Countertop Cyber Savvy

    “I am the number-one believer in the power of the Internet,” he says. “Unfortunately, I think it has been used very little in our industry.”
   Seidl’s proof are several of his Websites dedicated to promoting the use of natural stone. For starters, there’s GranTops.com for an introduction to this regional producer (GranTops’ market area includes Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia.)
   Then, there’s “Exotica,” the company’s digital newsletter. And, in addition, the online experience includes 1000GraniteColors.com, GraniteChat.com, Granite101.com and Soapstone101.com.
   In fact, Seidl registered over 50 domain names related to granite and natural stone, although less than a dozen are currently in use.
   “Ideas are coming up all the time,” he explains. “I try to do a new service every two or three months.”
   Why so many sites dedicated to countertop fabrication? It all comes down to a single basic motivation: marketing the GranTops fabrication business.
   “Since the beginning of this year we have started six sites that provide feedback and information about stone,” Seidl explains. “I believe in providing a free service to the client so he or she recognizes we are providing more than just stone; we’re offering a solution.”
   For instance, 1000GraniteColors.com was born when Seidl discovered most visitors to the GranTops site were primarily looking at swatches of granite colors.
   “If 80 percent of the people visiting the site are looking at colors, why not just put up a site where they can match granite colors to their cabinets?” Seidl says. “That is something every homeowner wants to do.
   “Do we charge for that service? No. But I want people to recognize we are adding value to their countertop purchase.”
   On the other hand, sites like Granite101.com and Soapstone101.com exist primarily as lead generators for the fabrication company. Inquiries are funneled through GraniteChat.com, which offers its own unique twist for countertop fabricators marketing on the Internet.
   “We have a live operator that answers any question about granite eight hours per day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Seidl says. “It’s a free service. Someone calls in and asks about Uba Tuba, for example; we tell them they can go to 1000GraniteColors.com or they can come to our showroom at GranTops and see a slab in person – and would they like to set up an appointment?”
   According to Seidl, his company’s investment into the Internet and related technology paid big dividends as a marketing tool in terms of generating leads, educating his customers, and streamlining the overall sales process. But it doesn’t stop there; GranTops also utilizes the Web in the production side of the business as well.
   “Everything possible at GranTops is Internet-based,” he explains. “From scheduling projects to quality control and most all processes in-between, it’s all based on the Internet. We use it in conjunction with management software by StoneLogic, which is a very good piece of software.”
  
PRODUCTIVE INTERNET
   Like Seidl, Shannon Bitzer of Pro-Lam Inc., a division of the PLI Group, uses management software to organize and control production in his shop. Bitzer uses Moraware’s JobTracker for project costing and management, inventory control, client-side management, job tracking and real time evaluations of resource management.
   Pro-Lam, based in Loveland, Ohio, fabricates approximately 100 commercial and residential projects per month.
   “It (JobTracker) is in every workstation,” says Bitzer. “It’s an Internet-based piece of software, so we can access it from anywhere.
   “We have each piece of equipment set up in the program to estimate their production times. As the guys in the shop enter the real world data we get, not only an estimated time of when the job will be completed, but real-world data to track costs.”
   With increased efficiency on the production side of the business, Bitzer could envision similar efficiencies when dealing with his wholesale customers. So he set out to develop an application that would allow regular Pro-Lam clients access to their project information via the Internet any time they wanted.
   “What made sense to us was avoiding a department flooded with phone calls and someone always going to the shop to find out the status of any particular job, which wastes a lot of time,” Bitzer explains. “We publish that (online) to our clients, so they can go on the Internet at their leisure and find out where their project stands. They can do that from anywhere in the world.”
   Pro-Lam set up a separate website that customers access by entering their own unique login name and password. Once in the system, the client can get real-time information regarding the status of current projects, as well as a history of jobs already completed. Project information includes the job name, purchase order number, the date when job specifications were received, template date, when it is in production on the CNC and the installation date.
   “When a client comes in here it will show their active jobs in a basic spreadsheet format,” Bitzer says. “They’re going to look at the information in the cells, which lets them know when we got the template, the job specs, etc.
   “If it is in production on the CNC, the date shows up in green. If the task is blue, it means it has been completed and the install might be set for a couple of days later. If the install date is green, it means it is confirmed and it will happen on the date shown.”
   Pro-Lam uses JobTracker to generate the client nformation, which is constantly updated and automatically published to the Website as projects go through the production system. Clients can see the status of their jobs without having to call the office for updates.
   “Our customers love it, and it saves us a ton of time,” says Bitzer. “One minute they may be looking at the screen; then, they can go to lunch, refresh the screen when they come back, and see that their job is in production.
   “Once the job is in production and that task is completed the installation is confirmed, so they know when that job will be put in. They can bank on it.”
   Future plans include an estimating capability, so that dealer customers can generate quotes for themselves using the Pro-Lam database. That is particularly helpful since the fabrication company is not open on weekends – a time when their kitchen and bath dealers are usually very busy and need estimating information quickly.
   The company will also soon be publishing a list of remnants to its dealer customers, who will be able to search for specific colors online and reserve that material over the Internet.
   “All of these improvements are making things easier for us and save us a ton of time,” Bitzer explains. “What we paid to have a developer write software to integrate JobTracker into the Internet has been well worth the investment.”
   Russ Lee is president of sitesNsolutions.com, which specializes in helping countertop fabricators improve their marketing through the Web. He was a countertop fabricator for 13 years and editor of SolidSurface magazine for six years. He may be reached at russ@sitesNsolutions.com.

This article first appeared in the February 2008 print edition of Stone Business. ©2008 Western Business Media Inc.