Pro tip on Leather Availability for Hancock & Moore

[drcollie]

So you are at your local Hancock and Moore dealer, ready to place an order - and you want to know when it should be completed, which of course is a very reasonable request. Now if the salesperson responds immediately to you then they are just guessing with no basis in fact. The Delivery time is based on frame availability AND (more importantly) the cover availability. To get this information they will have to make a phone call to H&M Customer Service. But let's say you are in their showroom on a Saturday or Sunday, there is no one to call as they are closed at the factory, can you still get that information? YES!

Hancock and Moore has recently made a Dealer Tool available on their website and they can check both right there instantly. So, you can remind them of that, they just have to go to the DEALERS ONLY tab on the Hancock and Moore Website. They will have to have their dealer user code and a password, so if they don't have that then they are out of luck. However, its easy to check stocks and see what is on hand and what is inbound. For example, I checked Juno Tobacco this afternoon and here are the results:



As you can se they have 1,391 s.f in stock, with another 1,000 s.f. scheduled to arrive August 2nd. How many square feet does your project need? Most values are right on the website when you pull up the photo, it will say "COL Requirement" and that COL stands for Customer's Own Leather but is accurate to H&M hides as well If the Dealer is only looking at the price books, then they list the fabric requirements, and then you multiply the fabric requirement times 18 for leather square footage.

In five minutes your dealer can look at inventories to see what they have! Sometimes you have a "Need By" date for a wedding, party, etc, or simply don't want to wait 6 months for an order to arrive. When you select hides, maybe select three or four rather than just one. There may be a better inventory date for your second or third choice.

Nothing upsets clients as much as inaccurate build/delivery dates. That's why at my store, I always strive to check to let the customer know when to expect it. It's not a perfect system however. The order can arrive sooner, or even later. The inventory of the hides is at that minute, tied to the H&M computers. If Order Entry is keying an order from another dealer somewhere else in the country and that dealer is ordering the same hides, then the leathers could be gone by the time your dealer's order gets in their system. But, at the end of the day its one more tool in the toolbox to make the shopping experience better and more accurate.