06
Sep
Five ways the Multifix customer portal can solve critical construction issues
Placing orders can be a stressful experience for Buyers and Site Managers alike. If time is of the essence, an order taking ages is far from helpful. Waiting around for a quote because there’s no price information for what you need is also very annoying. On top of that, there might also be no product description, so you’re taking a shot in the dark. All while the clock is ticking, with Contractors breathing down your neck asking for regular updates. It doesn’t have to be this way. One of the reasons why Multifix has been going strong for 30 years and counting is because we get this. We understand these pain points and the knock-on effect they can cause. It’s the reason why our core values as a company focus on doing what’s right for you; “save you time, make life easy.” It’s also the reason why we’ve designed our customer portal the way we have. We want to make your transactions as seamless as possible, leaving you with less to worry about and with more time to get the job done. We have a lot of customers who prefer to conduct their business with us over the phone – and that’s OK. We love the interactions we have with you. But what if we told you there’s an easier way? A quicker way? A less stressful way? In this article, we will show you five ways our customer portal can simplify things for you and improve your workplace productivity. 1. It’ll help you beat tight deadlines While most planning is done on a day-by-day basis, it can be a problem when you think you’ve got all you need and then suddenly, you don’t. Whether it’s a miscalculation or bad luck, finding yourself close to the end of a project without having everything to finish it is irritating. However, with just a few clicks, our online portal can help you with that. Available at any time of day, you can pick out whatever you need and rest easy knowing your much-needed items are in safe hands. With next-day delivery as standard, you have the power to lift a huge weight from your shoulders. Also, thanks to our ‘Quick Order’ function for users, you can set your most commonly used products as your favourites, making it even faster to order. 2. You have full visibility of the cost Budgeting can be difficult. Any delay or staff issue has the potential to hurt your pocket and balancing that out against what you need to order isn’t always easy. What makes this task even harder is when you go to order something…and there’s no price. In fact, there’s no price for anything. You then ask for a quote for what you need, wait for them to put it together and bemoan how compromised your position is. If the quote comes through and it’s too high, with time running out, it certainly leaves you in a spot. With our portal, there are no surprises with our prices. You can see all of them, for whatever product you want, whenever you like. And what’s more, there are no hidden surprises or secret charges. When you shop with us through our portal, your final price will be exactly what you expect it to be – as it should be. 3. You get what you need when you order Not everyone in construction comes from a construction background and sometimes that shows. This tends to be more noticeable in the admin departments for Site Managers, especially with specifics. As an example, say you’ve got a job where you’re using a Paslode IM350+. You’re running low on your 2.8 x 51mm ring shank nails and need some more. You ask admin to get you some and the next day, you get them, but they’re for the IM360 instead, rendering them useless. Now, this can of course come down to a lack of communication from your side and in this instance, it’s not entirely the admin’s fault. They’ve put in an order for the exact product, but because there was no description, they couldn’t see the difference and maybe thought it was a generic nail. Thankfully, those ordering from our portal will hopefully believe that’s a thing of the past. With full product descriptions for everything we stock, it’s very difficult to get something wrong. Taking the example of the screws, the admin team will go back to the site manager and ask for what size, making sure it’s the right order. Given how much confusion can wreak havoc on a site, our portal product descriptions are designed to minimise that as much as possible. 4. It can manage and control all of your orders If you’re a Carpenter, you’re probably used to your phone going off every 20 seconds or so. Whether it’s a Purchaser or a Site Manager reaching out to you, you’ll know they tend to have a lot of requests! This can be time-consuming and frustrating. It’s also very annoying when you have an order placed and then one of your team goes, “Sorry mate, can you add on one of these as well?” Well, to save you from bombardment and to prevent this, we have a requisitions section on our portal. This enables your team to order without bothering you, but gives you the power to sign off or not. All the hours spent combing through WhatsApps, texts, emails…gone. With a requisition order, someone on your team will make a provisional order, you’ll be notified by email and then you can decide whether to place it. This makes your projects much more streamlined and on top of that, will reduce your screen time on your phone. 5. It adds accountability There’s a good chance you’ve led a job, ordered what your crew asked for…and noticed a lot of it mysteriously went missing. Your team of external workers will all be professional, but everyone is prone to mistakes. In their case, it could be they’ve opened some nails and left them carelessly, they’ve been run over by a forklift and now can’t be used. Wastage is a big issue for any site and one that burns a hole in your pocket. Thanks to our requisitions section within the portal though, you can try and limit it. This prevents workers from buying whatever they want, which offers buyers a lot of peace of mind. Should you want to, you can even hide pricing if you don’t want your workers to see what things cost when they submit their order forms. As such, you have more power and can have more accountability with your ordering and your projects, which can only be a good thing. But, you don’t have to use it We know that old habits die hard. We also know that the mantra, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is largely correct. And for those who used to order over the phone – and those that still do – we, of course, can facilitate that. Our phone lines are still going to be open for you if you need advice, want to talk about delivery options or just prefer to order over the phone. While the portal can do everything you could want in terms of an ordering perspective, it can’t give you that human touch. It won’t be able to have a chat with you, or ask how things are going, which can feel robotic to some. As such, we understand that phoning us can be better for you. You can find out all of our contact info here and we’ll be delighted to take your call. By no means are we saying that the portal is perfect and we have identified a number of solutions to make it better for you. We are keeping these close to our chests for now, but we are determined to make it as streamlined and helpful as possible. After reading this article though, we hope you’ll agree that moving to the portal is the way forward. The five pain points we’ve identified can impact anyone, but by letting us help you with our portal, they can be consigned to the past. If you would like to give it a try, you can sign up for our portal here.