Businesses across industries are getting rid of mass-produced items and focusing on developing personalized products. To do so, they use product configurators that enable companies to design custom-made products for their customers.
Product Configurator: A Definition
A product configurator is a sophisticated piece of software that enables users to select options for an item in order to meet their preferences.
Once the product configurator approves an input, the user can then continue personalizing the product or service.
Companies that are experiencing challenges in creating proposals or quotes on time should consider using a product configurator because the tool can automate this time-draining and labor-intensive process.
The Advantages of Product Configuration
Software tools that can be employed by both the staff and prospects (or customers) enable businesses to determine who should handle a particular configured order.
Below is an overview of the most important benefits of product configurators.
Drive Sales
Configurators are commonly used in sales quotation and order procedures.
These tools improve dynamic pricing, automatic quotes, and other workflows, which are vital components of a streamlined sales process.
Sales Teams Get Assistance
A sales representative needs time in order to become familiar with all the specifications of sophisticated products. Businesses can handle all the important configuration tasks in one place, regardless of the item that needs to be configured.
Giving sales reps access to this data enables them to focus their attention on prospects and customers alike. For example, a product configurator can alert a salesperson to an upsell opportunity.
Fewer Mistakes
Product configurators disable wrong data entries, irrespective of how the level of sophistication of the product. As a result, mistakes are practically reduced to zero, which helps streamline business operations.
Configuring Products in Different Industries
What follows is a short overview of the benefits of product configurators for companies across industries.
Online Retail
When a buyer goes to an e-commerce store, they should have the exact same choices as if they were at a physical store, talking with a sales rep.
Product configurators used by e-commerce businesses enable customers to customize their purchases on the fly. Whether customers are searching for sweaters or electric scooters, product configurators allow them to pick the size, color, design along with countless other options.
Insurance Industry
Potential policyholders are sometimes asked to fill out a health survey when purchasing life insurance. A product configurator can edit questions and make changes to the algorithm that determines rates.
Protect Your Company with a Configurator
Companies have to ensure that buyers understand all the details regarding an order in order to avoid lengthy back and forth correspondences over emails or phone calls.
Therefore, getting the configuration right from the beginning is necessary for reducing the chances of mistakes happening.
Powerful Business Rules Engine
A business rules engine manages all of the criteria for proper configuration, and outputs of a purchase. This is why the most effective product configurators are powered by rules engines.
However, buyers really need to pay extra attention when purchasing product configurators because many vendors like to say their solutions are run by powerful rules engines, but very often they are merely based on simple filtering systems.
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