Our goal was to reduce phone call inquiries. That is not a typo. Brooks Group had a clever solution to their problem of spending too much time on the phone when an eCommerce-like experience could support and streamline their sales process without the final 'check out' step.
Brooks Hire knew that their customers were busy, and most of the time had an idea of what they were after. At the same time many of them would be looking to re-order something they had already used before.
Using an eCommerce approach they used the website to list items, and at any stage customers could submit an enquiry, creating an online account and profile. The request can then be accessed and edited by a member of the Brooks Hire sales team before converting it to a ready-to-pay invoice.
The goal was simple, make it quick for a customer to select what they are wanting to enquire about, but also ensure that there is still a step for a member of the Brooks Hire team to check, recommend and confirm that the appropriate equipment has been selected for the job.
For example, a customer may want to order a 36 ton excavator but there are 22 different attachments that it could have (dig, carry or crush). A customer may simply know they want an excavator, and can click to request a quote, or they may also continue adding an attachment and then request a quote. Either way, a member of Brooks Hire will see the request, and review it before a ‘check out stage’ ensuring the customer gets exactly what they need.
“Brooks Hire is already a leader in the equipment hire industry, a well known family business with trucks seen all over WA. The website was created to be functional (it had a clear purpose). They wanted to take advantage of a simple click-to-cart eCommerce experience to help customers select what they are enquiring about, without them having the ability to accidentally have the wrong 20 ton truck appear on their doorstep.”
Naturally showcasing the huge range of products available was essential, this would allow customers to see what is available, but also end up drastically increasing Brooks Hire’s search engine performance. Naturally if you create a content page for every single piece of equipment as well as every attachment available, then a website like this will have a mass of keywords to then be found via Google. That is exactly what happened post launch, website impressions and traffic exploded.
Due to the busy nature of their customers and the need for a quick and easy ordering process, the product search and filtering hierarchy was combined with an add to cart (or quote request function). Customers could choose a specific product based on make and model, but if unsure what attachments to put with it, they can still request a quote allowing Brooks to sort the specifics with them.
The Brooks Hire service team could review and order and plan their follow up call, to have ready information such as availability, best attachment options or alternative equipment options. This lowered the risk of a frustrated user experience and lost website visitors who were too busy to locate the exact product needed. It also enabled sales staff to better manage workloads and provide next level support to their customers.
This would also mean that when the same customer returned at another time, they could view their previous orders and request the same again without having to go through the process again.
Brooks Hire was stuck with an old website on Kentico Version 8, it was also using a Kentico shared server license meaning they were restricted in future upgrades and functionality, essentially, they were stuck. They weren’t happy with their current Kentico website developer, and were looking for a team who had 100% local in-house Kentico developers in Perth.
We worked alongside the team, to quickly and completely rebuild the website on Kentico Version 12. This created a stable foundation for Brooks to activate their website strategy upon. Our digital team recommended a new information architecture (IA) in a way that helped the average joe navigate the site, find the products they need and quickly submit a request for a quote. User experience (UX) was at the core of the solution, enabling busy customers to quickly and easily get the service they needed before picking up the phone. Our developers then created an importing tool to take a spreadsheet with all the assets listed, and import the data directly into Kentico, creating new product pages for Brooks administrators to then edit and modify, saving considerable content migration time.
Brooks Hire would later hire a full-time marketeer, who we trained and supported to manage the content of the site. Eventually, they grew to a point where it made sense for them to hire their own website developer, our development team helped to hand over the required to allow Brooks Group to be completely independent.
“Brook Hire is one of the best examples of a customer on the right digital transformation journey, we started with saving the day, putting them on the right path. They focused on a website with a clear functional purpose (instead of all aesthetics and function being secondary). Later they would hire a full-time marketeer and eventually their own website developer. They went from one website to four, all with the same base foundation, with sights set to grow even more including building an internal mobile application.”
The client wanted to streamline the customer experience by building a website that gave customers quick and easy access to the product Brook Hire have to offer. Talk to us if you want to:
We offered Brooks Hire pain free support in the creation of their new website. Our support was honest and local (at times our team went onsite and sat next to the client). Most importantly the website proved itself a success, capturing the vision of Stuart Brooks, and staying true to his idea from beginning to end.
Our web developers included all the nuts and bolts you’d expect with a high quality website to support Brooks Hire’s future goals and aspirations. Most importantly, products can continue to be added and edited by Brooks Hire content administrators, allowing them full independence in growing the site.
If you also have a vision to make your website do more than be a digital flyer, we are always looking for visionaries to work with.
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