Companies in the Manufacturing industry rely heavily on a network of dealers, installers and other contractors to properly connect their products with the intended customers…hence the need for a directory of businesses where customers can find the right partner.
The best way to optimize this process is by providing a great dealer locator to those consumers (and we like to think we do that pretty well). Below are features our customers can incorporate into their dealer locator to specifically optimize their customer experience for manufacturing customers.
Detailed dealer information is one of the most important aspects of any dealer locator, it may be obvious but you’d be surprised with how often we see a barren wasteland of white space next to a dealer’s name. Providing details such as hours of operation, contact information, and website links is a must. This information can increase the number of sales or inquiries regarding your company’s products due to the available channels of communication to dealers. Improving the consumer process is a good way to create more sales and raise customer satisfaction.
Leads are what make your (business) world go round. But, did you know that on average indirect leads go unread 34% of the time? Imagine, 34% of your potential revenue wasted. MetaLocator attacks this issue with Lead Optimization. Lead Optimization works to track lead acknowledgement from dealers in your network. This includes tracking the response times of dealers along with the number of ignored leads. Know who your high performing partners are while proactively addressing unresponsive dealers.
Pinpointing your high performing dealers provides other optimization opportunities, MetaLocator gives you the power to prioritize dealer results, giving customers the best performing results first, not just the closest. Our team highlighted this best practice in a construction materials case study where the customer sorted results based on distance, but also based results on positive reviews and response time to dealer inquiries. This best practice gets the job done for the customer faster and better, improving overall satisfaction.
With Lead Status Reporting, track revenue outcomes in your locator. When a lead is completed a follow up is sent to dealers asking how much revenue came from the lead as well as how satisfied they were with the lead process. Admins can track overall revenue generated by the locator while also gaining insights on how the process works best for the dealers in the network.
Another important feature that a dealer locator for manufacturing companies should have is product availability information. Knowing which dealers are currently stocking the customer’s desired product is a way to save the customer time and effort in finding the information they desire (aka saving you the time and effort of contacting a dealer just to figure out what you need is out of stock). This is yet another feature that can ease the process to purchase products for a consumer which increases consumer satisfaction and improves the image of your business.
Multilingual support is another important feature for a manufacturing company’s dealer locator. This broadens the potential audience, being inclusive of other commonly spoken second and third languages in your sales regions. MetaLocator has the ability to support any language in a locator interface. The only language MetaLocator can’t support is the slang you and your friends made up in high school.
Analytics and reporting provide valuable information to any locator software, for a dealer locator for manufacturing they can provide insights to the business. The insights can show where the business is most successful as well as where it is struggling, this is a way to improve your business by recognizing and understanding what the business does well while also being able to address the downfalls.
MetaLocator provides advanced analytics on the back end of every interface. MetaLocator customers can gain valuable insights on leads and consumer behavior. MetaLocator shows our users how much revenue the locator generated as well as the total revenue lost based on unacknowledged leads. The analytics and reporting system specifically keeps track of total leads, leads acknowledged, leads ignored, while even keeping tabs on the average lead acknowledgement time…fancy eh? MetaLocator can also show which dealers are performing at the highest rate in turn, showing which are struggling to generate sales. For a manufacturing company, dealer locator software that can show the performance of specific dealers can be incredibly valuable information. It can help manufacturing companies continue to funnel larger leads to their best dealers. It also provides an opportunity for the manufacturing company to figure out why certain dealers are struggling and make changes to help improve their performance, overall improving the business.
The above image shows MetaLocator’s Analytics dashboard.
Customizing the locator software’s design is also crucial for a manufacturing company. Seamlessly integrating the locator with the website is a must, it keeps the image of the brand looking professional, giving off a better impression to anyone who visits the website and locator. Manufacturing companies can seamlessly integrate their locators to their websites by using the proper brand styles, colors, and logos. This is another way to enhance the brand’s reputation, by presenting a quality, professional locator on the website. (TLDR: making your locator look pretty is a smart idea).
Showing reviews is another beneficial aspect to a locator for manufacturing companies. By displaying reviews for each individual dealer this can help boost a dealer’s perception amongst buyers while also serving as motivation for dealers to continue their successful work. Dealers with poor reviews will have incentive to change their business practices to garner more positive reviews while dealers with positive reviews will want to maintain that reputation amongst buyers. It’s like having your own personal Yelp in your locator! With MetaLocator, users can not just display reviews but pick which reviews to display and even allow for search results to show the nearest highly ranked dealer to ensure your leads are going to your best dealers.
Check out MetaLocator’s software in action by visiting our demos page, featuring demonstrations of our locator software in various configurations.
To learn more about MetaLocator and our products, visit our products page.
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