It’s important to take a step back every now and then, to really savour the moment. Whether that means taking a nice, long bath or creating an atmosphere of comfort using exclusive fragrances and perfumes, Rituals Cosmetics helps its customers find happiness in the little things life has to offer. Which doesn’t mean the company founded by Raymond Cloosterman isn’t eager to move forward. The business has over five hundred stores across Europe and is currently setting its sights on the American market.
Besides the sales of cosmetics for body and home in their own stores, Rituals also has a large number of franchisees who sell their products. Mandy Jansen-van Weess is one of those successful entrepreneurs. While she started her career as an executive secretary, Mandy quickly realised that her heart truly belongs to the retail industry. She decided that fortune favours the bold, and soon, a small online advertisement brought her in touch with Raymond Cloosterman. She felt an immediate kinship with the philosophy of the luxurious-yet-affordable brand: creating a special moment just for yourself. Today, Mandy is making great strides and has been able to open multiple Rituals stores in Arnhem.
Challenges
Mandy started her first shop in the city centre of Arnhem. In no time, the number of employees began to increase. When she opened her second shop in the south of the city, it became more difficult for her to create an effective work schedule in Excel. Keeping track of working hours using Excel turned out to be a hassle as well. She says: “That’s fine and well when you have a team of just three women, then you can get away with that… but at a certain point, it becomes too much for you to manage on your own.”
“I would print out the schedule, but there was always the chance that an employee would say they didn’t know they were supposed to come in to work.”
Because it became nearly impossible to keep track of everything in Excel, the process of scheduling and hour registration caused a lot of headaches. On the one hand, creating the schedules and making sure the hour registration was up-to-date were proving enormously time-consuming. On the other hand, the system of printed schedules and forms was leading to undesirable situations. The printed schedules, for instance, were leading to confusion between Mandy and her staff. “So I would print out the schedule, but there was always the chance that an employee would say they didn’t know they were supposed to come in to work.” And the hour registration form was a source of frustration as well: “Sometimes people would forget to fill in the form.” Mandy wanted to achieve a situation that was workable for everyone involved, which is why she began to ask herself if there wasn’t a better way.
Solutions
Using Google, Mandy identified three systems that might be able to solve her problems. Two of these systems turned out to be a poor fit for her needs. One package, for example, offered only a solution for the hour registration. The package from Dyflexis, on the other hand, offered everything she was looking for: scheduling, hour registration and mobile apps. After seeing an online demo,she was convinced and decided to give Dyflexis a try.
“I couldn’t get along without it!”
Today, Mandy has been a satisfied Dyflexis user for over three years. Together with her store managers, she uses the system to register working hours and to create employee schedules. Her personnel can clock in and out with ease, thanks to the integrated time clock system from Dyflexis. A fantastic added benefit is that Dyflexis also offers a forecast function that allows users to track results such as turnover. Mandy and her team use this function often as well. “I couldn’t get along without it,” is what Mandy has to say about using the system.
Results
After completing an extensive training programme, Mandy and her colleagues were able to get started with the system straightaway. “We received good instructions on using the system; since then, it’s been a piece of cake,” the owner tells us when asked about the implementation process.
“The system has yielded huge time gains for us – in the broadest sense of the word.”
According to Mandy, the major advantage Dyflexis offers is time. She says, “The system has yielded huge time gains for us – in the broadest sense of the word.” She names the ability to create a standard schedule as one example. “You enter the schedule, make any changes you need to, and it’s all done in a flash!” Another major time-saving feature is the ease with which she can create an export for the accountant. “Once you’ve approved the hours, it’s simply a matter of clicking a button to forward the data.” According to Mandy, the whole process takes her hardly any time at all. “I think that if I said it took me one hour per week, that would be a generous estimate.”
Another advantage of Dyflexis is that it eliminates any ambiguities in connection with scheduling and hour registration. About the hour registration, Mandy has the following to say: “Employees can see when their hours have been approved and when something has been rejected. The system is equally nice to work with for them!” Confusion with regard to the schedule is a thing of the past as well. “I no longer have employees showing up late, with the excuse that they didn’t know they were scheduled to work.”
Time for ambition
Thanks to Dyflexis, Mandy need only spend a minimum of time on scheduling and hour registration. This leaves more time for realising her ambitions as an entrepreneur. “The retail industry isn’t always an easy one,” Mandy says. Be that as it may, just last year she was able to expand her shop in Arnhem. It goes to show that even in these busy times, the Rituals philosophy resonates with busy consumers: creating a special moment just for yourself. With that knowledge in mind, Mandy is keen to continue developing her shops in future.
