At the end of the day, it’s still all about relationships and collaboration

If you’re a furniture dealer today, technology in one form or another is a key part of what you do. But it’s not THE key part.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but if you don’t know how to build long-term customer relationships with your customers that lead to strong, ongoing revenue streams, all the technology in the world isn’t going to put bread on the table for you and the people who work for you.

Avanto—and for that matter just about any technology provider—is not so very different.

We can have the best hardware, software and all the technology bells and whistles to go with them but if we don’t engage successfully with our customers and get them to engage with us, we’re going to end up somewhere between short of our full potential or just plain dead in the water.

So what does engaging successfully with our customers mean for a company like Avanto?

First of all, one thing it definitely doesn’t mean is simply selling software or solutions of any kind out of a box.

No two dealership are the same and no two dealer technology solutions will be the same either.

Technology can do a lot for any dealership, but only to the extent that it helps the organization as a whole be more productive and profitable. That doesn’t happen unless the folks who are actually doing the work are engaged with the technology and the technology is engaged with the folks who do the work.

Fundamentally, It’s never about technology alone. Rather, it’s the successful combination of technology and people that results in improved processes and greater efficiencies.

And always, always, always, it starts with the people.

What are you currently doing? What’s working? What isn’t? What are the obstacles and pain points that are stopping you from taking your business where you want it to go?

If the answers to those questions aren’t driving the development of your solution, it will never deliver the results you’re looking for.

That’s why Avanto’s tagline, “People. Systems. Results.” puts people first, not systems. And it’s why, when dealers talk about why they like working with Avanto, it’s never about how wonderful our software is. Instead, they focus on our listening skills, our responsiveness and our deep understanding of dealer processes and the subtle nuances involved with running a successful furniture dealership.

You don’t get that understanding without strong relationships and you don’t get anything close to the right solutions without a genuinely collaborative effort between the technology provider’s people and the people who actually do the work.

Too many dealers today make major investments in technology, only to end up frustrated because the result is not meeting expectations and/or their people view the overall process as a threat.

It doesn’t have to be that way, it shouldn’t be that way and with strong customer-supplier relationships and collaboration, it won’t be that way! Want to find out more?

Contact Avanto’s Matt Danyliw (PH: 860-400-6030; Email: mdanyliw@goavanto.com).