the customer information we are able to mass-forward our statements and bill reminders via email within minutes, rather than hours, which has improved our cash flow,” Garavalia says.
In the near future, users will be able to geotrack Mobile Live devices in the Schedule to keep track of technician locations.
Inventory Management and Integrations
Inventory purchases, turn and sales are the cornerstone for any retail establishment. Manually tracking every detail of inventory management is not only tedious, but can — and often does — lead to reporting inaccuracies, which can have a substantially negative impact on business revenue.
That’s why RB Retail & Service Solutions includes inventory management in the RB Pool & Spa SQL program. Users can easily manage multiple price levels and product categories, coordinate inventory at multiple locations, conduct mass inventory adjustments, track warranties and more, with the latest updates streamlining the process even further.
“RB also added enhanced inventory features, which allow us to track serial numbers, do per-item spiffs or discounts and more,” Cassidy explains. “We will utilize these new features heavily going into next season to enhance our experience and also to motivate our sales team.”
RB Retail & Service Solutions’ SQL now integrates with vendors Horizon, Baystate, Carecraft and United Aqua Group. Users can add parts to inventory from vendor catalogs, view pricing and view images of the parts to ensure correct selection.
“Also, a great offering by RB Systems is its integration with Broadly,” Garavalia says. Broadly is a company that provides instant, back-office assistance with building reviews and social media presence. “Through RB we partnered with Broadly and saw a marked increase in the number of our online reviews and organic web search performance. They also offer a webchat program as part of their service, that for us, has worked well for lead generation. If you’re considering making the switch to RB, consider adding the Broadly partnership in the process, it’s worth the investment.”
More to Come
RB Retail & Services Solutions is always looking for ways to enhance its software with new features, provide the best experience for customers and provide the latest in technology. That’s why the company will continually add new features to RB Pool & Spa SQL based upon desires and feedback from the industry.
“One of our most favorite attributes is the fact that RB is always improving and adding more features,” Cassidy says, “which means that we know the software will never get outdated for us like many programs on the market have.”
*This is a paid advertisement, written by PoolPro magazine staff
