Simplifing the product configuration process for customized products and services with TRUE SALES CORP. - ConfiguratorPlus.

Business Challenge - Successful custom furniture company spends too many resources assisting customers in building their custom orders and less time selling and increasing market share.

Andre Originals At a Glance:

Andre Originals has been in business for over 50 years, with many repeat customers. Andre Originals manufactures a full line of customized furniture for retailers, the design trade and hospitality industry.

Andre Originals product line is built from over 800 standard components available in an array of 60 finishes, over 300 fabrics and several dozen leather choices, giving customers literally millions of choices.

Solution: The owners of Andre Originals decided to evaluate product configurators in order to address these problems-reduce costs, shorten the sales cycle and increase sales.

Business Benefits:
• Insight into which products were selling the best
• Capability to tailor those products more to customer tastes
• Customer driven order configuration tools:
- Product graphical diagrams, with dimensions and shapes
- Customer access to matching color swatches
- Rules based recommendations for complimentary products
• Efficient staff utilization
• Increased sales capacity

Business Benefits:
• Insight into which products were selling the best
• Capability to tailor those products more to customer tastes
• Customer driven order configuration tools:
- Product graphical diagrams, with dimensions and shapes
- Customer access to matching color swatches
- Rules based recommendations for complimentary products
• Efficient staff utilization
• Increased sales capacity

Andre Originals chose ConfiguratorPlus™ for its ease of use, ability to handle an unlimited number of products, robust administrative tools and potential for cross-selling related products.

After implementing ConfiguratorPlus™ and loading its product catalog, assigning attributes, categories and subcategories, Andre Originals discovered it had more insight into which products were selling the best and could tailor those products more to customers' tastes as well as make product recommendations. Two examples:

• Two of Andre Originals' best selling sofas were each available in a wide range of upholstery fabrics but customers routinely ordered a fabric offered for a different sofa style, necessitating a “special order” and additional time to process. With ConfiguratorPlus™, Andre Originals simply added these additional fabrics to the “upholstery” attribute, with no additional time to process the order.

• Customers usually ordered furniture as a “set,” but not always. Using ConfiguratorPlus™, Andre Originals is able to show matching pieces available when a customer orders just one of a product “group,” and show the appropriate price discount if the entire “set” is purchased.
ConfiguratorPlus™ also gave Andre Originals benefits it couldn't get from its old paper-based product catalog:
• option to include product graphical diagrams, such as dimensions and shape, for each product in the catalog

• ability to show color swatches for color treatments and upholstery

• recommendations for complimentary products based on rules, i.e. if customer is ordering a sofa, recommend an easy chair; if customer is ordering a bed, recommend a bedroom set
• removal of attributes no longer available, thereby decreasing invalid product configurations

• instant pricing changes and discounts

An additional benefit Andre Originals realized from implementing ConfiguratorPlus™ was more efficient staff utilization and increased sales capacity. With its old paper-based catalog customers could not build orders themselves, which required them to interact with an Andre Originals sales person to build and complete an order. With the implementation of ConfiguratorPlus™ customers can build their orders without requiring the assistance of a sales person, freeing up the sales staff to prospect for new business. And because of these increased efficiencies and sales, ConfiguratorPlus™ paid for itself within 3 weeks.

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