“We decided to aim our product design process at developing the next level of service for everyone, from engineers to managers to purchasers, who contacts our company. The real a-ha moment was realizing we didn’t necessarily need something new, we just needed to do what we do better,” said Laurie Englert, Vice President – Customer Experience.
The path to the new website started two years ago. A cross functional team of employees from departments all over the organization were gathered to form a customer experience initiative that would examine every step along the customer path to find out where Milestone is excelling and where the company could do better. Interviews were held, both with internal and external teams, customers, installers, dealers and more, to find those strengths and weaknesses. The results were clear – Milestone needed to focus plans around operational efficiencies and an improved and expanded online experience.
Currently, customers experience Chief and Da-Lite on separate sites with separate log-ins, multiple accounts, different payment terms, shipping and tools.
A theme in the research that kept appearing was the desire for one consistent experience across Milestone’s brands. This means one account, one website and one phone number. Customers wanted to access their account information online including pricing, order tracking and product availability. They wanted quick-turn quotes and automated notification on order status. In short, they often wanted many of the same features found on consumer websites like Amazon® and Zappos®.
The new site provides one place to specify, configure, price, order and track. When customers log in, they will be notified immediately of any issues with an order, what the issue is and how it is being resolved. Customers will be able to find out their product status – pricing, availability and more.
It is also responsive, which means the site will change to accommodate tablets or smartphone screens. So no matter how customers access their info, it will be easy to read.
Historically, Chief, Da-Lite, Sanus and Projecta have operated as separate brands. The brands will continue to live as such, and this first evolution is focused on commercial brands only. However, customers who have been specified as a purchaser of Sanus products and who are logged into the website will be able to add these products to orders. The Projecta brand, sold primarily in Europe, will also be incorporated in the coming months.
The new site is at milestone.com. The individual brand sites will remain for an interim period of time.
“We are excited to see the internal work of the past two years begin to have real positive impacts on the customer experience with Milestone brands,” Englert said. “We look forward to continuing to do everything we can to not only make the process easy, but to make it delightful.”
Want more information? Take a look at this video about the development of the new Milestone customer experience.
