Efficiency is key when it comes to running a business. When everything falls into place, things will run smoothly, and from a business perspective, that means satisfied customers and increase in revenue. This is why companies make it an effort to provide both their customers and personnel the tools they need to ensure that every transaction gets done seamlessly without any hitches. One tool that companies have invested in is product configurators.  



In a nutshell, product configurators provide an interactive way for customers to customize products that are not readily available online. These are specialized products with specific measurements, color, materials, and other specifications that are designed solely for the project they’re working on. Customers use this when they need products that are not mass produced and can’t be purchased anywhere. This also helps companies since it ensures that they deliver what their customers want, and not give them something that they just settled for.  



Knowing how helpful a product configurator can be, there are still companies who are hesitant when it comes to investing in one. While it’s not mandatory to have one, not having a product configurator on-hand can lead to numerous problems, some of them proving to be more costly in the long run:

Without a product configurator giving customers the ability to configure the products they want, your team could end up wasting time going back-and-forth with them just to get the right measurements and specifications. This will lengthen the process of closing the sale since both parties are unable to come to an agreement. With a product configurator in place, customers can put in what they want and your team just has to retrieve these information, give them a quote, and then create the product based on the data provided.

When information is relayed by customer, whether it’s in person, by phone, or even email, the chances of getting errors with their request is pretty high. If that happens when it comes to creating a specialized product, they’ll end with something they didn’t want, and you’ll end up dealing with a complaint and a possible refund. Issues like this can be avoided with a product configurator since customers now have the ability to input the specifications they’re looking for. All you need to do is to pull up the data they entered and proceed with the building of the product based on the information provided.

Product configurators have the ability to automate work processes that your team would previously have to do manually. Keeping track of a customer’s expense for specialized products? That’s done in real-time as a customer designs a product using the product configurator. Checking whether the material or paint color they want is available? Product configurators only display the available options so you’re assured that whatever build, material, paint, or size that was encoded in the system will be readily available once assembly of the actual product starts. These things take away the time and effort that your team would normally allot, enabling them to focus on other tasks for your company.