Email to MetalTex after they expressed potential desire to cancel and go with Sensei
Melinda,
Below is a summary of what we discussed in terms of additional capabilities you could use in IdeaRoom that you aren't currently. I also included a summary of our competitive differentiation in the marketplace that's useful to think about when considering which company is best aligned with your future direction, philosophy, and values.
Fully Customized, Accurate Pricing
You can fully customize and tailor your pricing for MetalTex and your price books. Accurate, automated pricing is one of the primary reasons people choose IdeaRoom over Sensei. Our customers that switch from Sensei to IdeaRoom often do so to have accurate pricing they can rely on for online marketing, closing sales, placing orders, and doing full cash and financing checkout.
Dealer Network Support & Dealer Subscriptions
IdeaRoom has built-in support for dealer networks. If you add all of your dealers into IdeaRoom, we create a unique URL for each dealer. When using their link, IdeaRoom will display the dealer's contact information and each submission is sent directly to the dealer. There is no additional charge for any number of dealers or salespeople. You can add them all, and they can use IdeaRoom to manage their leads.
As an optional upgrade, your dealers can choose to upgrade to a dealer subscription that gives them a URL on their website domain and co-branding for their business. For more ambitious dealers, this allows them to integrate their branded version of IdeaRoom more tightly into their specific marketing activities. This is an optional upgrade, and it's at a much lower cost since it re-uses your product and pricing data.
Usability and Ease of Use
I hear your point about adding and editing leans. There are actually some options for changing and refining how lean editing works that we may be able to enable for you. IdeaRoom is pretty flexible, and if something feels difficult, it's worth talking to our customer success team to see if there are options.
On the topic of overall usability, take a close look at the mobile phone interface. These days, mobile traffic is typically 60%-70% of your traffic. IdeaRoom is constantly refining and improving on mobile. As an example, we recently improved our call-to-action for saves/submit, and it resulted in a 30% increase in mobile device submissions. With over 300 customers in 3 industries, we gain a lot of insight into customer behavior.
Additional Building Features
You mentioned wraparound porches. We support those, and there may be other specific options, accessories, or building features you need that we support. This is a good area for us to dig into with our customer success team and make sure you're taking advantage of everything you can. Typically, IdeaRoom is more complete and detailed in terms of what we can represent in 3D. However, the products are always evolving, and you will have to dig into details with us and Sensei to do a complete, detailed comparison if that's important to you.
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Competitive Differentiation & PhilosophyE.g., Why should I spend money on a subscription with IdeaRoom?
Design & Pricing of Complex Buildings
If your intent is to have salespeople use the software to support sales and order fulfillment, focus on creating a self-service user experience. To our knowledge, we are the most detailed in terms of supported building configuration and options, and accurate in terms of detailed pricing estimates that do not require an engineering system integration. We've had many customers evaluate other building configurators at a lower price and go with us for that reason. We may be able to set up a conversation with one of our current customers that did this evaluation so you can get an objective perspective on this.
Focus on Business Results not Software
From
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our perspective, what's most
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important is IdeaRoom's on-going focus on business results: increase in average sales price, increase in conversion rate for online leads, decrease in selling costs through sales efficiency. We don't just provide you with the software, we understand the practices you can use in most effectively using the software to produce those results.
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We are happy to track before and after results and set benchmarks by which to measure the success of our long-term engagement, including the potential for discounts in the future if we don't hit those benchmarks.
Customer Experience and Ease of Use
For the specifics in the software (usability, features, etc..),
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we recommend performing a hands-on comparison
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with other configurator solutions to determine which you prefer. Subtle differences can make a big impact. Customer experience in the
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software and in how the software is integrated into your sales process is most important
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factor. We have multiple current customers that evaluated or worked
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with competitors and went with us. We also recommend taking a close look at the quality of mobile device support.
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Mobile support is critical as more than half of web traffic these days is mobile, and that trend will only increase.
Future Investment in Improving the
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Software
Being the lowest-cost option isn't our goal,
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since it would mean decreased quality of service and support. With a
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higher subscription
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, and with
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300+ clients
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, we can continue to invest substantially in improving the software and accelerating our lead time. As an example, we recently released additional improvements to our mobile experience. It is our intention to provide the best customer experience in the
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BTO industry and accelerate that lead through constant investment. For example, we recently developed and released new features including: Augmented Reality, Social Sharing, and Real Landscapes.
Company Focus and Independence
The
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advantage of working with IdeaRoom vs. a more general digital
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firm or custom development entity is that 3D Visual Configurators are our primary and only focus as a business. We've been developing configurators for more than
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5 years, and we are profitable and growing quickly. We also have no direct affiliations with shed, carport, pole barn or other building companies other than that they are our customers. We are based in the US and backed by a strong community of business leaders and technology investors. You can trust the background and experience of our team:
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https://www.idearoominc.com/about/
Suggested Guidelines for Evaluating 3D Configurators
Customer Experience
How high quality are the 3D visuals?
Do metal textures appear like metal and have a natural reflection?
Are manufactured materials realistic?
Does the model have natural lighting with shadows?
Are visual attributes and finishes (like trim, roof eaves, roof pitches, and door faces) accurate?
How easily can a customer configure their desired building?
Can they see a valid building configuration upon first load?
Can they select from a variety of building styles?
Can they select from any supported size?
Can they change structural options like overhang depth, wall height, or the base material?
Can they change the color of siding, trim, roofing, trim, and window frames?
Can they select and immediately see different door, window, and vent styles and sizes?
Can they easily add and remove doors and windows?
Can they undo previous selections?
Can the customer save their building and return to it later?
How easily can a customer share their building configuration?
Can a customer express intent to buy or pay an initial deposit?
Are multiple payment options available (buy, lease, finance)?
How much flexibility does the customer have to place doors and windows?
Sales Support
Does the configurator capture customer contact information and intent (save, quote, buy)?
Does the configurator produce a quote with all information necessary to close a sale?
Does the configurator integrate with a CRM or other sales support system?
Does the configurator allow a salesperson to customize the quote with discounts and custom line items?
Does the configurator integrate with analytics to track conversions (saves, quotes, etc…)?
How well does the configurator reflect the professionalism and character of the brand?
Business Rules and Pricing
Is always-current pricing shown based on current selections?
Can the configurator price by geographic region or dealer/retailer?
Does the configurator support complex pricing rules (e.g. price option based on parameters like style, siding, size, wall, etc...)?
Does the configurator support complex business rules (e.g. filter available options by parameters like style, siding type, wall, etc...)?
Technical Standards
Does the configurator require any plugins or substantial downloads to function?
On what desktop and mobile devices, operating systems and browsers does the configurator function?
How well does the configurator support tablets and phones?
How quickly does the configurator load and display the initial 3D view?
Project Management
How much time and effort are required to on-board for the initial implementation and subsequent updates?
How much experience does the configurator company have with the industry and product segment?