Success Story - Greg Peiffer, Auctioneer (PDF: 168 KB)

Located in Fostoria, Ohio, Greg Peiffer, Auctioneer has been in business since 1999. Owners Greg and Linda Peiffer say their company endeavors to “create an event, not just an auction”, and strives to make their sales “a pleasurable experience for both buyers and consignors”.

As a company that continually looks for ways to grow and improve in an effort to reach its goals, Greg decided to replace their out-of-date auction management software. After researching several software packages, Linda quickly became interested in PFW Auction Manager because of its ease-of-use and comprehensive feature set. Since a sale was rapidly approaching, Linda contacted PFW for additional information. After a full evaluation of PFW Auction Manager, Greg and Linda found themselves very impressed both with PFW and PFW Auction Manager.

As a result, Greg and Linda selected PFW Auction Manager to assist in growing their business. The software was installed and the first auction was held using the new solution. Immediately, the stability of PFW Auction Manager became apparent. Greg remarks that they finally had peace of mind: “PFW Auction Manager is reliable. Our old program locked up and screens would disappear. There was trepidation—a fear factor if you will. With PFW Auction Manager, that’s not even a consideration anymore.”

Greg recalls, “The installation was easy to do and we were up and running a practice auction within 10 minutes. We very quickly found the reports we needed—without reading a manual. The program is so logically laid out that you don’t have to think like a computer guru to understand it.”

Greg and Linda find PFW Auction Manager to be an improvement over their previous auction management system and say that: “Our former system was DOS-based and cumbersome. We could use only one laptop and that slowed everything down as only one person could register, clerk, and check-out buyers. With PFW Auction Manager, the process has been streamlined as the system can be networked. We can now use two laptops: one to register and check-out buyers, and the other to clerk on-the-fly and key items. Also, for multiple consignors, we can now put them all in one auction; before, if we had four consignors, we had to set up four auctions.”

They also note: “For auction history we previously used a reinstalled backup, which overwrote our current data. Now, all of our auctions are available and accessible. Also, it’s easy now to make corrections; before, it was a nightmare.”

To Greg and Linda, owning a system that doesn’t compromise on functionality but remains easy to use is extremely important. They’ve found that with PFW Auction Manager: “Ease of use is high on the scale. One evening’s training is all that is necessary to effectively use PFW Auction Manager. This is important to us as we need a variety of people to fill in, and they need to be trained quickly. Additionally, the clerking screen is much more intuitive than our former system, and buyer and consignor management are improved. In the database there is a unique consignor number for each particular auction, whereas with our old system, the consignor numbers were not per auction, resulting in conflicts and more work.”

PFW Auction Manager is filled with well-designed and thought-out features that assist Greg and Linda in running smooth and efficient auctions. Greg notes: “The driver’s license reader is fabulous, since it speeds up the registration process, and buyers and consignors have reacted positively to this. Before, we had lineups because we had to switch back and forth between clerking and registering. There is also the convenience of permanent buyer numbers and the ability to type in a consignor number, click ‘Go’, and return the number of items sold and the gross sales for a particular consignor, which helps us pace out the auction. As well, the ability to reprint or request back-invoices is a plus. I recently had to pull one within the duration of a phone call and was able to fire up a laptop and produce the invoice—without guidance.”

PFW Auction Manager provides users with the power to retrieve sale information from its database so that valuable analysis can take place. Greg comments: “We especially like the drill-down reports, where we can know who is buying what and identify patterns—our old program had none of that. The reports can be run during the auction, or can tell us a story afterwards. Additionally, there are more report options than we had before, and a nice thing is that there is Microsoft Excel compatibility, which helps from an accounting standpoint.”

Greg and Linda feel that PFW Auction Manager has allowed them to use their marketing skills to obtain auctions. They mention that the ability to generate and utilize mailing lists is important and note that previously if they had to filter a buyers list down to 600 names and addresses, it would have taken three or four hours of manual work, while now, because of PFW Auction Manager’s automated processes, it’s done in less than five minutes.

They point out that: “Now we have an e-mail list of 2000 people that have bought items that we can sort and target to gain repeat business. That’s the whole idea: to get people in that have purchased before and, therefore, are more likely to buy now—which drives the prices up. As a result, we can run smaller ads and use more economical direct-mail campaigns. For us that is a big thing. After all, the competition—like eBay—is there.”

PFW believes it is important to do more than just make the initial sale, and is committed to continuing a supportive relationship for those who choose PFW Auction Manager. As Greg says, “PFW has followed up with us; the servicing of our account has been fabulous.”

The many features and benefits of PFW Auction Manager assist Greg and Linda Peiffer in obtaining auctions and attracting more legitimate buyers to their sales. As a result, competition at their auctions has increased, boosting the selling prices of items. Since items are sold for higher prices, commissions have increased, and consignors see the value of selling at auction.

Greg and Linda are enthusiastic about the future with PFW Auction Manager, which, for Greg Peiffer, Auctioneer, has proven to be “an outstanding product—when software works this well, we want others to know about it.”