Simplifying Custom Project Designs for Customers

Just because you’re an expert in a certain industry or area of business definitely doesn’t mean your customer is, so it’s always important to never assume and to keep it simple where possible.

You know the feeling as a customer; trying to navigate your way through unfamiliar products or services, determined not to get it wrong but there’s always the sinking feeling that you’ve forgotten something.

That’s why the team here at Stage Concepts are always around to take your calls and to talk you through the process.

Often a customer will contact us with a custom project that they need staging or truss for, but they have no idea what they need to meet their requirements. We take the project design in its early stages and guide the customer through the full process, informing them every step of the way, and by the end of it, many of our customers are quite well-versed in the subject, and come out of it with the perfect stage or truss system for their needs.?

Below are a few steps we take to make our products as easy to understand as possible for our customers to order exactly what they need, however, I think these steps can translate to other businesses selling products or services, but let me know down in the comments if you have any other ideas!

Be Contactable

It sounds pretty obvious, but give your customers the ability to reach out to you easily. Across our site, we’ve got our phone number, and the ability to email us and to get in touch via our online live chat.

The benefits of this are twofold: people can reach out to us with any questions immediately with as few clicks as possible. This helps us retain customers by providing answers instead of leaving them to possible find the answer for themselves on the website.

Provide Packages As Well As Individual Components

Whilst it can seem logical to offer all of the available components for a system, you run the risk of overwhelming a customer with choice, especially when there are slight variations on similar products. Often it’s best to provide a package or kit as well as individual components.

Take our 3m x 2m portable stage platform with 60cm risers, for example. 3m x 2m is quite a common stage size so we know a fair few customers will be looking for this type of stage, but would they know all of the components needed to build this stage? Probably not.

In this example, the complete kit includes six 1m x 1m stage decks, six 60cm folding leg risers, six locking clamps, a 20cm high step and one 40cm high step.

Now, you could simply supply this information for the customer to go off and find it for themselves on your website, but that’s not great service, plus it would probably result in a call from the customer, tying you up in an easily avoidable situation.

By offering packages we can keep things nice and simple and help the customer get the items they need.

Visual Aids

It goes without saying, but people need to see what they’re buying. Images on the website need to be clear and informative. A lot of marketing types can be a bit too keen on fancy close-up images, showcasing intricate details of items, but as a main product image, this isn’t helpful.?

A lot less artistic, but showing images of the whole item first of all is a very important factor, and it’s always worth reviewing your website imagery to make sure your product is shown as clearly as possible.

Simplifying Jargon

Working in an industry every day draws you into terminology and jargon - just look at a few LinkedIn bios for inspiration - but you should never lose sight of who you’re talking to. To the average person in the street, your jargon might as well be an alien language.?

Always simplify jargon, or at the very least, provide an explanation or glossary. Listen to your customers, and take note of the words they use to explain or describe your products, and use it with them, or incorporate it into your website literature.

Case Studies and Guides

We’ve worked on a lot of great custom projects and we love to draw attention to them in our portfolio section of the website. We find that not only does this help potential customers see what we’re capable of, but also attracts them to us in the first place.

Likewise, seeing the stage and truss projects built and in use in the wild, so to speak, helps us explain how various parts of a project will look for customers.

Case studies simplify a customer project by providing real-life examples that customers can easily refer to.

Well Informed Experts

The easiest way to simplify custom projects - or any sale for that matter - is to have a fantastic team of experts ready and willing to help.

Everyone hates calling up a company for help only to realise you’ve got through to a call centre of scrip-reading message takers. It's frustrating and slow and it’s very capable of turning a hot lead cold.

We pride ourselves on our knowledge, our customer service and our can-do attitude. This means we can ensure your custom project is completed to spec, on time and on budget. See for yourself, send me a message today!

Summary

There are just a few key ideas for steps to take to simplify what can seem a complicated custom job. If you have any suggestions or ideas for how else a customer project can be made simple for a customer, leave me a comment below.

If you have a stage or truss project that you need to discuss, reach out to me today and we’ll be able to help.