A customer is standing at the sub wall and asks, “what’s this one, and do you have it?” Every car audio shop knows what happens next. The salesperson says “let me check,” walks back to the counter, searches, and the customer is left standing there alone. Sometimes they’re still there when the salesperson comes back. Sometimes they’re looking at their phone, checking the price somewhere else.
That walk back to the counter is the moment I wanted gone. So I put a product lookup on the phone your salesperson already carries. It’s called Inventory Lookup, and it just shipped in 1sixty8 Manifold.
On the floor it works like this. Open 1sixty8 Manifold on your phone, tap Inventory Lookup, and either scan the barcode on the box or type the brand and model. The words can go in any order, with dashes or without. What comes back is what the customer is actually asking about:
- The price, plus any sale running on it and the day that sale ends
- How many you can actually sell today
- How many are on order, and the date the next shipment is due
- The spiff, if it pays one
From there you can add it straight to the customer’s estimate or invoice without leaving their side.
The part that surprised me while building it was the scanner itself. A scanner that finds nothing is worse than no scanner. So when a scan comes up empty, you search for the product once and tap Attach barcode, and the next scan of that box finds it. Nobody has to sit down and barcode the whole wall before you start. A shop builds up its barcodes just by using it.
Building it also turned up something I didn’t like. If someone added a part to an invoice while that invoice was open on the counter computer, the counter’s next save quietly deleted it. Adding from the floor would have made that happen every day. Now the counter sees a note that an item was added, their save keeps it, and they’re told the new total before they take payment.
A few things work the way they do on purpose:
- Cost never shows on the phone unless you’re allowed to see it, and even then only when you tap for it, so a customer reading over your shoulder doesn’t see your margin.
- The price on the phone is the price the counter would charge. Negotiating still happens at the counter.
- It never blocks a sale for being out of stock, because quoting what you don’t have yet is half of this business.
If your salespeople are still making that walk back to the counter and you’d like to see this on a phone at your own wall, I’d love to chat..