Laser Rays is a custom laser etching and cutting company located in Detroit. Before working with A Head Studio, they quoted all of their custom projects manually, consuming precious time and resources. As a part of our 1:1 support, we implemented an instant online quoting system and other support work.
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Laser Rays Detroit is a small yet mighty custom laser etching and cutting company proudly located in Detroit, MI. Their mission is to provide affordable high-quality services for creators looking to create physical products or goods. They also work closely with local small business to help provide customized supplies like restaurant check holders, magnets, and product labels. They're a company that prides themselves on the quality of their work, their dedication to the community they serve, and their love for helping small time artists and creators. They see a world where anyone with an idea for a physical product can prototype it and create it, regardless of their budget or ability. We think this is an awesome idea, and an awesome world to live in.
A small team at their core, Laser Rays was doing all of its quoting for custom projects manually. This means that a real human being has to sit down and create a manual quote each time a new project comes in. And, because each Laser Rays project is customized, this was becoming a huge bottleneck. Instead of spending their time writing a manual and tedious quote. Their team knew that there had to be a better way to do, and perhaps automate this process but didn't have the expertise to solve this problem
When we first met with Laser Rays, we felt their pain. They were wasting precious time that could be spent on project work creating quotes. We knew there was a way to handle this quoting with software and set out on a journey to create a custom coded solution to do instant quoting. At A Head Studio, we understand the woes of being a small team and needing to be resourceful. We can appreciate a scrappy solution, so we created an 'upscale' spreadsheet tool to help Laser Rays speed up the quoting process while we set out on our work. This way the team could turn around quotes quicker while we worked on a more permanent solution.
Then, we set to work out a solution to our problem. How could we automate the quoting process? And, how could we create a well designed solution that fits into Laser Rays' current website seamlessly? Their acute attention to detail and design savvy was their selling point, so we knew we had to create something that looked great and functioned well. To understand the problem, we joined Laser Rays on their customer journey. We developed a deep empathy for their team and their customers. We worked 1:1 with them in experiencing their current quoting process. Then, we went on-site at their studio to understand how their machinery worked and their process for creating physical products.
With this deep understanding, we were well equipped to create a solution that would work for their team and their customers.
Our team worked with the Laser Rays team to hone in on how to estimate projects. With all the variables in place, we began working on a custom coded plugin to help them quote projects on their existing Shopify site. While working on this plugin we were able to find a pre-packaged quoting solution made specifically for laser etching and cutting. We then pivoted our work to setting up this existing solution for Laser Rays as it was a quicker solution. This is a testament to our dedication to our clients, we believe the best solution is the one that works best for your needs, not ours.
With the time we save, we were able to do additional work on Laser Rays' Shopify site by helping them integrate new plugins to provide bulk discounts and a customized pricing model on their website. We also did theme customization work on their site.
In the end, we were able to find a custom quoting solution that met Laser Rays' needs perfectly. We also did some coding and customization work to their Shopify site. With this work, they were able to go from a manual, tedious, and time consuming process to an entirely automated process. This saved the team time and allowed them to focus on what matters most, creating amazing products. After this work, Laser Rays formally launched their website. With the new site, they were able to serve new customers and even reached a point where they had to waitlist new customers as they had so much new work.