Online investment for growth
By AluFold Direct.
A lot has been happening behind the scenes at the Blackburn-based aluminium fabricator AluFold Direct since last May, when Russell Yates was appointed managing director.
Much of that has been focused on driving operational efficiencies, expanding the team, and investing and equipping a new factory which is set to open soon.
For customers though, despite the vast amount of change that is actually taking place, it will largely have felt like business as usual so far, with the same fast and reliable service and the same reassuring guarantee of any product, in any colour, delivered anywhere in the UK.
Now, however, some of the first innovations that Russell and the team are introducing are being rolled out to customers, and there is a growing sense of excitement about how these will help companies who choose AluFold Direct as their supply partner achieve meaningful growth.
There is a new brand and a new website to help communicate the scale of the transformation happening, and a new online ‘quick quote’ tool on the website designed to make the AluFold Direct service smarter and more user friendly.
The new tool at alufolddirect.co.uk allows customers to get an instant trade price for nearly every product in the AluFold Direct range, from windows, entrance doors and bifolds to lanterns, sliders, rooflights and commercial doors.
All that users need to do is enter in their sizes, select glazed or unglazed and standard or non-standard colours and the tool will calculate the price and send it instantly by email. There’s a step-by-step guide included which walks users through the quote builder tool, a handy guide to help them choose the right spec for each project, and a survey template to make sure they don’t miss anything.
“We’re taking all the hassle out of quote building for our customers,” Russell Yates said. “They can get an instant price straight to their inbox and log in as many times as they like to change the spec whenever suits them.
“Obviously, if they need a more detailed quote on a particularly large project, they can simply upload their own survey files and one of our team will get straight back to them.”
The tool sits on the trade section of the new website. Retail buyers who visit the site are directed to a dedicated ‘find an installer’ section and prompted to enter their details to help generate additional leads for AluFold Direct customers.
“This is a more capable and comprehensive tool than anything else out there for quoting in aluminium at the moment and hopefully serves as a powerful statement of intent in terms of how we will be approaching the market in 2021 and beyond,” Russell said.
“We have huge ambitions for this business, and part of that will come from providing customers with a really useful and valuable set of support tools, which will help them make the most of the opportunities available in aluminium while making their lives as easy as possible.”
AluFold Direct is set to reveal more of its plans over the coming weeks and months, including a new cloud-based customer pricing portal and some radical product developments and sustainability initiatives.
