Olivier’s Lounge opened its doors in September 2009 in the beautiful surroundings of Wandsworth Commons, London.  This high-end fashion boutique endeavours to offers its customers a relaxing and different shopping experience in the comfort of “Olivier’s Lounge”.  Customers are given personal attention from highly trained and efficient members of staff, under the attentive eyes of co-owner Olivier Lievre and right-hand lady, Joanne Beauchemin.  

Olivier has worked in fashion and footwear for a number of years.  As well as retailing, Olivier together with partner Mark Bouman, wholesale Audley in the UK, Ireland and Scandanavia.  Olivier has worked with a number of different point of sale and stock control systems throughout his colourful career.  Olivier had a very good idea of what he wanted from a system and spent time in ensuring that the solution met with his requirements.  The chosen application was RTL’s Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System.  We find out why.

What software were you using before? 

When first starting out, I had a manual system, however I soon learnt that this system was not fool-proof and this was far from ideal.  Mistakes were easily made and therefore figures and information was not reliable or accurate.   Even though Olivier’s Lounge is a relatively small independent retailer and I felt that I had a good overview of my stock figures, at the end of the day I was not only looking at keeping control of my stock.   I wanted a system to give me the information on the Key Performance Indicators that will allow me to improve all areas of my business.  Information of this nature is just not available from manual systems and I also found I didn’t have the time to do all the calculations myself.  Time after all is money! A computerised system would give me the information at my fingertips.  This information would help me to improve my buying, give me a better overall picture of my business and tell me what my customers want and are buying.

Why did you choose a system from RTL? 

I was very fortunate that Joanne saw your exhibition stand at Pure and she prompted me that I needed to do something about the lack of control my current manual system was offering the business!  Retail Technology Limited did a demonstration of their software for Joanne and I.  Although, I did my homework and contacted other providers to see what the competition had to offer, Retail Technology’s software stood out as it was clearly developed specifically for shoe and fashion retailers.  The information that could be tracked and reported upon was key to anyone running this type of business.  In the demonstration, it was clear that the system was easy for the cashiers and back office staff to use.  I didn’t want anything too complicated.  These facts plus the company’s alacrity stood them apart from their competitor’s.  

Once the decision was made, the next step was getting you trained, how was that experience? 

Joanne and I both went to Retail Technology’s offices in Somerton to attend the training.  This was a great experience as we could immerse ourselves in a training environment that emulated the software in a store setting. Going to your offices also gave us the opportunity to meet the support officers, management and administrative team.  Both Joanne and I felt that this built the relationship and we were not just another company using the software.  It all became very personal.  This is the kind of atmosphere I want my customer’s to experience, so all of this is very important to me!

With training out the way, now it was the installation, how did you find that?

I would be lying if I said to you I didn’t panic, but that is because I am not very computer literate.  Knowing the support technicians were at the end of the telephone to guide me through the installation, if I needed them was very reassuring.  I collected all my equipment, Point of Sale and Back office equipment, when I left the training session.  To my amazement – I managed to set it all up, with little frustration!  All the equipment was clearly marked and I managed to work out what plugged into what –assembling IKEA furniture is more difficult than this!  

Getting the data onto the system - how did this fair? 

I was not importing any data from another system.  The task of inputting the style information, although laborious was not at all difficult.  I chose to implement the new system mid –season, so that I could get as much information onto the system as possible.  Because I was not holding that much stock from the previous season, as it was the end of season, I could input this style information as well as the new season’s styles onto the system relatively quickly.  The benefit of doing this was so that I could start using the system for reporting purposes almost immediately.  For me one of the main reasons for implementing a system was to assist me with the buying and in this way the system would start paying for itself.  
I must add that when I first started inputting the styles on the system, I referred to the manual which is extremely self-explanatory, even for me who hates manuals!
How do you find the level of support that we offer?  If there is any reason that we need to call your support desk, myself and my staff members find them extremely patient and helpful.  It is very advantageous that the support team are UK based and easy to comprehend.  No problem is too small and we have always received a high level of service from the support staff.  The training videos on the self-service portal are easy to refer to if I get stuck or want to quickly train staff members and don’t want to flip through the comprehensive manual.

How has it affected our day-to-day procedures?

 It is a much more professional service that I am now able to offer my customers.   As the cashiers collect data of what our customers are buying, I will be in a position to send out marketing material that is pertinent to each customer – target marketing!  

What level of aftercare support did you receive? 

The support team are there for our team every step of the way.  Kim, who sold us the system, did however pop in to see how we were getting along and as she knows the system was able to give us some guidance.  I cannot falter Retail Technology on their level of customer care and would highly recommend them!