Birmingham based fabricator/installer, Finesse Windows, has streamlined its order processing operations with help from Windowlink, the creator of design, sales, and pricing software for retailers in the fenestration sector.
Managed by brother and sister, Russell Bridge and Ellen Franklin, Birmingham based Finesse needed to boost efficiency and improve sales conversion rates and communication between different parts of the business.
Mark Dudley, Windowlink MD, said: “The team at Finesse has opted for an integrated solution, which we supplied with our applications, Focus for windows and doors, and Vector for conservatories and orangeries. These have been customised to reflect the exact products and prices the company is offering, placing them in a very advantageous position in a highly competitive market.”
Russell said: “I was most surprised to discover how much time we’re saving. The systems generate accurate reports that allow us to organise all our processes, and are vital for our production planning. Everything I used to spend hours doing manually, is now automatically generated by the two applications, I wouldn’t want to work without them again.”
Calculating fitting costs used to be a laborious process, as Russell explained: “We’re collaborating with a number of contractors, and have four fitting teams working on jobs every day. A very big part of my time was previously spent on putting together fitting costs and calculating commissions for each order, but now Focus and Vector do this instead, taking into consideration what the actual price is, and what the product was sold for – all at the click of a button.
“Both solutions are completely embedded into our sales process, and we use them in the office and in the field with great results, saving around five hours on order processing on an average job of approximately £3,000, involving four to five items. For higher orders, the amount of time we save increases exponentially,” added Russell.
A high level of professionalism also means salespeople’s interactions with the homeowners are much more successful. “Our sales teams love the high-quality 3D graphics, and the customers are very impressed with the process. They have much more confidence in the quote, because the price is always visible, and get quite involved in the design process. We provide portable printers, so the salespeople can produce the quote on the spot to leave with the customer, hugely increasing efficiency and productivity,” said Russell.
But the sales teams and office based admin staff are not the only ones reaping the benefits of the company’s integrated software. “Before Focus and Vector, the surveyors we contract would’ve had to draw out all the items from scratch, which is a very lengthy and complicated process, whereas now our systems allow for a huge head start, saving them – and us – a significant amount of time. We’ve also cut out mistakes, as we don’t need to manually transfer information such as sizes anymore,” concluded Russell.
