The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) Stores have been a longtime system partner with MBS. We recently sat down with Michael Herrick, Director, UMD Stores, to discuss what his experience has been like with the MBS system as a new store director (June 2022) and the functionality the system offers that can help him achieve his store goals.
Coming into the store from the outside, Herrick had to quickly get up to speed on the MBS system.
“The more I've used the MBS system, the better I understand and appreciate it. I have had a very favorable experience. It meets all of our needs, the support is so great and the price is right,” Herrick said. “The environment is stable, which is a really big thing. We don't have downtime. We just open the store, and it runs. I can focus on store matters instead of worrying about the system that's supporting the business.”
The system is designed to support college stores in all of their day-to-day and seasonal processes. In addition to the many ways UMD Stores currently use the system, Herrick looks to implement even more of the system's tools and features.
“One of the biggest ways the system helps us streamline store processes is through the inventory management process. It is really very good and quite easy. Whether we are working with price changes, inventory adjustments, write-offs, transfers between stores, etc. it is seamless and simple to manage. That’s a big one for me from an operational perspective,” Herrick said. “Looking forward, I think there are opportunities for us to utilize CRM to improve customer experience, update our loyalty program, etc. MBS provides these things. One of my goals for the store is to streamline the customer experience. That's probably what I'm most excited about from a store environment perspective.
“I also use Arc Report Builder robustly. I built a few performance reports that we can use in the store, and it works great. I have a standard data dump that I grab at the end of every month that I use for sales, promotional, and inventory/OTB analysis. The simple export to Excel is a great feature as well. It's a really good tool,” Herrick said.
Herrick also appreciates the support his store receives from the MBS Store Technology Solutions team. MBS prides itself on providing unmatched customer service to college stores. This customer-first approach starts with implementation and continues throughout the partnership.
“Our customer service has been outstanding. I think the emergency support line, the regular hours support line and our client representative, Sarah, have all been amazing. All three of those resources are responsive, and you never walk away without an answer.” Herrick said. “In fact, you never walk away leaving a message and hoping somebody calls you back. For example, last night we had an issue running our reports. We really wanted to finish them, but it was after 7 p.m. We called MBS support, and they were incredibly responsive, giving us a little bit more bandwidth for our massive reports. Anytime we have to call after hours, we always speak with somebody we know and who knows our store. I think the service we receive is outstanding.”
