Product Configurator—But with a Twist!

A product configurator (also known as a product advisor) can attract many customers. But only if it’s designed very carefully!

Making a complex product range easy for customers to navigate—that’s what a product configurator, also known as a product advisor, is for. At least, that’s how it should be. Because if you don’t start with a solid concept, even the best product configurator can end up confusing customers rather than helping them. In the worst-case scenario, the company loses leads. That’s why we pay extremely close attention to the user experience when we develop a product configurator for our clients—always with the goal of increasing the conversion rate, that is, turning leads into customers.

Using Technical Product Configurators Effectively

Product configurators on websites or in apps can be useful when products require a detailed explanation. Often, the focus is not on configuring a specific product, but rather on product selection. This means that users answer a series of questions, and the product advisor or product configurator recommends the right product. Product configurators are an unbeatable sales tool, especially for complex B2B products or highly specialized technical applications.

But be careful: If the product configurator itself is too complicated, it can backfire. Potential customers might even leave the site in frustration, even though they would have simply contacted the sales team directly if the product configurator hadn’t been there.

Here are a few tips based on our experience:

All questions and steps must be self-explanatory for the target audience. Otherwise, it’s of little help and frustrates potential customers.
Don’t make your target audience run a marathon. If filling out the configurator takes too long, it will lead to a negative attitude among users—and make it less likely they’ll complete the purchase.
If in doubt, include an option to exit the configurator early and discuss the rest directly with the sales team.
Speaking of sales: Be sure to involve those who are in constant contact with customers (usually the sales team) in the design of the product configurator.
If possible, conduct pilot tests with the target audience. This often allows you to further improve the individual steps and the conversion rate.

Of course, all of this has to be tailored to the specific use case. To that end, it’s also very important to have not only developers but also usability and design experts on board.

Product Consultant at BMG Labtech

For example, we developed a product advisor for BMG Labtech, focusing primarily on the design phase. Even for a technically savvy target audience, these highly specialized laboratory machines require such detailed explanation that the sales team had previously had to invest a great deal of effort in one-on-one consultations.

With our complex products, the sales process was also complicated. Thanks to the new product configurator, the processes are now much simpler and faster. Above all, we’re now generating a large number of additional qualified leads.

Markus Hartmann, Online Marketing

Thanks to the user-friendly product configurator (we call it the “product advisor”), this effort has been significantly reduced: The sales team receives a dossier in advance and can therefore move very quickly into the quote preparation process. This benefits both sides. Perhaps even more importantly, the product configurator has led to a very significant increase in qualified leads for BMG Labtech!

So, if you pay close attention to usability and target audiences and invest the necessary time in the design phase, a product configurator can truly boost business while also digitizing processes and making them more efficient.