8 Aug 2024 | Windward Software
Helping Sales People Gather Vital Sales Data With Modifiers
This Windward Webinar focused on discussing the use of modifiers in System Five. Explore how to use this feature to gather sales data, upsell products, and gather details for deliveries or installations.
- Scott started the webinar by explaining how a feature in System Five software, originally designed for one purpose, can be used creatively to solve business problems.
- He demonstrated how the modifier tool works using examples of upselling warranty on an appliance and gathering details for delivery.
- Scott explained that modifiers can be used to gather comments, upsell products, change pricing, and can be used in a wide variety of different ways.
- Scott demonstrated how to turn on modifiers in the Setup Wizard and how to configure a modifier.
- He showed how to create a menu system when selling a product through the modifier tool. The options for the menu system can be configured in the window.
- Scott advised that when creating a question under a modifier, one can use select options, select one of, or select more than one of. The different selections for the customer and the salesperson can be added by clicking on the question and hitting "new sub-item."
- Scott showed how to use an integrated selection to make a comment. If a selection affects the cost or retail price, it can be indicated on the right-hand side.
- Scott showed how to add a line item that prints as a comment.
- Scott demonstrated how a modifier can be used to upsell other products, using the example of upselling a warranty for a refrigerator.
- Kyle suggested adding a selection for "declined warranty" to have evidence of customer's decision when they come back with a problem after the manufacturer's warranty has expired.
- Scott showed how to add a selection and explained the difference between an integrated selection and a selection that requires a SKU or part.
- Scott explained that modifiers can be used for a lot of different things, mentioning examples
0:04
Hello everybody and welcome to today's webinar.
0:08
Today we're as part of our experiment and growth series, Scott's going to be talking about gathering valuable sales data with modifiers.
0:17
This is just a unique way of using an existing function in system five.
0:22
So Scott why don't you go ahead and start it off man. Thank you Kyle.
0:27
So as Kyle said we're going to talk about using a feature of system five that was designed for one purpose but it's very useful in other ways and I've seen some examples of customers utilizing this and that's where this information comes from in some ways I've seen them be creative with the feature of our software that was designed for one thing and they use it in a different way to solve a business problem and I feel that the of modifiers is often not brought up unless you have certain, you're in certain industries that it was sort of designed for and so you might not learn about them.
1:05
So today we're going to go through what is the modifier tool and sort of in general how it works and I'll show you a couple examples that I've seen in use that are good alternatives for certain workflows.
1:18
Specifically we're going to go through the modifiers and where the settings are and and just how you set one up, I've seen a great example of using this to upsell warranty on, the example I'm gonna use is an appliance, but it could really be anything that you're upselling.
1:36
So I know I'm gonna say warranty, but keep in mind, it really could be any kind of upsell.
1:40
And I've also seen it used in a sort of creative way to gather details for delivery.
1:47
But it could be gathered details about any in-depth process that happens at the point of sale.
1:52
So maybe it's delivery, maybe it's more installation, and you just need your staff to ask the right questions.
1:59
Or you may have a certain product that in order to order it from the vendor appropriately, you need certain questions asked and you find yourself constantly phoning the customer back to get the data.
2:11
Like how big is the space in your home?
2:13
Or is there a flight of stairs?
2:15
Or different things.
2:17
When you need more detail and you're having trouble getting your staff to collect it at the point of sale.
2:23
You wanna lead them sort of by the hand or by the nose towards gathering all the right detail.
2:29
Modifiers can be one solution you can use for that.
2:35
So first, I will kind of show you what a modifier is.
2:41
So I'm gonna open a sale.
2:49
Oops, I'm gonna just put somebody on here.
3:00
Just to demonstrate a basic idea of how this works, I'm going to use my delivery modifier.
3:14
So first we'll see one in action that I've already created.
3:17
So you're selling something, you want to know did they want delivery or pickup.
3:20
Now it's going to, as long as we put that line on our invoice, it's going to ask for the salesperson to choose before they move on.
3:27
I'll say they want delivery.
3:29
Then, this is what I saw one of my customers doing.
3:33
They listed all the postal codes in their area that they deliver to.
3:37
And the different postal codes in their case trigger a different delivery fee that they need to charge.
3:43
So although I'm still gonna promote the use of our delivery calendar, this helps us charge the appropriate fee and it asks the customer a question they probably know the answer to off the top of their head.
3:54
Postal code.
3:55
And then as you can see, I've been able to set up different postal codes with different fees.
4:00
The customer I helped had this great big long list of all the different areas of town.
4:04
You could do this by postal code or the name of the area of town.
4:09
And it might be about delivery and it might be about something else.
4:14
And then often I see that you have to choose a delivery window.
4:17
So I've set that up here as another example.
4:21
And then it confirms all your selections here and prices the line appropriately.
4:27
Also, if I print this out and preview it on the screen, a lot of those things that I gathered become comments.
4:38
So with modifiers, you can use it to gather comments, you can use it to upsell products, you can use it to change pricing, like we've done with the postal code-based deliveries, and you can use it in a wide variety of different ways.
4:55
That gives you an idea of what it is, and we're gonna get into how to use it right now.
4:59
So first, to turn on modifiers, you do have to activate them in the Setup Wizard.
5:04
I'm just going to go in there and show you where that is.
5:12
And under inventory, options one, it's right here, use modifiers.
5:21
This feature was designed, I believe originally a long time ago, for use with furniture.
5:27
The idea would be you could build a modifier for a particular model of couch, say, and then choose between the different fabrics and between the different options that go with the couch, the colors, the fabrics, does it come as a part of a group of furniture, that kind of thing, was why it was originally designed.
5:52
To configure a modifier, you create an inventory item.
5:58
They're usually non-stock items, but they don't have to be.
6:02
So this one is a non-stock item.
6:04
I put it in the non-stock category.
6:08
And I'm going to show you how I set this up.
6:10
I'm just gonna go click the inventory button on the right hand side of the screen.
6:15
So here's my non-stock item, delivery instructions.
6:19
And if I scroll down on the left, I can go to the modifiers tab.
6:29
Now a modifier, what it really is, it allows you to create a menu system when you sell the product.
6:35
That product can be a regular product or it can be a non-stock product.
6:39
And here in this window, I can configure the menu and how I want the menu to work.
6:45
There's quite a few different options in here, More than we can go through in one webinar, I'd say.
6:51
But we should be able to point you in the right direction of some resources you can use, if you want to pursue this, and show you the basics today.
7:00
So here I've created a question.
7:03
To create a question, like select would you prefer delivery or pickup, what I do is in the white space here, I right click my mouse and I say new.
7:18
So maybe I wanna ask which day of the week can we deliver?
7:28
And I can add that in.
7:32
So there's my question.
7:33
Then with the question highlighted like this, I can select how the question will behave.
7:39
I do that on the right-hand side.
7:41
So which day of the week can we deliver?
7:44
I hit this button that says selection, and I can pick from these different options.
7:50
Now, if we're picking a day of the week, then I'm gonna want to select one of the days of the week.
7:59
So you can have a few different things.
8:01
When you're setting up a question, you're gonna use select options, select one of, or select more than one of.
8:10
You're gonna use one of these select options here.
8:13
So let's say I pick select one of.
8:18
Now, that means this question is expecting that I'm going to add some different selections.
8:23
To add the different selections that the customer and the salesperson can choose from, I'm going But click on the question and hit new sub-item and put in one of the selections.
8:58
And you get the idea.
9:02
Now with the sub-items, you also have some choices to make.
9:08
Now, for these sub-items, I just want it to make a comment based on what the customer selected.
9:15
So if I hit Selection Monday and I have this highlighted, and on the right-hand side, you can see all my options I can choose from in this question.
9:24
If I pick Selection, it'll make a comment.
9:30
And if I pick Integrated Selection, sorry, if I pick Integrated Selection, That's what I want here on all of these.
9:41
It's gonna make a comment for me.
9:43
If I pick selection, it's looking for me to put a skew or part here.
9:50
So we'll do another example where that makes more sense, where we use this rule, where it's gonna sell a product, like an upsell.
9:57
What I want now is an integrated selection to simply make a comment.
10:02
So I'm gonna set all of these as integrated selections.
10:04
Now you can see on the right that I can also have it influence the cost or the retail price.
10:14
So perhaps, you know, this is sort of unrealistic, but let's say I charge a delivery fee for Fridays.
10:21
Because who wants to deliver stuff on a Friday?
10:23
I can put that there.
10:27
We'll do more on the fees when we upsell products.
10:33
So if I just want to comment, I just put integrated selection.
10:38
And then I hit okay.
10:40
So now if I try that again I can pick my postal code and the time of day and now I can pick the day of the week.
10:58
You can see I can review the summary of everything.
11:04
And if I were to print that now I have all these details collected.
11:15
Now, I'm not showing you this with a delivery because I believe that's the very best way to use this.
11:21
I'm showing you this as a delivery because I saw someone do that.
11:24
You can use this for a lot of different things.
11:27
Once I saw someone do it because they were actually a liquor store, but they owned the hot dog shop that was next to the liquor store and they used it for picking what you want on your hot dog.
11:39
I've seen it, I have seen it used for furniture and I've seen it used for warranty.
11:45
So it's do I need to lead my staff through the questions that they need to ask the customer for us to do a great job in fulfilling their order?
11:55
That's really what it's about.
11:57
Or making sure we order the right product.
12:03
Another example that I have seen is to use it to upsell warranty.
12:12
So let's say I'm selling this appliance.
12:15
It's a refrigerator.
12:18
The refrigerator's a regular item.
12:21
I have added a modifier to it because I want my staff to remember to upsell this warranty.
12:27
So the product is unchanged.
12:29
It works just the way it always did.
12:31
But by creating a modifier, I'm able to upsell other products.
12:37
Now these two, one-year warranty and three-year warranty, these are actually non-stock items that I sell but what I've found in my fictional business is that my staff continually forget to offer this to the customer creating a lot of chasing the customer around later and really a lot of missed revenue now this could be something I charge for it could be a common product that goes well with the base product like a hose or a cable that people keep forgetting to ask about, and it's similar to a kit, but instead of a kit where you can have to tell the system what will be added to the invoice every time, it lets you create a choice.
13:19
So let's say I want the one-year warranty.
13:23
You'll notice it then acted like a kit and added the product below.
13:28
So if you have a product that's complex and often is sold with four or five or six different products that go well with it, You could create a modifier to suggest that those things are upsold to help your staff if they're new Know which questions to ask the customer or to help your staff because they're busy Just remember to do it could be questions and it could be upselling more product Hey Scott, just just to Expand on your warranty situation there if sometimes you have customers who come back later that didn't buy the warranty you could add an item on there or one of the selections could be declined the warranty so that it's on their receipt that they declined the extended warranty.
14:14
Oh that's an excellent point Kyle so that way later when they come back with a problem after their manufacturer's warranty has expired you've got evidence that they declined it they made that decision that's awesome yeah actually Let's add that to the modifier as our example.
14:34
So to create a warranty like this, well, a modifier like this, pick your product, your regular product that you sell, open up its inventory record, and go down to the Modifiers tab, and this will all be blank.
14:55
Just to review how I created what we've already created, The question worked the same way, new question, however the sub-selections I have set up differently.
15:11
I have made them a selection instead of an integrated selection and you can see I've filled in the part field which works just like a part search.
15:20
If you put your cursor there and hit enter or double click it brings up the part search and you choose the item.
15:26
So, I've set up this one-year extended warranty as a product, a non-stock product in a non-stock category.
15:34
And what we'll do here is we'll follow through on Kyle's idea, and we'll add that as a selection.
15:46
So here, I could add a choice here, a new sub-item, like that, and you could actually do something like this.
16:13
Yeah, very descriptive, be descriptive.
16:17
So you can add a selection there.
16:20
Now if I wanted this selection to be another like non-stock item, I would fill that in.
16:28
And the details, the cost and the retail price of that item fill in on the right hand side.
16:34
If I wanted to be a comment, I make it integrated and I don't have to link this up.
16:42
So, say I just want a line item like that, that's going to print this and as a comment, it'll print this as a comment, I can just set it up like that.
16:56
If I wanted to create one with a product, just so that we see how that works, I would selection and then here I would choose a product and I might have something we can use to speed us along. Let's try, I'll just make something new.
17:35
So I'll make a non-stock item called and you can even do something like make the signature or the description have a signature line in it.
17:56
You wouldn't be putting pricing in that.
18:10
So then I can click here under selection and I can add that like that.
18:20
So I can sell other products, whether they be stock items or non-stock items, either way.
18:27
And I can also just add comments.
18:30
And those are the two ways I see it used most often.
18:33
But if you have a product that has a lot of options to choose from that don't affect cost to the customer, then comments usually work the best.
18:49
If you have a product that has a lot of options which really affect the cost, like on the PO, and the retail price, then if those are separate inventory items that you have to patch, like let's say we're selling a side-by-side or ATV, and there's, you know, you can add a winch, or you can add a cup holder, or you can add a heated seat.
19:13
Those things need to be ordered from the manufacturer and would affect both the cost and the retail price.
19:21
Then I can add a comment, but fill in these.
19:25
Or if it's something like the winch, well, I probably have a product record for the winch, and I'd add it as a selection, and then the cost and retail price of the winch would simply populate right there like you see up here.
19:43
So there's quite a few ways you can use a modifier and they're often overlooked as like when people first implement the system because they were designed for something very specific and quite often not used for their intended purpose.
20:02
Other examples I've seen of warranties are wheelchairs when you have to configure a wheelchair in the healthcare industry with tons of options based on the patient's needs.
20:14
You can create a menu that will help the salesperson ask all the right questions.
20:21
For example, if you are selling appliances or maybe you're in the home and hearth industry and you're selling fireplaces, you might need to ask the customer things like how big the all space is, do they need other product removed from the home, and there might be a fee for that.
20:42
Those sort of things, those little questions that sort of come up later and you wish someone had asked at the time.
20:49
That's how I would suggest you do it.
20:51
Also, it helps you to keep organized if you have multiple units on the same invoice to keep those straight.
21:00
like you have option A, B, and C for unit one, and then you have DEF for unit two, instead of it all getting mixed up, you know which options go to which item.
21:13
Yeah, that's a good example.
21:15
So let's say, for example, we're installing two refrigerators, one upstairs and one downstairs in the man cave, but they're the same model, but different choices, right?
21:24
Yeah, we don't need the ice maker for the upstairs one, but we definitely need it for the man cave.
21:30
Glad we're on the same page.
21:33
So you can use this in a variety of ways.
21:37
Now what I'd like to suggest, and I don't do this in every webinar, but we have a little time, is in the chat, and in the chat or the questions area, I'm kind of watching both, can you think of a way you will use this in your business, a modifier, and would you care to share?
22:00
If you'd care to share, put an idea there and I'll just read them out.
22:05
You don't have to if you don't want to but between the group you may find that some of you can kind of cross pollinate here.
22:13
So can anyone think of another creative way to use one of these modifiers or do you think you'll use it in one of the ways we've described?
22:27
Ah, so we had somebody who's selling some vacuum cleaners, vacuum, and to add bags.
22:32
So upsell, commonly I could see how that would happen.
22:36
They leave with the vacuum, they get home and they're like, oh, this sucks, I don't have any bags.
22:44
Light kits for ceiling fans, excellent.
22:47
So easy to forget that they need to bring this, I guess these attachments for the fan or to add the lights to the fan, it's a great idea.
22:57
Oh yeah, lighting kits, they can come in different colors and different types of glass and all kinds of stuff.
23:04
Yeah.
23:05
Yeah.
23:12
I know that – if anyone – is anyone here in the healthcare industry?
23:22
Okay.
23:22
So we have at least one person.
23:24
So just to point out some things I've seen helpful.
23:27
Many of your products in that industry – there's a lot of questions to ask.
23:36
Oh, this is a good question.
23:38
Hold on.
23:39
I can't quite see the whole thing.
23:40
Just a sec.
23:46
This is a good question.
23:47
And if the customer is getting the product shipped, can I make modifiers to add their shipping address to their account?
23:53
You could collect their shipping address, although I have to say, probably, if you're gonna collect their shipping address, what you wanna do is put that in the ship to field.
24:06
Or in the customer record for later use.
24:11
But, or, you know, in one of those places is a good permanent spot for it.
24:16
But if you just want to create a modifier like shipping address, they would have to choose though.
24:21
The modifier gives you choices.
24:22
What it doesn't give you is a place for a free form like type whatever you'd like.
24:28
That's one limitation of it.
24:32
I'm not sure if that answered the question.
24:34
Feel free to add more to your question if you like.
24:40
Yeah, is there a way to allow for custom entries instead of a choice of options?
24:45
So great question and no, not really.
24:48
However, let's say I sell a line item.
24:52
So here, let's sell another one of these and we'll waive it.
25:01
So to answer your question, let's say I add a non-stock line item like that.
25:08
I can still make an item comment there and type that in.
25:13
I can edit the description.
25:16
So what I've seen people do is create a non-stock item that they can select with the modifier but leave the description blank and then fill in.
25:26
So make this product the question if you're following me, Josh.
25:32
And then over here, instead of typing in what I've typed in, you know, you could have a little message like please collect details for your employee.
25:44
Yeah, and I don't know if everybody knows this or not, but in fact, Windward uses our own software to sell our product to you all.
25:55
So we do this as well.
25:57
So we have a part number called note that we just freeform into like that.
26:03
Oh, I didn't know that.
26:05
That's cool.
26:08
Okay, so this conversation about, well here's another good question and then I'm gonna hand it over to Kyle to wrap things up for us.
26:17
Can we make modifiers to affect an entire category instead of modifying one part at a time?
26:24
Great question.
26:25
And you can do a couple things.
26:27
So I believe if you go into your setup wizard, you could set in the inventory settings under your default items, you can go into a category, like so say this category modifiers.
26:51
If all the product in that category, that subcategory is gonna have the same modifiers, you could put it in the default item and put it here and then that should be cloned into every item that is created in that category.
27:07
That is for new product creation, that default.
27:12
So if you already have 100 of these items, it's not gonna affect the existing ones.
27:17
I don't think there is a way to do that.
27:19
But for any new product created in the category, it would add that menu system.
27:25
Yeah, I'm not completely stuck on that either.
27:28
There is that copy from 100 that you have already existing.
27:36
Yeah, you can do that.
27:37
And I think more commonly what people do is they create one product and make sure it's working the way they like and they clone it.
27:46
The person I know that does the wheelchairs, for example, it's quite intricate, the modifier they've made.
27:50
They don't want to rewrite it every time.
27:52
So when they get a new model of wheelchair, they clone the old product using this button, and it clones the modifiers, and then they edit it a little bit from there.
28:05
So that should work.
28:10
Okay, so just in the interest of time, I wanted to thank you all for coming today, and really the theme about this, and to kind of lead into our workshop next week, is there features in this system that are designed for one purpose, but can be really helpful in another way.
28:24
And all of you are the experts in your businesses, not us here at Windward.
28:28
So I'm hopeful that you might be able to find a way to use this tool to suit your needs.
28:33
Which is the theme for our upcoming workshop on August 15th.
28:37
We're gonna explore different types of inventory features and advanced features and how they're normally used and how they're set up.
28:43
And then also, maybe we can brainstorm together different ways you can use it and share with each other.
28:50
And that's what we're gonna go through in the workshop.
28:53
So, in regards to modifiers, there is great resources in the Windward Learning Academy if you just search by the tag modifiers, and in the quick reference guide, there's a good article in the customer care portal, which is just titled modifiers, and that walks you through everything I've shown you today.
29:15
The quick reference guide gives you more gritty detailed instructions, and the videos are pretty good too.
29:21
So, have a look at all of that, and I'm hopeful to see some of you at the upcoming workshop next week, which we'll go over these different types of products, and just like we experimented with the modifiers and brainstormed today, we're going to try and do that with all these different product types and see how you can utilize the system really to its fullest benefit using these different features.
29:48
I'll hand it over to you, Kyle.
29:49
Oh, all right, well, we have an in-person workshop plan for November 6th and 7th in Dallas, Texas, and it's gonna be at the SMART Center and in our very own showroom inside of the Dallas Market Center.
30:05
You haven't really missed anything.
30:06
This is actually the first time that we're announcing this.
30:10
So we have a little bit of a early bird special to offer.
30:15
If this is gonna go through the end of this month, the $1 ,200 price there.
30:22
And then it's going to go up after that to $1 ,500.
30:25
So you'll be saving about $300 by getting in early.
30:28
And there's about 40 seats that are available in this space.
30:33
And we have some really great topics planned, including a hands-on inventory experience using System 5 Sidekick.
30:40
So we hope that you join us.
30:42
Again, that's going to be November 6th and 7th.
30:45
It's going to be in Dallas, Texas.
30:46
We're working on hotel blocks and all that stuff as well.
30:50
The early bird price is gonna include your meals at that.
30:53
You'll be responsible for your own lodging though.
30:56
And then if there's no other questions, I didn't notice anybody else popping in with questions there.
31:03
I think we got one.
31:04
Yeah, perfect.
31:06
And one thing I'll say about in-person events is that there used to be a frequent thing at Windward Software.
31:13
And one thing that really happened a lot at those events is that the attendees are given the opportunity to talk to one another and form bonds with another and compare notes about how they use system five.
31:28
And sometimes people would learn a lot from the content, but sometimes they learn a lot from the other attendees too, which is, it's hard to replicate online.
31:37
That networking and relationship building.
31:39
Yeah, there's all the time in between sessions that you get to talk and all that.
31:44
So it's a little bit, you're right.
31:46
It's just hard to replicate that through a chat or through a video conferencing.
31:51
So we really hope that some of you decide to come to this, especially we've got limited seats available.
31:58
So there's only so much space in the room, but we feel like we're going to fill that room up quickly and we want you to be in there.
32:10
Awesome.
32:11
Thank you, Kyle.
32:12
Thank you everyone for coming today.
32:15
Have a good day.
32:17
Have a good one.
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