RockSolid POS Keeps Keith’s Hardware Strong and Growing

ECi RockSolid POS customer Keith's Hardware

Keith Wire, owner of Keith's Hardware

Dealership:: Keith's Hardware; Ada, Ohio
Affiliation:: Do it Best
Industry:: Hardware
In Business Since:: 1979

Keith's Hardware uses:: POS software for hardware and lumber dealers

After running his own store since 1979, Keith Wire knows the hardware business. And as an electric engineering major at college who has written his own financial software programs, he also knows computers.

So when Keith talks about RockSolid and what it can do for hardware store owners and operators, it might not be a bad idea to listen.

“We’ve been using RockSolid for the past six years and it’s allowed to take our small store and give it a big store feeling easily and at a price that’s right,” he says happily.

RockSolid POS keeps a small hardware store competitive

The store, Keith’s Hardware, is a Do it Best operation located in Ada, Ohio. Located in the northwest part of the state, Ada is home to a number of manufacturing operations—including a Wilson Sporting Goods plant that makes all the footballs used by the NFL—as well as several services-related companies and Ohio Northern University.

We’ve been using RockSolid for the past six years and it’s allowed to take our small store and give it a big store feeling easily and at a price that’s right.

It’s a small community—population just under 6,000 at last count—but a stable one, where there’s still a solid market for the kind of service-intensive, problem-solving value proposition that Keith and his team have developed over the past 30 years.

RockSolid, he says, has played a major role in keeping Keith’s Hardware strong and growing.

“It’s important to me to have detailed information on what’s happening in the business and that’s what RockSolid gives me,” he says. “It’s economical and certainly powerful enough to handle most small and medium-sized stores and has definitely been a worthwhile investment for us.”

RockSolid is a great productivity tool

One area, Keith says, where RockSolid has been particularly helpful of late has been in managing price changes.

Before RockSolid, it used to take us a full day to put together an order. Now, we can do it in an hour or so.

“In this day and age, it’s critical for any hardware store to keep on top of price changes and RockSolid helps us do that very well,” he reports. “RockSolid integrates seamlessly with Do it Best and we download our prices changes religiously every week. It would be a whole lot harder to stay current without RockSolid.”

Keith’s wife, Kathy, plays a key role in the business and she, too, gives RockSolid high marks, particularly as a productivity tool.

“Before RockSolid, it used to take us a full day to put together an order,” she recalls. “Now, we can do it in an hour or so.”

Accounts receivable is another area where the system shines, she points out. “RockSolid has replaced what used to be a very time consuming and paper-intensive process with just a couple of clicks of the mouse and given us more time to focus on other, more productive aspects of the business.”

We’ve had the same support person at RockSolid for the past six years so she knows our business very well and they’ve always been very responsive any time an issue has come up.

Superb training and tech support

RockSolid’s commitment to technical support and training helps keep things running smoothly.

“We’ve had the same support person at RockSolid for the past six years so she knows our business very well and they’ve always been very responsive any time an issue has come up,” Keith reports.

And, he says, RockSolid’s online training programs were very helpful in getting his people up to speed on the system.

“When we converted to RockSolid, we found the program very easy to use and after just a couple of hours working in the online training area, our people were ready to put it to work.”

And would Keith Wire recommend RockSolid to other hardware store owners?

“Absolutely,” he says. “We looked at several other options before choosing RockSolid and decided it offered the best bang for the buck. I don’t know how we could run the business today without it!”