Stainsafe works hard to improve service
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, March 19, 2006
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. — Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.HIGH POINT — Furniture protection warranties are only as good as the service provided by the companies that offer them.
Poor service, or none at all, not only reflects badly on the companies offering plans but, as many retailers have found out over the years, on the stores as well.
Here is an an update on how two of the industry's largest providers of warranties handle service.
— A few years ago, Stainsafe, a leading home furnishings protection and service company, was constantly being called on the carpet for providing poor service to consumers who bought warranties to protect their furniture purchases.
Douglas Wright, the company's COO, thinks those days are over — and for good reason.
"We've invested a lot of money — millions of dollars, literally — over the past three years in technology," he said. "We have a state-of-the-art claims management system, with a patent on it. We are the first system that is totally transparent to customers sitting anywhere in the world. They can use the Internet to get to our call center and see what is happening with their clients."
The Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based company provides products and support to home furnishings retailers that sell warranties to customers guaranteeing protection from stains, spills, tears, scratching and other mishaps to wood, leather and fabric furniture. While product and marketing are important, suppliers in the furniture protection business say customer service and training are the cornerstones of success.
A recent infusion of cash by Palm Beach Capital gave Stainsafe a chance to improve its customer service systems.
"In today's environment, as complex as it is, you can't outsource those type of services," said Wright, a former distribution executive with Federated Department Stores. "You have to build the technology and platform to do it. That's really what got the company into trouble. They didn't have the technology and the platform. It took us three years to put that together. That's where we are now."
Stainsafe also has made a number of changes in its management team, bringing in new faces and realigning others within the organization.
"A lot of my sales management, merchandising and operations team has a retail background," Wright said. "I have a retail background. We know the challenges we used to face on the retail side."
In customer service, the company looks for "people of quality and experience," according to Wright. "We're willing to pay those individuals a good wage to retain them. In the last six to eight months, the culture of the company has changed dramatically.
"It's amazing what bringing a partner like Palm Beach Capital on board can do to the culture of an organization. I think everybody is very focused; they know what the mission is."
A few years ago, Stainsafe was a frequent subject of discussion on Internet complaint sites. Wright indicates that is a thing of the past.
"We're probably one of the most, if not the most, efficient call centers in our particular business, which helps us keep our costs down," he said. "Generally, we are able to be more competitive on price, and service claims faster and more accurately because of our claims management system and the expertise we have."
Now, the company can turn to other opportunities. According to Wright, Stainsafe has ramped up its research and development activities, improving current products to perform better, and expanding to other categories. The latter includes user-friendly premium products (distinguished from supermarket products) to restore faded leather, protect hard surfaces (such as kitchen counters) and provide protection for automotive materials.
"We've really tried to focus on products that are easy to use and that the retailer can sell," Wright said. This spring, the company also will roll out an enhanced Web site that allows consumers to shop for products online.
Stainsafe's sales picked up "substantially" in the last half of 2005, and is expected to continue to grow as old customers return and new customers sign on. Now that the company has strong financial backing, Wright said Stainsafe also may grow through acquisition.
"The challenge by Palm Beach Capital is to double the company in five years," he said.
Retailers tend to focus more on furniture sales and less on aftermarket products like protection, Wright said. "But as dealers continue to come under price pressure, these (aftermarket) categories are going to become more important" since they normally provide profit margins of 70% to 80%.
"Upholstery imports are growing, and even bedding imports are growing. That creates a downward competitive spiral on price that we can help these customers with," Wright said.
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