Deputy gives Proper Cloth peace of mind with Fair Workweek laws and saves them thousands of dollars

Founded in 2008, Proper Cloth is a pioneer in made-to-order shirts, pants, jackets, and suits. They combine technical innovation with premium materials and tasteful clothing design.

“Our mission is really to enable people to fulfill their potential by providing them with high-quality garments,” says Dennis Novak, Proper Cloth’s Head of Showrooms. “I like to think it's about building confidence. You can shop anywhere, but when you get something that's made to fit your actual body, it really instills confidence to fulfill your potential.”

Dennis explains that Proper Cloth started very small, with the founder and a few friends measuring customers out of an apartment all those years ago. Then it grew to a showroom in Soho. And today, they have two showrooms and a thriving e-commerce business.

One of their team members, Client Advisor Dwight Young, gave us an insight into what it’s like to work in one of their elegant Manhattan showrooms:

“I would say the most rewarding part of my job is meeting interesting people. We're in the center of midtown in New York City. You’ve got all the biggest financial firms. You’ve got Blackstone down the street, you have JP Morgan. You meet the most interesting people from the most highly decorated positions.”

As Head of Showrooms, Dennis’ priority is creating a customer experience that’s second to none. A key part of that is having enough team members scheduled, at the right times, to reduce wait times and help every client find the perfect garments.

However, before Deputy, the team at Proper Cloth found it difficult to schedule in line with fluctuating customer demand, which meant suddenly finding themselves either over or under-staffed.

“If we can't schedule enough people to meet the needs of the business, we've lost sales and we've lost the customer,” Dennis says.

On top of that, managers often found themselves stuck in the back room painstakingly building schedules, when they wanted to be on the salesroom floor mentoring employees or helping clients.

Speaking with Dwight Young, Client Advisor at their midtown showroom, it was also clear that the scheduling technology a business uses has a huge influence on employee happiness.

“I would say the main thing I look for in a company is having up-to-date technology. I really like brands that use systems that are very seamless and easy....especially with me clocking in, especially with me working on different tasks, and communication.”

The final challenge for the team was managing compliance with both New York City’s Fair Workweek ordinance and state labor laws. They needed to ensure that schedules were sent out far enough in advance, that any changes were communicated correctly, and that the right breaks were scheduled, taken, and recorded.

Dennis says, “When we were looking for a solution, we definitely needed ease of use and something that was very adaptable and could follow the labor laws — specifically in New York.”

To find software that would make scheduling more efficient and provide peace of mind with Fair Workweek laws, the team at Proper Cloth put a range of options to the test.

“Deputy had all of the requirements that we were looking for, specifically in New York, but also as we grow to other cities it could manage different labor laws or nuances for those cities as well.”

Dennis explains that Deputy has made it easy to communicate schedules well in advance with employees, but also to plan schedules effectively ahead of time to meet peaks and valleys in customer demand.

That’s been good for the business, great for the customers, and fantastic for the employee experience:

“Some feedback we received by using Deputy and complying with Fair Workweek is people do a lot more with their free time because they're not stressed out about their schedule. They know when they're working, they know when they're done with work, and they can plan their lives.”

He adds, “Deputy definitely helped us simplify compliance because we also have the attestation where somebody marks off that they have actually taken their breaks. From a liability standpoint, that puts us at ease.”

On the time-savings front, Dennis says that Deputy has done far more than just free up more hours in the day.

“I would say Deputy saves us thousands of dollars in a week because you don't have somebody in a back room on a spreadsheet trying to figure out a schedule. You have them on the floor motivating their team, helping customers, engaging them, and making sales.”

Finally, when asked what it was like to implement Deputy’s scheduling software, Dennis and Dwight had some great insights to share:

“We rolled out Deputy within a week to both showrooms,” Dennis says. “Even if you haven't used the platform, it's really easy to do it because the support is very strong.”

Dwight adds, “Getting used to Deputy was easy. Having an app that’s seamless, useful, and accessible on your phone is a game-changer.”