Best Use of Technology Award
Big Bath was previously just a family-run hardware retail shop, founded by Shane Mun Phang Choong’s parents who only had a few years of formal education. They did not understand Bahasa Malaysia nor did they know how to read official government letters. They also did not even know how to manage the finances of the company and subsequently failed to collect bad debts from many of their customers.
The older generation in the company also did not believe in modern technology; they would rather issue handwritten invoices instead of using point-of-sale (POS) system. The use of accounting software was completely out of question.
All these problems in the company eventually landed Mun’s father in big trouble. Not only was he fined for tax evasion, many goods and documents were also confiscated by the Government in a raid.
His parents understand that it is difficult to continue the business without the proper knowledge of operating the company so they decided to send Mun to study business information technology in England.
When Mun graduated at the young age of 22, he wanted to stay on and start a career in England. However, he saw the urgency to help transform his father’s business and was convicted to return home.
Initially, Mun wanted to apply modern business management in the hardware shop but he was facing strong resistance from other senior staff members in the company. After much persuasion and conflicts, Mun finally managed to introduce POS system and accounting software to help with the administration work in the company.
Gradually, Mun started digitalising the family business and making it more technology dependant. He made sure that every year, 6% to 10% of the company’s budget is allocated for modern technology and digital initiatives.
He began with email marketing and the setting up of the company’s Facebook page to raise brand awareness and keep customers informed about its latest products and services.
“When we first started using Facebook for digital marketing in 2008, we were criticised by our competitors and senior staff for being unrealistic as they could not see the impact of social media and how far reaching it could get to our target market.
“They believe that only advertising in print media can get us the outcome that we intend to achieve.
“However, the result showed that the small amount of advertising cost we spent on social media is way more effective than what we have always been doing with print media,” Mun said.
The company also uses online-to-offline (O2O) business strategy that combines the strengths of both online and brick-and-mortar marketing to achieve higher sales in its physical stores.
“We identify customers in the online space, such as through emails and internet advertisement, before enticing them to our showrooms to make purchases. Through this approach, we have successfully attracted a higher number of retailers and customers online and stopped our reliance on door-to-door sale.
“Not only has it increased our sales revenue, we have also managed to reach out to more potential customers in a time- and cost-effective way,” Mun said.
“Our in-house software and apps also enable us to have simpler, more time- and cost-efficient processes in operating our business. Our salespersons are able to check the availability of stocks and issue invoices by using our mobile app.
“We also use a software, which is incorporated with deep learning algorithms to analyse market demand, forecast the needs for future goods, and predict the value of the business and etc,” he said.
For its employees, the company uses a multilevel commission system to encourage its employees achieve their key performance indicator (KPI).
Knowing that each employee will have different desire and expectations in their career path, the company has also designed its own Human Resource Performance Software to help its employees meet their personal goals.
“For example, an employee needs to meet 1000 points to unlock their roadmap goals to receive their personal reward, which could be a family trip or a beauty cosmetic product of their choice. In short, employee will be self-motivated to earn points through work performances to get their rewards,” Mun said.
Other than that, Big Bath has also specially designed an app, knowns as Vimigo, to help employees perform better in their roles.
Vimigo is a system that combines both the vision and mission of its employees.
Mun said Vimigo can solve the problem of most small and medium entreprises in improving employees’ performance.
“In most traditional companies, employees have absolutely no idea how bonuses or increment are counted. It is all at the discretion of their superiors in determining the opportunities for promotion or becoming business partners in the company,” Mun said.
With Vimigo, all employees will have their own key performance indicator to achieve. It is used to evaluate their performance and help them accumulate points for bonus, commission and increment. They also get to move up the career ladder based on their performance.
“Once you are promoted to be a business partner, the company will open a new outlet for you to manage. In short, our employees will get to be entrepreneurs by being an employee of the company.
“Every day, our employees can check the app and get motivated to work towards their goals,” Mun said.
As rewards, if an employee’s goal is to buy his dream car, the company will bear half of the instalment when a sale target is achieved.
“As long as you work hard for the company, we would even help you realise your dream of owning a house. When you have reached level 20 of the promotion chart, we will help you buy the house of your choice and rent it to you first.
“When you have the financial ability to own a house five years later, the company will resell the house to you at its original price,” Mun said.
In order to get new employees assimilated to the company’s culture, the company has introduced a knowledge transfer program whereby senior staff members are encouraged to share the standard operating procedures with their new colleagues.
“They can upload videos such as ‘The 10 steps of being a salesperson’ and share with other staff so that everyone will share the same working culture and have a better understanding of their daily responsibilities.
“By participating in our knowledge transfer program, existing staff members will also get to earn points in our Vimigo app,” Mun said.
He said the company ensures that there is fairness in rewarding those who put in hard work in their roles.
“For example, only salesperson is given commission in most companies but in Big Bath, we also pay commission to our staff in the finance department and lorry drivers who meet their KPI.
“We believe that good business comes from good teamwork,” Mun said.
Big Bath also has an online system to track customers’ purchase feedback, which allows the company to collect data and feedback from customers through their dealers.
“Currently, our online purchase feedback system and Facebook Review System has reached 97% of five star satisfied review on our Facebook page,” Mun said.
With the help of modern technology, Big Bath continued to record a double-digit growth in 2015 to 2018 even when there is a slowdown in the property market. - 24 Oct 2018
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