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A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, my partner and I opened a paint store on the small island of Nantucket. I had been a chef for 24 years, and my partner’s background was in construction. So you might have thought us an unlikely pair of paint store owners. To be honest, we had no real idea how to manage a paint store. But my time in restaurants had taught me how to run a business, and perhaps more importantly, how to provide great customer service. With just one paint store in Nantucket at the time, we saw a real need for better customer service. I believed we had an opportunity to fill that need and build something special.
I knew from working in the restaurant industry that picking a POS system is a critical business decision. In the restaurant industry, there are a ton of systems you can choose from. But the options for paint and hardware stores are far more limited, because we have specific needs that many systems don’t address. Not being tech-savvy myself (I focus mostly on sales and operations), I wanted a POS that was easy to use. We tried a couple different systems, but we encountered significant issues—unfulfilled promises, bad support, poor functionality. Our frustrations came to a head a few months ago, and I decided it was time to switch.
Then, one day, one of our business managers was reading through this very magazine: Paint & Decorating Retailer. Lo and behold, there was an article about Rundoo, a POS system specifically for paint and hardware retailers. I hadn’t heard of it before, but it looked interesting. I reached out.
I connected with Max, who walked us through Rundoo’s product. Immediately, I realized it offered the kind of specialization we needed. For instance, Rundoo makes it easy to sell tintable products, to store information about customer jobs, and to look up historical data—things that were difficult if not downright impossible to do on our old system. Rundoo seemed focused on the realness of paint stores, which I knew would make our lives much easier.
Time was another consideration. With most systems, switching take months. There’s training to do and data to transfer—inventory, costs, customers, balances (this is the most important part). We considered another POS system whose proposal included two months of training and a five year commitment. I knew this wasn’t going to work—we needed something immediately.
Rundoo promised a quick and easy switch, and they delivered on that promise. Within just two and a half weeks of my initial call with Max, we were up and running on Rundoo. Like you’d expect with any transition, it wasn’t free of hiccups. But Max had flown to the island for a couple days to help us through the process. Having him there in person—versus having to rely on calls and texts—made all the difference. It made it easier for us to tackle every problem together, immediately, as it cropped up. It also gave us comfort and peace of mind, knowing that we had Rundoo’s full support and attention.
The support Rundoo provided during our transition hasn’t let up. Their customer service has been wonderful. Someone is always available to assist, and their response time has never exceeded 10 minutes, which I find impeccable. Tyler in particular, Rundoo’s technical support specialist, is the man! To give an example of this, we recently encountered an issue on a Saturday morning with an Amex transaction that wouldn’t go through. I reached out to Tyler through Rundoo’s chat system, and he called us right away. Because I’m not tech-savvy, Tyler offered to log into our system and walk us through how to fix the issue. This level of support is imperative for us, especially because we don’t have an IT professional on our staff.
Since switching to Rundoo, we’ve heard nothing but good feedback from our customers. They love how Rundoo does invoices and statements, and they love the seamless transition from one to the other. Information is easy to find, down to every detail—from who bought what to where it’s headed and for which job. And the software is intuitive and easy to navigate.
Getting this kind of positive feedback is all we’re really in business for, because ultimately it boils down to our customers and providing excellent service. Rundoo understands this. It’s why they provide such responsive support, and it’s why their product is so specifically tailored to the needs of paint stores like us. I’m genuinely impressed, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Rundoo to anyone.
