With the growing popularity of finding and buying goods and services online, many companies are moving from traditional sales and customer service approaches to more innovative ones. However, when it comes to calculating the cost of services, businesses in different industries still use outdated quoting methods, such as long price lists and spreadsheets.

Here, at Ecoline Windows, we always strive to enhance our sales with the most cutting-edge tools. That is why we have built several online calculators to help our sales department and, ultimately, our clients. This article will share our knowledge and observations of how online calculators helped us develop our business and what output we have gained.

The Challenge

So here comes the first question. Why have we actually decided to develop the calculators? Well, we had two main goals to achieve:

  1. Reduce the load on the sales department

Many companies in our industry (window and door sales and installation) still use outdated paper pricing spreadsheets to give quotes to clients. This makes things challenging for the sales department, as they have to juggle their interactions with multiple clients along with time-consuming manual calculations.

  1. Help our current clients and find new ones

Online calculators help us to retain our current clients due to ease of interaction with the pricing of any products we offer.

What calculators do we have?

You have likely noticed that many websites have online calculators for various purposes: cost estimation, size estimation, indirect leads gathering, and many others. It is an excellent approach, not only to help a company dealing with the pricing of its products, but also to make your clients’ life more comfortable.

For our website, we have developed two types of window price calculators to achieve our primary goals:

  • Pricing calculator

This tool helps us to pull reports on sales by different cities in Canada and our product categories on a recurring basis, then share this information on our website so our customers have a reference for various options and prices.

 

alt = “Ecoline Windows Pricing Calculator”

<a hrefs =”https://www.ecolinewindows.ca/pricing/”>

  • Egress calculator

This calculator is vital for our industry. It allows our clients to calculate the minimum amount of opening needed to comply with the egress code in their province based on window style.

alt = “Ecoline Windows Egress Calculator”

<a hrefs =”https://www.ecolinewindows.ca/egress-calculator/”>

Advantages of online calculators

Online cost estimators bring many perks, but here are the main ones which are suitable for every industry:

  • Convenience for users. Potential clients can calculate the final cost of all desired services or materials at any time without any need to communicate with managers.
  • Convenience for managers. Calculators immediately address the question of price, simplifying everyone’s work and saving time. The tool filters out non-targeted audiences and those who are not satisfied with the price, as they immediately see the final cost. In addition, managers themselves can use the calculator for effective and fast consulting.
  • Ranking growth. Google closely monitors behavioral factors: how much time users spend on the site and how many actions they perform. In addition to page scrolling, interaction with tools on a webpage are taken into account. The longer the user works with the calculations, the better the page’s ranking in search engines.
  • Increased customer loyalty. The person sees what the price is composed of. Due to the transparency of prices for goods and services, confidence in the company grows. Depending on the functionality and interface of the calculator, the user may become interested in the proposed product and become a client without additional motivation.

Where to get an online calculator for your website?

If you decide to install an online for your website, there are 3 ways to do it:

  • Online builders (constructors).

There are free versions that are easy to use and have technical support. They are usually compatible with all CMS. However, the number of features and integrations is limited. Usually, you can’t connect it with CRM. If your primary goal is to “test the water” and you have no skills connected with HTML, Javascript or CSS to make a calculator yourself, this option may suit you well. It is also a cost-effective option, as the major online builders work on a subscription basis with a low ongoing fee.

  • CMS module

For example, WordPress users can make use of the special module connected with online calculator installations. However, bear in mind that not all CMS provide such tools, and they will not be customized for your business needs.

  • Professional studio

This is probably the best option if budget is not an issue. In general, when you order a calculator, you can customize it to suit your specific business needs and goals.

Additional perks the calculator can bring your business

Still not sure if you need a cost estimator? We weren’t either. But after installing, we found there were many extra benefits of using our new tools that truly made them worthwhile:

  • Extra sources of targeted traffic

There are numerous ways online calculators can help your business, but when it comes to additional sources of targeted traffic, we learned that calculators could not only be used on websites but also:

  • as a direct link on social media
  • for messengers
  • for Google Adwords or Facebook Ads campaigns.

You can also place your tool in blog articles on your site and allow your readers to calculate prices during or after reading your article, which ultimately affects the conversion rate.

  • Calculators make your business special

Cost estimators aim to make your products and services look exclusive to the target audience by offering to pick the needed services and receive a unique total estimate. Your clients can use calculators to analyze products and decide on the best option to understand how much it will cost in their case.

Quick tips

If you are eager to make use of online cost estimators, make sure to keep the following in mind:

  • If the total amount is immediately shown to the client after using your price calculator, make sure that your quotes are more attractive than your competitors’.
  • If the result is not shown immediately and the user needs to enter contacts, take care that you can provide feedback as fast as possible.
  • The calculator is not that effective if you have a huge list of various services or work within the B2B sector.
  • The calculator should be accompanied by CTAs, bonuses or discounts.
  • The calculator should be transparent and straightforward, without complicated terms and endless fields to fill.

Conclusion

Our business has really benefited from the installation of our online calculators. Our sales department became more productive due to concentrating on crucial tasks and eliminating ongoing cost estimating routines. Our clients are more satisfied with the site navigation, and overall interaction between the company and customers has improved.