Orla Walsh, Retail Sales & Marketing Manager at Rightstyle Furniture, talks about the recent opening of its new store in Santry, how storage is a balancing act and why building trust with customers is crucial.
Meet Orla
I’m the Retail Sales & Marketing Manager for Walsh Furnature Limited, trading as Rightstyle Furniture, OGEL KIDS BEDS & The Smart Storage Bed Company. My main responsibility within the company is to ensure that our product offering is fresh, on trend and at an affordable price, while marketing our products in a fun and modern way. We are always on the lookout for the next innovation when it comes to furniture products. I also oversee the procedures within the company to ensure that we are running as smoothly as possible when it comes to orders, communication between teams and with customers too.
We are big on providing the customer with the best experience from when they learn about us first, enter our store and finally all the way to receiving their goods. Buying furniture is a huge thing that can be scary and confusing for a customer. We pride ourselves on making that experience as easy and stress free as possible by providing them with our extensive knowledge and advice when choosing their items.
Recent investments?
Our latest big investment would be our brand-new store which houses our three brands: Rightstyle Furniture Dublin, OGEL KIDS BEDS & The Smart Storage Bed Company. It is based in the Omni Shopping Centre in Santry. We had been looking for a location on the north side of Dublin for maybe close to five or six years now but could never find the right fit. I think the wait was worth it as our current Omni location seems like the perfect fit so far.
We have had an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from the community with nearly every second person that enters the store telling us that a store like ours was needed in that area. We worked really hard on ensuring that the store had a fresh and modern look to reflect our brand values. I think we have shown that area that updating your home with new furniture doesn’t have to break the bank and can be accessible to all.
It’s also a one stop shop for all of your furniture needs as it has everything from electric sofas, ottoman beds, bunk beds, dining sets, mattresses, occasional furniture, a range of smart top tables which are scratch, stain and heat resistant, easy clean sofas too and so much more. A lot of our furniture was created with our customer in mind, they’re looking for something fashionable but practical as well that will stand the wear and tear of everyday life.
Future plans?
Our future plans are to eventually expand again, maybe out of Dublin next. Opening a new store is such a huge task so I don’t think it will be for a while but our goal is always to bring on trend furniture to as many people as possible. We ship nationwide but I know a lot of our customers like to come into the store to test it all out so that is definitely a long-term goal.
The short-term goal at the moment is to improve our current business model. Our managers meet quite often to discuss issues that we are having and to find solutions. As we grow, we are finding new challenges all the time so our aim is to handle these challenges with the goal of improving the customer service that we provide. Customer satisfaction is so important to us, it’s at the heart of everything we do.
What is your mission?
Our mission is to provide quality furniture at an affordable price. Our internal mission is to create a company that works hard but works hard together. We are all equal here and all ideas are listened to. Some of our best ideas, especially when it comes to marketing, come from our team. It is so fun to work in a company surrounded by people who are highly motivated and aim to improve every day. I think we all ask ourselves, what can we do better today? What procedure can we implement that will improve this company? We all get along so well which helps massively.
On sustainability, what is your business doing on this topic?
Sustainability is definitely a massive topic of conversation. We speak a lot with our suppliers on this topic to ensure the supply chain is as sustainable as possible when it comes to transport, fabrics and labour. Talks of recyclable materials and recyclable inserts are being discussed at the moment with some products such a bean bags now being made of recyclable material.
Internally, our biggest challenge when it comes to sustainability is the deliveries. We try our best to plan routes and bunch deliveries in one area together in order to cut fuel emissions. As a small company, we try our best to implement sustainability and will continue to find ways to improve.
How has recent business been? What trends are you noticing?
Recent business has been great! We have a strong social media presence, especially across Tik Tok and Instagram so I feel even when it is the usual the “quiet periods”, we are finding ourselves still busy, which we are so grateful for. Whenever anyone asks me, “How’s business?”, I say it that it’s going well and then continue to touch some wood as to not jinx ourselves. We have worked hard for years to get to this point but also count our lucky stars.
Our director always says, “We’re an overnight success built on years and years of hard work”. The market is so volatile so I think it’s really important to keep an eye on consumer’s behaviours in regards to how they buy and how they make their decision when selecting a furniture store to shop with. Marketing activities from as little as five years ago wouldn’t be as effective today as they were then. I believe consumers now connect with companies in a completely different way. They want to build a relationship or a “likeliness” to the company now before they buy.
The way we build brand awareness is way less formal now. We don’t only market in a way that shows our product offering, we show them a glimpse of our personality through social media, which I believe gives us an opportunity to build trust and rapport with the customer before they even enter the store. They nearly know us already when they come in, which is so nice as they can really open up to us, let us know exactly what their needs are and then we can accommodate them to the best of our ability.
What would you change in the industry?
I can’t think of anything that I would change within the industry. I think it is a really nice industry to be in. Even with our competition, we would often dine with them and have extensive chats with them exchanging information at trade shows. At the end of the day, most of our industry is filled with independents who are just trying to survive and make a living. Even with the biggest suppliers in the industry, everyone is so humble, generous and pleasant. You would never know of their success unless someone else told you. It’s a lovely industry to be in.
What challenges do you currently face and how are you overcoming these?
One major challenge that we are facing at the moment is storage. We work on a just in time business model where we get the items in for our supplier and then deliver them to the customer. With all the new houses being built in Ireland, comes delays. If a customer doesn’t have their keys, we can’t deliver which backlogs our warehouse.
We’re trying to navigate this by not pulling the items into the warehouse until the customer is ready but this creates issues if the customer doesn’t give us enough notice, which isn’t their fault as they are usually waiting on word from developers / lawyers etc. Some suppliers are only into us every two weeks and the customer may be moving in in two days and need their items.
We try to overcome this by communication and letting the customer know from the initial purchase of notice needed. It’s a balancing game of trying to not back log the warehouse while also trying to adhere to customer’s expectations and satisfaction.
Do you have any staff you would like to pay special thanks or recognition to and why?
We are so grateful for our entire team. I don’t just say that to sound politically correct, but we really are so lucky with our team. They work so hard and go above and beyond when we need them to. I would feel awful giving anyone a special shout out because every single of one of them work as hard as each other. We are very lucky.
Why do you think customers choose your business?
I think they choose us because they can see that we are a small Irish family run business who are essentially just trying our best to provide quality furniture at affordable prices. I think our natural brand values show in our marketing activities and they can recognise that.
When they come into store, they are treated like royalty and we do everything in our power to accommodate their needs and give them all of our knowledge and advice. No customer walks into the shop without being greeted with a friendly smile. They know and feel like they are being looked after correctly.
