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Home > Products > Advantage > Success: Myers

Success Story

ECi Next Generation Advantage Keeps Myers Lumber Looking to the Future

Phil Myers, president of Myers Lumber, based in Mayfield, Kentucky, is always thinking about how to improve his business, make processes faster and, therefore, serve his customers better.

With the future of technology in mind, and how that technology will affect his company, he made the decision to go with Next Generation Advantage. “We had been on the same system for 12 years when we started looking for another system,” Phil recalls. “We’d gotten too large for our system. I knew we’d have to start doing something different because technology was changing.”

Before going with Next Generation Advantage, Myers Lumber was on a system which had “tremendous support problems,” according to Phil.

“ECi seemed like the ones I could trust”

“The way I looked at it,” Phil says of the decision process, “deciding which system to go with, I thought about the problems we’d had with previous systems with support and management attitude. ECi seemed like the ones I could trust. That’s why I chose ECi. I thought they’d be better than a big company. Every user of a system is a customer and the question is whether you will be treated as a customer or a piece of property. I know every business works to stay in business, but I felt I had been in a gotcha system where I didn’t know if the company was working to help me or to make more money for the company.”

He continues, “We’ve dealt with other software companies who don’t understand what we do and don’t understand why we won’t do it their way. Then I met Scott (Stanford, president of ECi Advantage) at the Do It Best show. Most dealers in building and supply have a real problem with inventory shrinkage. Sometimes we have to take back merchandize that is not in the condition in which we sold it (such as warped lumber). We need to allow for that, for estimated shrinkage. I don’t want a surprise at the end of the year when I look at my books. I need to plan ahead for possible shortages. True margins are based on shrinkage. I want to show that margin all year long. Other providers didn’t know what I was talking about. They look at it only from a general accounting standpoint rather than what actually goes on. I was so impressed with Scott in that he understood what I was talking about. And I thought ‘that’s the company I need to be with.’ They understand what we go through during the year. They are just regular people who desire to solve your problems.”

Business efficiency and customer service are the name of the game

Now that Myers Lumber is using Next Generation Advantage in their daily operations, Phil has several features that have become favorites. Not surprisingly, they revolve around easier storage of information so that it can be retrieved faster, contributing to both business efficiency and customer service.

“I love the paperless signature capture,” he says. “Most of our customers want their ticket signed and I want to make sure I have that on file. And I love not having to maintain paper files. We are seeing that (paper filing) go down.

“The screens are better than those of our previous systems. I am believer in concise, simple information that you can look at and revisit. If I need sales figures from six months ago, I can pull that up on the screen, not dig it out from a file somewhere. On our payables to our suppliers, we are working toward having every invoice for P.O.s in one place, as well as warranty claims. We’ll be able to find those items without going to a warehouse to dig them out. It makes the warranty situation so much faster and the customer is so happy that you went the extra mile. I see this as a real benefit. You need to be able to get that information quickly to help customers. In a small town, you have a lot of repeat customers and how you help them will determine future business.”

Phil Myers lives by small town ethics, and so does his company. The history of Myers Lumber on their website isn’t just a simple timeline. It shows how the company has fit in with and grown with the town. It’s a story of businesses that are loyal to the town and customers who are loyal those businesses.

“We’re here because of my great grandfather,” Phil says. “His great uncle found this place and the owner was not in good health and wanted to sell.” In 1933, Myers Lumber opened its doors. Today it employees 44 people over four stores, one of which specializes in plumbing and electrical.

Like any company, Myers has had its up and downs. But Myers always comes out stronger than before. “We had a major fire December 28, 2004, and had to rebuild,” Phil relates. “We opened up a new 12,000 foot showroom in October 2006.”

Today, Myers Lumber carries an assortment that includes lumber, roofing, windows, doors, hardware, paint and cabinetry. Says Phil, “In a small town, you have to be a supplier of everything. We even do kitchen design with some installation.”

His builders’ supply business covers a radius of “about 30 miles. If you go much farther than that, the cost gets outrageous. Right now, our salesmen go out onto job sites and phone in orders or come back and get the orders. Eventually, I want them to be able to take their laptops out into the field and place orders right there.

“One of the advantages is that it’s so complex that it will do tasks several different ways. But you have to go through the steps to get it the way you want it. On the whole, I think it’s worked pretty well.”

“You are not forced to change your way of doing business”

“The POS component of Advantage is doing really pretty good. When we implemented Advantage, they had to make adjustments to the system because everyone had their own little terminal or cash drawer and that’s not how building supply generally works. We actually have a counter, but none of the sales people are at the same terminal all the time. Advantage adjusted this system to the way we do business. And that’s important. You are not forced to change your way of doing business.

“You can have several applications open at a time. So you can do reports and POS at the same terminal at the same time. That is something we’ve gotten used to.

“The daily management report shows sales margins and payments. That’s a real plus. It’s simple and easy to do, the info is right there. You could do it every hour to see what your sales have been. Everything on the system is live. The minute the transaction happens, it’s in the system and shows at that moment.

“Advantage’s inventory management is more concise. The old system was a paper-generating system. Your reports could be 30 pages. Now it’s down to six or seven. The old system, I wouldn’t print out very often because of that. Now I can do that every day to see how much money is outstanding. It’s fast. It’s done and you can take that information and use it.”

Webinar training saves money and time

“There is never a good time to send out half your staff to be trained,” Phil says. “So the Go To Meeting site (webinars) has been very good. They are a great way to train. You’re on the phone and able to talk with instructors. It has saved us money because we don’t have to fly people out to another city for training. This way everyone gets the same training, and you can train and still run your business.”

As with all aspects of his business, even training is decided on how it affects business and customer service. “Building supplies people like to deal with the same people again and again. So if a person is out for two to three days, their customer doesn’t feel like they’ve gotten the service they expect.”

Asked the three reasons he’d give if recommending Next Generation Advantage to a colleague, Phil answers, “Based on the company, the personnel and their willingness to work with you to make your system work the way you want it to. They came up here and stayed a week. I don’t think there would be another company in the country that would have done that. It’s not how it starts, it’s how it finishes. My intent is to be with ECi for a long time."

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