One question that we frequently hear from our Manufacturer partners is: “AQ has a ton to offer; what are some tools or features in the platform that I should be taking advantage of?” At AQ, we continuously enhance and upgrade our software to add new features that help our customers work as efficiently as possible. So, we want to make sure that all our customers – manufacturers, dealers, and reps alike - understand the value of AQ OrderStatus, a built-in order tracking feature of AQ.
What is OrderStatus anyway?
AQ’s Order Status tab is the frictionless way to instantly check-in with the status of a confirmed order – right within AQ. Before OrderStatus, manufacturers and dealers relied on many different systems to keep track of shipment information on placed orders. Dealers would spend time calling the manufacturer to hunt down quantity shipped, tracking numbers, estimated arrival dates, and other crucial data points that informed both end-users and others involved in the receiving and installation process. Service teams working with the manufacturer also felt the strain on resources. They stayed busy fielding calls and emails about order information to keep everyone up to date and in the know. Finally, the third-party freight companies were another variable in the equation, so there was plenty of opportunities to democratize the information related to a single order and share it with all the stakeholders involved. Enter AQ OrderStatus.
AQ’s OrderStatus allows Manufacturers to share order information with Dealers who have placed an order with them, so all parties involved can view the data directly within AQ. It is important to note here that Dealers would only see their own company’s order information and not the data for another Dealer company. Dealers have frictionless access to their pending orders with participating manufacturers. Manufacturer service teams can get a quick snapshot of open, shipped, and pending orders as they progress through the delivery lifecycle. Both parties save time and money between their respective ordering teams, and the dealer’s customers can receive accurate dates and times to arrange lift-gate delivery – a win, win, win!
Who benefits? Everyone.
Order Status helps reduce the time service teams spend answering calls and emails drastically – one Manufacturer customer reported a 50% reduction in service labor hours spent answering questions about pending orders and shipping information! Manufacturers who provide order information to their Dealer customers also increase transparency and build trust in the supply chain. Providing Dealer customers (and by proxy, end-users) accurate order information will catalyze the value chain and promote a culture of data-driven decision making when it comes time to order again. Our data shows that a customer is more likely to purchase again from a dealer when there is transparency in the shipping process. Simply put, participating in Order Status is an easy way for manufacturers and dealers to improve the customer experience and sell more stuff.
Taking advantage of AQ’s OrderStatus adds massive value to your AQ powered workflow and is included in your license subscription at no additional cost. Currently, hundreds of AQ-listed Manufacturers are sharing OrderStatus data with their customers every week, and we are actively seeking new partners to get set up with the service. While there is some initial lift to get the data mapped to our system, there is no cost to start publishing orders, and AQ will ensure that the onboarding process is as streamlined and efficient as possible for you to get started.
Creating Order for an Order
Before jumping in, the first thing we want to do is clear up a couple of misconceptions. First, purchase orders do not have to be created in AQ to have them accessible in Order Status. The orders come directly from the manufacturer’s system, so no matter how a dealer or rep makes and sends orders to manufacturers, they will appear in the OrderStatus tab. Secondly, all customers that subscribe to AQ CPQ can access OrderStatus at no additional cost.
Onboarding Made Easy
- The first step for a Manufacturer to get started is to contact the Customer Success team at customersuccess@AQ-FES.com or contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager directly. We will book a short meeting to explain the process and what is needed to get going, and we also suggest inviting a technical resource from your IT department to help with the data extraction and sharing process.
- Following the meeting, we will need an extract from your order system – providing at least three months of data is best practice.
- Next, AQ will create a set of credentials to a secured file transfer site to share the order extract and provide you with any feedback on the schema of the data you’ve shared. An AQ technician will go to work and link companies in our system to the companies on the extract. This step is critical to ensure that the correct customers get connected to your order information and usually represents the most time-consuming piece of the puzzle. The AQ team will handle the differences in punctuation placement, naming variances, and other nuances to ensure the data's accuracy before being published.
- After the linking, we test the data, verify with you, and publish live to the Dealers!
Create Order. Reduce Friction. Make Connections.
Those words are more than just our mission statement. They drive everything that we do at AQ, including developing products and solutions that help you work smarter and solve problems. AQ’s OrderStatus is a massive value-addition to your toolkit.
Reduce friction in the post-sale cycle.
Make connections between service teams and customers.
Create order by providing a single place to track all your order information right in AQ.
Contact the Customer Success Team today at customersuccess@AQ-FES.com to get started today!
