It's not just businesses that buy complex products and systems - consumers do too. The most complex purchases consumers make revolve around their home - its construction, its interior design and the systems configured within it. Residential electronics systems - sound systems, security systems - fall into this last category. A special application that includes both electronics and furniture is a home theater. To design a residential electronics system, certain customer needs must be met within the context of the home design itself. In a home theater, for example, the correct selection and placement of speakers within the room based on acoustic principles is critical to the quality of the viewing experience. It is difficult to consider all the important design factors when recommending a solution. This design challenge is compounded by the number of products available in a retail store, and by rapid product changeover.
While the need for expertise to design such a system is great, the availability of this expertise in a retail store can be hard to come by. Turnover at retail is generally high, and team members can be young and inexperienced. Training is a challenge, and often once a team member is trained they move on to another job opportunity.
Apprentice Systems builds tools that encompass the knowledge of your organization’s experts and puts it at the fingertips of every sales person. An Assisted Selling tool can automatically tap into your product database to ensure every team member is using the most recent data available. It can ensure consistency by embedding design rules and compatibility checks. It can guarantee completeness by adding items and labor necessary to support and install a solution. It can ensure accuracy by automating routine – and complex – calculations and documentation, such as sales quotes and wiring diagrams. And it can increase productivity by reducing dramatically the time necessary to design and quote a solution.
The use of an Assisted Selling tool can also provide subtle benefits by increasing the perceived professionalism of the selling experience, and long term benefits by increasing customer satisfaction.
