Brooks Hire, Equipment Hire Website Development Perth

Brooks Hire knew that their customers were busy, and most of the time had an idea of what they were after

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.

Creating customer accounts to streamline enquiries and quoting

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.

Leveraging the power of Kentico, and saving Brooks Hire from their previous website developer

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.”

Key Achievements