Manufacturers of custom products face unique challenges: multiple designs, variable pricing, and quality assurances. Whether you’re selling complex HVAC systems, bespoke furniture solutions, or custom machinery, the expectations of B2B customers are increasingly influenced by the convenience, speed, and personalization they experience in the B2C world. According to data from McKinsey, businesses that transform their customer experience processes see 10-15% revenue growth, higher customer satisfaction scores, improved employee satisfaction, and 10-20% reduction in operational costs.
Understanding guided selling in CPQ
Guided selling in CPQ enables salespeople and customers to confidently configure complex products, even when they don’t have extensive product knowledge. It removes the need for salespeople to know every detail about a product and how it can be configured, so they can focus on sales and customer satisfaction.
Guided selling in CPQ uses intelligent rules-based technology to guide sales teams and customers to make valid configuration choices. Users are provided with information about compatibility issues and receive prompts for suitable alternatives. Guided selling tools enable users to accurately configure custom products and calculate pricing and discounts.
When combined with a 3D product configurator, guided selling enables customers to visualize their customized product options, making it easier to commit to purchase and improving overall customer satisfaction levels.
The key drivers of customer satisfaction
Consistency and trust
In custom manufacturing, consistency and trust are essential for customer satisfaction. Customers rely on you for accurate configuration and quality standards, making it vital to deliver products that consistently meet these requirements.
Rules-based technology in CPQ ensures that only compliant configurations are available, and guided selling tools enable customers to configure products that always meet safety and quality requirements. Providing a buying experience where customers have confidence in their final configuration leads to higher customer satisfaction levels and an increased likelihood of repeat purchases.
Ease of complex configuration
For manufacturers of custom products, customer needs are not just complex, they are specific and often variable. Customers can be confused by multiple configuration options, making it difficult to configure products that meet their requirements.
Using a 3D product configurator, customers can visualize and personalize products in real-time, streamlining the customization process. CPQ technology simplifies complex configuration with guided selling acting as a digital sales assistant, helping sales reps through the process of configuring a product based on the customer’s unique needs. By prompting questions and providing suggestions, guided selling technology helps rationalize customization options to only those that meet the customer’s specifications and are valid from a manufacturing point of view.
This level of customer service not only meets expectations but exceeds them, contributing to a positive and profitable customer experience.
Responsiveness
Responsiveness is a key driver of customer satisfaction. When your customers have questions, whether about a design change, a quote, or production timelines, they expect quick, accurate responses. In custom manufacturing, delays or errors in communication can lead to production slowdowns, missed deadlines, and increased costs for customers, making responsiveness a priority.
Guided selling enables sales teams and customers to confidently configure complex products, even when they don’t have extensive product knowledge. It removes the need for salespeople to know every detail about a product and how it can be configured, so they can focus on responsive customer service and sales.
Proactive customer service
Customers appreciate businesses who can anticipate their needs and offer solutions before problems come up. Being proactive means actively monitoring customer orders, predicting potential production challenges, and offering suitable add-ons and upgrades.
Analyzing data from CPQ solutions, manufacturers can identify buying patterns that signal additional options, such as product upgrades, or a recommendation for alternative materials to improve performance. Proactive service is also important when selling through a dealer network, and guided selling helps with this. Guided selling tools enable dealers to access accurate and up-to-date configuration options, and with the knowledge that all product configurations are accurate, dealers are able to sell confidently and proactively.
How F.H. Brundle deliver exceptional customer service with DriveWorks
F.H.Brundle, a custom balustrade manufacturer in the UK, needed a digital solution to enable customers to configure systems to their own dimensions and create accurate quotes and detailed drawings in minutes. Using DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing, they have developed Liveconfigurator™, an online 3D configurator for their internal teams, distributors and customers.
F.H. Brundle designed their Liveconfigurator™ to make life simple for anyone who needs a quote and would like detailed drawings for one of their systems. As many of their customers are in the trade, their configurator helps others to improve their business and make their customers happier too. Their trade customers save time estimating, quoting and drawing for each job because the Liveconfigurator™ creates everything they need for each custom order.
Customers can get a quote any time they want it, 24/7/365, and personalized discounts can be added. Product information is readily available for a wide choice of options. With every order, customers receive everything they need, including technical information, instructions, a detailed list of parts and technical drawings.
“Our sales staff are saving valuable time and our customer service is better than ever. We are building customer loyalty, increasing sales, and avoiding mistakes.“
Richard Twiddy, Design Office Manager, F.H.Brundle
Learn more about DriveWorks CPQ solution
Join a webinar with one of our technical specialists to learn how to build a CPQ solution with DriveWorks to improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and win more business.
You’ll learn more about how a DriveWorks CPQ solution enables you to respond to customer enquiries faster, improve customer experience with guided selling and 3D visualization, and automatically generate all of the documents and data to sell and manufacture custom products.
The webinar runs every month and you can join the next one on 27th May at 3pm BST or 1pm AEST.