Dolphin Solutions Are Saving Time and Improving Customer Experience with DriveWorks
Dolphin Solutions Reduce Design Time and Create a Great Customer Experience with DriveWorks
Dolphin Solutions, headquartered in Robertsbridge UK, design and supply a range of products and accessories for commercial washrooms.
We recently caught up with Robert Allen, Product Design Engineer and main DriveWorks Administrator at Dolphin Solutions to see how they’ve implemented the software over the past few years.
Dolphin Solutions purchased DriveWorks in 2017 with the aim of creating an online sales configurator tool that would help them to achieve two key targets;
- Reduce Design Resources
- Create a Great Customer Experience
Designing to Order — Before DriveWorks
Before DriveWorks, Robert manually designed each individual bespoke mirror unit from scratch using SOLIDWORKS. He also manually created all the production files for the product.
The sales team handled the initial request. Then Robert designed the unit which then needed to be signed off before being sent to production.
This was a lengthy and time-consuming process, involving a lot of back and forth between Robert and the sales team to ensure the design for the bespoke product was not only to the customer’s specification but also that it was correct for manufacturing standards.
This process could take days and even weeks before the customer received the product they’d ordered.
Dolphin Alavo Washroom System
Reducing Design Time
Once DriveWorks was introduced, the sales process was completely transformed.
The sales team can now take the configurator tool to the customers on laptops and tablets.
They can guide the customer through the product options on the configurator, and submit an order straight to the design team.
Errors have also been significantly reduced, as the automated process ensures that every product option selected is manufacturable and is ready to be sent to the manufacturing floor.
“The days and weeks are cut down to minutes and hours, because our customers are finding their final design much quicker. They can see all their options and the drawings are generated automatically.”
Robert Allen, Product Design Engineer, Dolphin Solutions
A Great Customer Experience
Robert also wanted to create an online configurator that was easy to use, contained all the relevant information, but was also aesthetically pleasing, slick, and professional.
Robert used DriveWorks to create a flowing set of pages, that easily guide the customer through the configuration process.
Knowing the value of this to the company, Robert was given the time to create a great experience.
Guided Selling
Robert has created forms that guide users based on their selections, for example, the height of the washbasin, the number of wash stations, and appliances.
Each time a selection is made, the online configurator filters the customer a step closer to a final design.
Based on the previous selection, options will become greyed out if they are unavailable.
Robert has also used the Tooltip Text property to display extra information when a customer hovers over a control.
This declutters the form and also ensures that the customer inputs the correct information.
Capturing Customer Data
When a customer has completed a specification, their details are captured on the last page of the form and they are given a unique specification ID.
This allows Dolphin to track orders and assign the ID to the customer’s project.
An email alert is also triggered when a specification is complete, automatically sending an email to the sales and marketing team, with information such as the customer name, email, phone number and company.
The customer also receives one automatically as confirmation of their request.
Automating Drawing Creation
To eliminate even more design time, Dolphin Solutions have also automated the creation of drawings.
The process used to be manual, but now with DriveWorks and SOLIDWORKS working together, a drawing is automatically generated for each specification, ready for manufacturing.
Continued Success
Dolphin’s configurator has been live for over 2 years now and they are consistently recording more interaction with it month on month, with a slight dip owing to the global pandemic.
When asked how they’ve achieved so much success with DriveWorks, Robert says that a huge factor is being given dedicated time to work on DriveWorks.
When first tasked with creating the configurator, Robert went to his directors and said “if you want me to deliver DriveWorks, I am going to need some serious time on this.”
Robert then spent 50-75% of his working time on DriveWorks for the year leading up to the release of their impressive online configurator.
Having achieved their two targets; reducing design time and improving customer experience, we’re excited to see what else this innovative company achieve next!
See What You Can Achieve with DriveWorks
Explore our online product configurator examples to see the many different ways DriveWorks can be used for design automation and digital selling.
