BILT

A leading ecommerce company, known for its innovative use of technology to enhance the online and mobile shopping experience for its millions of customers, was looking for ways to affect the buying journey by providing transparency into the post-purchase experience. The company analyzed purchasing patterns on over 12 million products from more than 10,000 brands. The analysis revealed that consumers were gaining confidence in the quality of flat-packed products, but freight and handling charges were a significant deterrent to purchase. Additionally, while an increasing number of products were being reengineered to ship more efficiently, these products often required assembly at home by the consumer. Products requiring complex or intricate assemblies were daunting to consumers and could deter purchases. Returns were also costly to both the vendor and consumer.

Siemens was facing a significant challenge in bridging the growing skills gap in the manufacturing industry. According to a Deloitte study, 77% of manufacturers were anticipating difficulties in attracting and retaining workers, with an estimated 2.1 million jobs expected to remain unfilled by 2030. Siemens was actively seeking innovative solutions to expedite training and reskilling. The company was particularly focused on providing resources for electrical apprentices, electrical contractors, and distributors through Siemens University, the SIschool program, and VR training initiatives. However, the traditional channels of delivering this content, such as classroom instruction, textbooks, videos, and virtual reality, were not sufficient. The Covid-19 pandemic further complicated the situation by disrupting the global supply chain, leading to longer lead times on fully assembled goods. Distributors needed a faster, cheaper way to get products to their customers.

A major national brand was grappling with high costs associated with assembly-related support calls and returns. The products that required complex assembly were responsible for 75% of total customer complaints. The support calls alone cost the company $750,000 annually. The brand was seeking a solution to reduce these costs and improve their star ratings and Net Promoter Score. They decided to test the adoption of BILT, a platform that provides 3D instructions for product assembly, on a product that was among the top in complaint call volume. The product was chosen due to its high call volume and because it represented the average assembly time for the category.

Murphy Door, an industry innovator in creative door solutions, was facing a significant challenge in 2017. The company was struggling with the high volume of installation support calls, which was putting a strain on their sales team. The team was spending a considerable amount of time resolving assembly and installation issues rather than focusing on sales. The company was using traditional methods such as paper instructions, demo videos, and phone calls to assist customers with installation. However, these methods were proving to be time-consuming and inefficient. The challenge was to reduce this installation friction and free up the sales team from handling support calls.

Springfree Trampoline, a premium brand known for manufacturing the world’s safest trampolines, identified an opportunity to improve the set-up experience for their customers. Despite having a white glove installation service, many customers preferred to assemble the trampolines themselves, a trend that increased during the pandemic. The assembly process was generally straightforward, but the steps involving the connection of the mat rods to the frame and jumping mat proved challenging. Proper body positioning and weight distribution were crucial for correct assembly, and two people were required to work in tandem. The company wanted to communicate these steps in a way that was easy to understand. Additionally, Springfree needed to provide clear and detailed instructions to their professional installation crews. The challenge was to bring the assembly experience into harmony with their premium product.

Teeter, a family-run company specializing in fitness equipment, faced a significant challenge in boosting consumer confidence to overcome assembly anxiety. The company recognized that the out-of-the-box assembly experience was crucial in creating a positive first impression of their products. Many of their customers, who already suffer from back problems, found the task of assembling a large and unwieldy piece of equipment frustrating and daunting. The company aimed to instill a sense of quality engineering as customers unpack and inspect the parts and ensure consumers could assemble their equipment properly for safe and optimum functionality. Traditional paper instructions and DVDs posed a challenge due to their lack of detail and limited view from the camera angle. Consumers often complained about not having a DVD player or computer available in the room where they planned to set up the equipment. Updating instructions also proved difficult when the company made engineering improvements or developed better techniques for putting the parts together.

The Chamberlain Group, a leader in smart access solutions, was facing a significant challenge in improving the customer experience for their garage door openers. The primary pain point was the installation process, which was affecting product ratings and the adoption of their proprietary tool, the myQ Garage & Access Control app. The company was also struggling with low product registration rates, with only 3% of customers registering their products. This was a concern as registration allows the company to communicate directly with customers about product updates or recalls. Additionally, the company was under pressure to substantiate marketing claims about the ease of installation of their products.

TRINITY Industries International, an eco-friendly storage, organization, and home solutions company, was experiencing rapid sales growth but faced a challenge in managing customer support costs. The company's leadership team identified that assembly-related issues were the primary reason for product returns. Despite many of their products being easy to assemble, they also manufactured larger items such as wall racks, cabinets, patio sets, tool chests, work tables, and benches. These items were intimidating to assemble for customers and even more difficult to return due to their size and weight. TRINITY aimed to improve their out-of-the-box customer experience beyond paper manuals or videos. They wanted to ensure their assembly and installation instructions were accessible, comprehensive, and straightforward to reduce returns, minimize customer service calls, and address negative reviews.

VintageView, a company that designs and manufactures modern wine racks for both home and commercial displays, faced a significant challenge in improving their installation instructions to better support contractors working off the grid. The company's products come in a variety of patented display mediums, each project being customized, which made it difficult to create clear and understandable instructions for every component configuration or design choice. While VintageView’s explainer videos were adequate, they were time-consuming and expensive to update. Furthermore, the interior designers, custom builders, contractors, and architects incorporating their wine racks often worked on construction sites without Wi-Fi capability, necessitating a solution that could work offline. Additionally, the sales team was burdened with handling all installation-related customer service calls, detracting from their primary focus of closing sales.