Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM SEPTEMBER 2014 58 B U Y I N G G R O U P N E W S RELIABLE SOFTWORKS HELPS DEALERS AVOID SERVICE CONTRACT RISK Selling service contracts is becoming an important part of retail dealers' revenue strategy. Unfortunately as the number of service contract sales grow dealers are exposed to an increased risk because of faulty or missing submissions to the service contract vendor. If a dealer sells a service contract but doesn't properly submit the paperwork they could be liable for the cost of future repairs or replacement of the item. Additionally the time and expense to accurately submit the necessary information to the 3rd party companies holding these contracts is proving burdensome and if there are any errors or missing information, dealers can spend hours to correct the issues and respond to any customer problems. Reliable Softworks now has new functionality to automate the vendor submission process for the extended service contracts (ESC's) retail dealers sell to customers; saving the dealer many hours of work and eliminating costly errors, and reducing the risk of customer service problems and dealer repair/replacement liability. The Reliable Softworks helps the dealer to avoid these costly service contract issues by: • Automatically attaching the right vendor SKU and store codes to each submission • Automatically creating the submission report for new sales and any return transactions • Supporting the submission of 'Package' service contracts for items sold as a package deal • Calculating salesperson commission payments and deductions caused by returns/exchanges • Ensuring the dealer will not double pay and contract registration will occur • Accurately producing submission reports for multiple (split) deliveries orders Reliable Softworks new extended service contract submission functionality saves the retail many hours of time, ensures accurate reports and commissions, and ensures the dealer will not be wasting time chasing accounting errors or resolving unnecessary customer issues. COPILOT PROTECTS DEALER FROM CONSUMER FRAUD Reliable Softworks new product, CoPilot, gives appliance, furniture, bedding and other retail dealers who deliver and install items in consumers' homes an effective tool to protect themselves against fraud. A growing concern for retail dealers is the rise in consumer attempts to fraudulently collect money from retailers after a delivery or installation. The retailer's delivery/installation team reports a successful event with no incidents and then later the retailer gets a complaint from the homeowner about damaged property or damaged appliances. The retailer may have collected a signature but it may not be legible and who really signed and what did the situation look like before and after the retailer's team arrived, worked the job, and then left? The damage may be real but what was the cause? The retailer cannot determine who was at fault and usually ends up giving a discount, paying the bill, having another insurance claim, or fighting the issue in court without any real evidence. Reliable Softworks CoPilot application will provide delivery and installation teams with new tools to protect the retailer. CoPilot gives delivery/installation teams the ability to easily take and store before and after photos, record signatures with printed names: every important detail of the delivery, installation, and sign-off. Using a tablet or smartphone images pictures and collected information is immediately stored in the ReliaSale business management system in the Delivery Order file and in the Customer's file. The retailer can see immediately if there was damage and if a complaint comes in later has evidence to understand what really happened. Importantly CoPilot will automatically send an email to the customer and the sales person the moment the customer accepts the delivery. This email provides a detailed explanation of what happened concerning the delivery. For example, if the delivery was completed in full, of the customer wasn't home and the delivery couldn't happen, or the customer refused an item because it was damaged. DIMENSION EXPRESS INTEGRATION Reliable Softworks demonstrated at PrimeTime! its integration with Dimension Express, the provider of appliance specifications and dimensions with over 43,000 models of everything from dishwashers to wine storage. Now, when using ReliaSale the Reliable Softworks point of sale system, a sales person emails a quote or sales order to a customer the specifications and dimensions of those products can be automatically included on the email. Dimension Express allows ReliaSale users to: • View and print the specs from the site or build a PDF booklet to share with clients and associates. • Print specifications for an entire job and automatically email those specifications. Each specification sheet in the system is approved by the manufacturer. • Search specifications by any combination of overall height, overall width, overall depth, cutout height, cut-out width and cutout depth; to find an appliance that is a specific size or fits a specific cutout. NATIONWIDE VENDOR ROLLS OUT NEW INITIATIVES AT PRIM ETIM E! RO

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