Insights on the A La Carte Customer® for business leaders from Silicon Valley based business consultant and configuration management expert, Dave Gardner.
A decade ago, I wrote an article in Fast Company called We Offer It, You Buy It; Take It Or Leave It. Here’s how I kicked off that article: Does the headline of this article represent an attitude that customers are drawn to? It sounds like a customer strategy taken Read more…
The problems with off-the-rack CPQ software solutions are in what the software doesn’t address. The vendor application you chose is a small part of the solution.
Configurability and the back office black hole happens if no guidance is offered in the ordering process. Imagine going into a restaurant that merely tells you they serve “food.” They provide no insight into the type of food they serve. They simply ask you to tell them what you want. Read more…
Getting configurable customer orders right: “We are having problems getting the right parts delivered to support installation of the customers’ orders.”
If you watch television, it’s likely you’ve seen the commercials featuring Limu Emu and Doug promoting Liberty Mutual’s car insurance. The listener is told you can “customize your car insurance” by “only buying what you need.” What Liberty Mutual is doing isn’t unique, but positioning themselves as being able to Read more…
YouTube TV made an unforced error this past week: it added additional channels for current subscribers raising the price for everyone $10 a month. The new service isn’t an option; it’s required. The new channels are: Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and MotorTrend. Read more…
As an author, consultant, and someone who’s been in Silicon Valley for the birth of the most significant changes to industry, of our lifetime, I’ve decided to try another industry disruptor to publish my latest book, “The A La Carte Customer.” Who is this disruptor? It’s called Publishizer.
Companies with configurable products or services often live with severe operational pain and gridlock. Many see the pain and low margins as a cost of doing business. Here are some questions to ponder: Which of the great companies of the world want to offer more personalized solutions but can’t because Read more…
The world is moving away from a “one-size-fits-all” product and service strategy. Based on my experience, a few of the top success factors for implementing a product configurator include: Approaching the implementation a product configurator holistically across the enterprise–don’t allow the configure-price-quote (CPQ) process to be disconnected from back-office processes Read more…
“You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is made for people.” ― Dieter Rams I suspect this quote was intended to be applicable to product design. However, it also applies to business process design. Let me give you a few examples: A company offers a Read more…