Does your company need a mobile app? It’s a question many stone business owners ask themselves.
For many, the answer is a simple, “No, we’re not a big retail chain.”
However, that’s thinking in the old way.
💡The real question isn’t whether your customers need an app, but whether your team does.
Unlike web browsing or desktop apps, a well-designed mobile app can provide smoother transitions, faster loading times, and more intuitive experiences for non-tech-savvy employees.
Additionally, it enables you to access data in your system from anywhere.
Imagine the following situation – possibly you’ve been through it before, and it would be much easier to solve if you had an app available:
You’re at a job site measuring and talking to the homeowner, and you think some types of materials will work fine for that kitchen. You can simply get into your system and show him the pictures of the materials you have available.
If he likes any of them, you can directly update the order – or even create a new order! – directly from the job site, with the materials and products you’ve just sold him.
Of course, here we’re talking about an Internal use App. Let’s dive into the topic a bit below.
The Two Types of Apps: Internal vs. External
When we talk about smartphone browsing, mobile apps can be a powerful tool for customer engagement, as they provide a dedicated, seamless experience that websites often can’t match. And LinkedIn users have already talked about it.
As we talked in the previous section, they offer faster load times, intuitive navigation, and can leverage powerful features to enable you to use it anywhere, and keep your team updated and connected, while your communication flows.
Now, we’re going to talk about the main difference in the focus of an App: who is the public to whom they aim.
Concerning that, we can classify the Apps into Internal and External usage.
External Apps are great to improve the relationship and engagement between the customers and the company. They retain customers and create intimacy and identity between the brand and its public. Instagram or Facebook are good examples. The final customer uses the App, receives notifications, interacts with the company…
However, for stone businesses in general, a customer-facing app may not be the most practical or necessary investment.
This is where the distinction becomes crucial.
The other type of app, an Internal app, is for your employees. It connects all parts of your business, from the office to the shop floor, and provides a comprehensive system for managing all your operations.
- External Apps (for Customers):
- Pros: Improved customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and a 24/7 channel for customer engagement. They can be a great way to personalize interactions and make your business feel more modern and accessible.
- Cons: They are very expensive and time-consuming to develop and maintain, and for a business where a physical presence is often required, may not be the most effective way to drive sales.
- Internal Apps (for Your Team):
- Pros: This is where the real value lies for a stone business. An internal app streamlines operations, boosts productivity, and provides a central source of truth for your entire team. It can significantly cut down on time-wasting activities and eliminate costly errors, addressing the chaos that comes from “SaaS sprawl”—the use of a dozen different, disconnected applications.
Now the core issue: How an Internal Mobile App Revolutionizes Your Business
According to this report from Zylo from 2023, companies with 1 to 500 employees use an average of 172 different software.
💡Summing it all in one powerful App can cut a lot of your costs, improve data security, and make sure everyone in the business speaks the same language.
An internal app is a powerful tool for your team, designed to solve the common problems that cause chaos in a stone shop.
But while many companies focus on building an app for their customers, the real revolution is happening with internal mobile apps—tools designed to be used on your smartphone and organize and empower your own team.
Here are a few ways an internal mobile app can completely transform your business:
1. Faster Access to Tools and Data
Mobile apps cut out the middleman.
Your employees no longer need to walk to a computer to access information or update a record. This instant access improves a company’s overall productivity.
Let’s put it into a practical daily example, shall we?
Imagine yourself, shop owner, on the shop floor, and a client calls with a question about a slab’s specific dimensions.
Instead of walking back to the office computer to check a spreadsheet or a printed-out inventory list, you can simply pull up the slab’s digital profile on your phone, seeing all the details they need right on the spot.
This saves valuable time, allowing the team to focus on higher-value tasks like templating and installation.
And with SlabWare, you can simply copy the slab’s or the entire bundle’s details and paste it into a text app and send them to that client. Fast and objective.
2. Improved Sales and Marketing
In a fast-paced market, a mobile app gives your sales team a crucial advantage.
With a mobile app, your sales reps can access real-time inventory, create orders, and even show customers high-resolution product images right from a trade show floor or a client’s office.
It reduces the time to sale, giving you a competitive edge.
Picture your salesman visiting a builder to discuss a new project.
The builder wants to see the specific colors and patterns of a particular marble. The salesman uses his mobile app to show the builder a digital walkthrough of his shop’s inventory, displaying the actual slabs in their warehouse, helping him close the deal on the spot without ever needing to leave the client’s office.
We have already talked about how a quote is important to close deals with new customers, and how a good quote can be the best business card. If you’ve missed it, check it out in this post.
3. Live Inventory Checking
A mobile app’s Inventory Checking feature provides real-time, on-the-go management of your most valuable asset: your stone slabs.
It solves the problem of inaccurate stock counts and lost slabs.
Instead of having to keep track of all your inventory using a spreadsheet, you can simply scan the QR Code Label that you print and stick on your slabs to get all the information you have about them on your system.
It saves time on Inventory Checks and ensures your physical stock matches your system.
As another example, remember the customer who came to your shop and was interested in a nice granite slab that you weren’t sure was still available or was waiting for another customer?
💡With SlabWare App, you would simply scan the QR Code and see if it was Available or On Hold.
It is better to be sure before you double-sell an item and have to unsell it later, right? It would be very embarrassing having to call the client later and tell him the slab couldn’t go to him… – hopefully, you haven’t been through it before – and to prevent it, SlabWare!
4. Calendarization and Job Tracking
A mobile app’s Job Tracker functionality is a game-changer for project management.
It simplifies the entire workflow, from templating to installation, by giving everyone a clear view of where a job stands.
💡If you and your workers can simply pull up the smartphone and see all the to-do lists for today, isn’t it much easier than keeping a whiteboard updated with ALL the current projects and which steps they’re in?
After a countertop is templated, the project manager can update its status in the app.
This automatically notifies the fabricator that the job is ready for them to cut the slab.
Once the cutting is complete, the fabricator updates the status, which in turn alerts the installation responsible that the countertop is ready for delivery. This eliminates the need for phone calls and ensures no step is missed, keeping projects on schedule and avoiding costly delays.
The Big Question: Should You Build or Buy the App?
Now that you know an internal app is essential, you face a major decision:
Should you build your own custom app or buy a ready-to-use solution?
As this Zamplo article explains, building an app from scratch offers complete customization but requires a massive investment of time, money, and resources.
You are responsible for everything—from the initial development to ongoing maintenance, security updates, and bug fixes. You need a highly skilled technical team and must be prepared to handle the uncertainty and high risk that come with a large-scale project.
In contrast, buying an app is the most practical choice for almost any stone business. You get a ready-to-use solution that has already been tested and proven to work.
The vendor handles all the maintenance and updates, and you can get up and running quickly and affordably. While you may have limited customization, the vast majority of your needs are met immediately, and you benefit from a platform that has been validated by other users.
As the article notes, for most objectives, buying a ready-to-use app is more cost- and time-effective, especially for short-term use.
💡The logical conclusion is clear: for most stone businesses, buying an app is the smarter, more efficient, and more profitable choice.
The Obvious Choice for Your Business: SlabWare
When it comes to buying an all-in-one solution, SlabWare is the obvious choice. It’s an internal app built specifically for the stone industry, designed to manage every step of your workflow.
SlabWare combines real-time inventory tracking, accurate quoting, and seamless job management into a single platform. It eliminates the chaos of manual processes and fragmented systems, giving you and your team the power to work smarter, not harder.
By providing a complete, integrated solution, SlabWare empowers you to take your business to the next level, just as other successful companies have done by investing in the right internal tools.
You can contact our team by clicking here.
Or if you prefer, you can also test the complete system entirely for free, for Stone Exporters, Distributores, and Countertop Fabricators.