The Context
An HVAC zoning system is a heating and cooling system that allows the creation and regulation of customized temperature zones throughout a home for increased comfort and efficiency. One of the leading manufacturers of HVAC zoning systems in North America was looking to eliminate bottlenecks in their sales process. Realizing the importance of customer delight, they zeroed in on using mobile applications to showcase their wide range of products and educate their customers. Tismo was brought onboard to develop mobile applications for Android and iOS platforms, to assist in sales.
The Problem
A major bottleneck plaguing the client’s sales process was the turnaround time in creating customized proposals as per individual customer needs. The mobile applications developed by Tismo would have to showcase the complete range of products to the customers and allow sales people to quickly and easily create proposals to be shared with customers. Additionally, the apps would have to maintain a record of customers, job specifications and submitted and revised proposals.
The Solution
Tismo developed separate mobile applications for Android and iOS platforms, to assist in the sales of HVAC zoning systems. Java and XML were used to develop the mobile application for Android while Swift was used to develop the iOS mobile application. The Realm Database, which stored data as objects, was used as it is faster and easier to use when compared to other options like SQLite and CoreData. The MVC architectural pattern was employed in the development process. The mobile applications displayed products with detailed technical specifications, to allow customers to make well-informed choices. The applications filtered the displayed products based on customer inputs and supported the comparison of different products. It also supported viewing of explanatory videos.
The mobile applications alerted salespeople to upcoming meetings and allowed setting of reminders for various tasks to be completed. Also, the salespeople could record details of customer requirements, budget constraints and time frame. This information could be used to enable seamless interactions with the same customer in the future. The mobile applications also supported the feature to upload floor plans and draw zones to create rough sketches of the job at hand. Elements like text, photographs and color could be added to demarcate various zones of the proposed HVAC zoning system.
Storyboard of Mobile Application UI
The salespeople could easily create proposals in real time, giving customers the best options and complete transparency regarding technical and pricing details. It minimized the work of salespeople by automatically filling customer information, price and technical specifications of selected HVAC zoning product options. The proposal could be saved on the mobile device or shared as a PDF file via email, various messaging platforms and could also be uploaded to cloud storage. Additionally, customers could view the proposal on the mobile applications and sign the document using the touch screen. Moreover, the mobile applications tracked the number of views of various products and proposals, and provided data that could be used to tweak the sales effort.
Summary
Tismo developed separate native mobile applications for Android and iOS using Java and XML, and Swift respectively. The applications were designed to aid salespeople in showcasing products and drastically reduced the turnaround time for creating proposals. This was deemed to have a strong positive impact on the client’s sales prospects.