New Site Features Online Ordering, Pricing, Freight Calculations and More
Eden Prairie, Minn., USA (May 2015) – www.milestone.com – Milestone AV Technologies, home to the Chief, Da-Lite, Sanus and Projecta brands, has launched a new website with expanded functionality to better serve customers. This is the result of an extensive, two-year customer engagement process to help determine the best way Milestone brands can become the easiest partners to work with.
“We have a successful history of following installers around, watching how they use our products and then developing even better ones,” said Laurie Englert, Vice President – Customer Experience. “We decided to aim that same process at developing the next level of service for everyone in our customers office from engineering to purchasing. The real a-ha moment was realizing we didn’t necessarily need something new, we just needed to do what we do better.”
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 was 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.”
About Milestone AV Technologies
Milestone AV Technologies is a leading designer and manufacturer of branded audiovisual products including flat panel mounting solutions, projector mounts, screens, equipment racks and AV furniture for both the consumer and commercial AV markets. Milestone’s innovative products, sold principally under the Chief, Da-Lite, Projects and Sanus brand names, are sold through numerous channels, including Pro AV dealers, regional home theater dealers, consumer electronics retailers, mass merchants and original equipment manufacturers. The company currently serves a broad base of more than 6,000 global customers with headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minn.