Mulberry Tree Furniture

Mulberry Tree Furniture is owned by Jerry and Mandy Kent of Bridgwater,who set up the business in 2004.

The business imports and sells a wide range of wooden furniture, with their core range being the very fashionable French style. They also offer a bespoke furniture making service, creating furniture to the customer’s specification with a choice of finishes.

Mulberry Tree Furniture invest in search engine optimisation through Google Adwords and find that the vast majority of their business currently comes through their website.

Jerry says ‘Our business stepped up a gear in mid 2007, when we started importing furniture. As our customers usually email us with their enquiries, it is critical that we respond to them almost instantly and this is easier with flexible working.. Fast response is very much the expectation with internet based business and if we were unable to respond quickly to internet enquiries, we would miss being able to convert enquiries to sales. We are in the process of adding an eCommerce facility to our website soon and this will only increase the need for impeccable customer service still further, so flexible working will become still more important to us,”

Dave Cornish. Project Director of Connecting Somerset, which has part-funded the eCommerce facility, says ‘eCommerce is the natural next step for Mulberry Tree, as the business expands. The latest technology enables flexible working , so allowing the business to deliver the quality and speed of service that customers now demand.’

Jerry says ‘Because so many of our customers will contact us at the time that is convenient for them, which could include evenings or weekends, we need to be ‘open for business’ as much of the time as possible. We run the business from a home office, but by the nature of the business, we also have to spend at least half our time away from the office, either in our warehouse or seeing customers.

Thanks to the actnow flex project, we have adopted the latest technology to help us work smarter through flexible working and mobile working.

Mulberry Tree Furniture now use a mobile phone with Blackberry software, which means that they receive their emails instantly regardless of location, increasing productivity.. Mulberry Tree have also started to use a lightweight laptop that has become their mobile working office centre.

Jerry says ‘We used to have to rush back to the office all the time to check our emails. It is fantastic not having to do that anymore and knowing that we are constantly on top of the business wherever we are through telecommuting and working on the move. It has also made it easier for us to make trips overseas, as again the emails come straight through to us.

It is great to be overseas, achieving a great work life balance and know that you are not missing out on orders back in the UK.

Jerry and Mandy have uploaded all their product records, customer database and stock records to their new lightweight wireless laptop. Jerry says ‘This has effectively freed us from the office, increasing productivity. With the wireless laptop, we are able to run the business just as efficiently through remote access regardless of location.’

Jerry concludes ‘I simply do not know what we would do now without the technology that enables us to carry out flexible working, increasing personal productivity. It is certain that we would not be able to run such a successful business without it.’

www.mulberrytreefurniture.co.uk