SmartShop Answers...  (when you are done with this page click on your browsers BACK button)


Question: With SmartShop do you send your order online or do you have to retype everything on to the Avon site? 

The direct short answer is neither.  We Fax our order on the Fax form printed on directly by SmartShop.  
Then we fax it in.

Let me introduce my wife, Carol, myself and SmartShop.  Carol is the top rep in her district.  
Her award sales were over $110,00 last year making her in Presidents Council.  I have over thirty-five years of 
computer programming experience.  SmartShop began shipping in 1992, never missed a campaign update and is still 
growing in function as requests come in from the over 400 reps using it.

The difference in SmartShop and most other available software is what is being achieved. SmartShop focuses on 
serving the end customer in the best way possible.  Other software focuses on getting the rep's order to Avon 
and less on your relationship with the customer.

Most reps are not on the Internet when recording orders but are writing down the order from the customer.  
If you use the Internet to order you are probably writing down the order before entry perhaps while on the 
phone with the customer.  You are paging through the  brochures and  trying to keep track of what the customer 
is spending.  Your customer is asking for the best price and you are trying to provide that while looking 
through the brochures or flyers and writing down the products ordered.  If the customer asks how much the 
order is you are using a calculator to calculate the price probably multiple times while recalculating the 
tax as items are added to or taken from the order.  If a customer calls in with a change to her order before 
your order goes in then you have the problem of being sure the hand-written customer's order gets updated.

This manual process is reduced and simplified by SmartShop while enhancing your relationship with your customer.  
It takes less time to enter the order using SmartShop than using the manual method.  This allows better customer 
service and a better customer relationship.  Orders can be entered quickly, correctly and always at the price 
that benefits either you or your customer.  Order changes and re-write are a breeze.  The information is the 
same as that which is later printed in the customer receipt.  The receipts that come from the Internet are 
sometimes different,  especially with regard to discounted items and taxing.  Customers are pleased with the 
quick response to whatever questions they ask, like "I'm almost out of..... Will it be cheaper next campaign?"; 
"How much is my order now?"; "Where (What brochure and page) do I find .....?"   With SmartShop the rep can 
easily answer these questions.

SmartShop runs on a laptop so you can take it into the customer living room if desired.  You can also enter 
orders into future campaigns.

After entry SmartShop provides a compiled (tallied) list of products to print on a fax form to fax in or to 
order over the Internet.  We fax in our order. That provides a physical copy of what was ordered. We write on 
the back when it was faxed.  If you choose to enter your order over the Internet, less time is spent than if 
you either hand tally or enter items one at a time from your previously hand written orders.

The accumulation of time saved using SmartShop allows increased sales/profits, time for the family, or time for 
leadership.

Re-type?  With SmartShop we point and click the products right off of the screen.  Access is provided by product 
number, brochure page number, or alphabetic string.  The information provides price comparisons two camps back 
and two camps ahead.  We can always either provide the best price to our customers or make extra profits by using 
the price comparisons and flagged products by page number.   SmartShop flags  two fors,  gifts,  combos,  and 1 
free special  pricing by page number allowing the rep to easily find that information in the brochure or flyer. 
You can easily find the product number for a Chemise on page 16 of the Outlet two camps back.  Manually, that 
information is currently available only in the Product number Guide two camps back.  Now where is that Product 
Guide for two camps back? 

Customer receipts are printed three to a page where they will fit.  Helpers may run several pages.  Because 
this saves money it is one of the favorite features of SmartShop.

There is a huge after entry benefit.  Printed lists can be used to organize deliveries by area or sub seller.  
Separate orders are easily maintained for fundraisers and delivery can be made sorted by classroom or even by 
the person that sold the items.  Customer histories can be kept for years.  Past customers for Barbies are 
easily identified.  When the Fiber Optic Gazebo came out Carol easily located and resold the customers that 
had bought the Fiber Optic House.  When new eye creams come out we resell those customers who have bought the 
face cream by just accessing the information of who made the purchase.

When a Customer returns an item you know exactly what was paid for the item and when it was purchased.  You even 
know from what brochure and page the item was purchased. You can easily find the return number on your computer 
screen.  You know exactly how much credit to issue.  Recalls like the Stein or the Jack-in-the-Box are easily 
located so that your customers can be located and notified.

Customer histories can be kept for years.  Sales information is available for tax preparation.  It can be easily 
kept to meet the five years of history requirement.

The customer and sales information is private on your local computer.  Others don't have access to your customer's
 information or the items that they have purchased.  Only you are responsible to keep it safe and secure.  
Mistakes or failures by others, like lost data, don't affect your business.  The Internet being down or not working 
properly never slows down the business of those using SmartShop.  Information may easily be backed up every campaign
 so that if the computer ever goes up in smoke the rep would never loose more than one camp.  SmartShop is small 
and therefore more reliable than the other software that is available.

Thanks for your interest in SmartShop.

Floyd Burton