Aquatell CDAP

Aquatell's Digital Adoption Plan offers digitized processes, delivering exceptional services in a more scalable manner.

Client

Aquatell is in the water treatment sector, selling to residential consumers via e-commerce and to businesses and institutions via traditional direct sales, phone and email.

Brief

Aquatell applied to the Boost Your Business Technology Grant from the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) for an opportunity to receive the following: 

1. A grant of up to $15,000 covering 90% of the costs for a digital adoption plan developed by a registered digital advisor (me);

2. Up to $100,000 in interest-free loans from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to help implement their digital adoption plan;

3. Up to $7,300 in wage subsidies to hire a student or recent graduate to help execute its digital adoption plan.

Challenge

The North American water treatment market is growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 6.8%, with demand resulting from increasing water pollution, aging infrastructure, budget cuts, and population increase in urban areas. 

Water treatment systems are highly technical; installing them requires a professional or a confident do-it-yourself consumer. Miscommunications, misinformation, infamous news stories, and perceived complex technical systems have led to consumer distrust.

The Aquatell brand is rooted in having a knowledgeable technical background and the ability to answer complex questions in a consumer-friendly manner. Aquatell believes in the information reciprocation model; if you offer high-quality content for free, consumers will trust you, and when they trust you, they feel more confident purchasing your products.

Aquatell prides itself as a customer-focused, transparent and ethically run business. It offers unmatched pre and post-sales support, which is unique to an industry that often fails to deliver sufficient customer service. Customers show appreciation with positive feedback and outstanding Google review ratings, averaging 4.8 out of 5.

The owner intends to invest and grow annually by diversifying its customer base, increasing its business-to-business channels total revenue, and digitizing how it educates consumers.

Strategy

While Aquatell uses technology to support its business operations (sales, marketing, fulfillment, shipping, project management, and manufacturing), it needs to build more integration between its systems (beyond manual efforts). It requires an approach that allows it to offer consistent, automated and helpful customer service throughout the purchase, installation and maintenance process. 

Results

Aquatell's digital adoption plan offers seven recommendations to build a more robust, consistent, and integrated digital ecosystem that will allow it to continue to provide exceptional services in a more scalable manner. 

1. Upgrade to Shopify 2.0: a significant undertaking with many benefits to Aquatell, including more control over the content and branding and the ability to offer a unique shopping experience for its clients.

2. Procure a CRM: help Aquatell unify its customer interactions and activities. It calls for changing many internal processes to systemize Aquatell’s sales, marketing and customer services. A systemized approach will lead to more consistency and a superior customer experience.

3. Define a content marketing strategy: Aquatell can approach every customer touchpoint strategically, consistently demonstrating its value proposition and creating a more intentional brand experience.

4. Better SEO: ensure that every aspect of Aquatell’s digital experience exemplifies its unique approach to the market.

5. Add life cycle email marketing: a life cycle approach to email marketing allows Aquatell to create an intimate brand experience with its clients that competitors can’t easily replicate.

6. Set up analytics and dashboards: Aquatell can monitor its digital experience's effectiveness and measure its investments' impact - allowing it to spot areas for course correction quickly and from a higher vantage point.

7. Use paid media to scale: Aquatell can use paid media to control the volume and type of traffic visiting its website - offering an opportunity to increase or decrease sales leads and better manage its pace of growth.

It's a prioritized plan where each milestone supports the previous while preparing a better digital ecosystem for future projects. It includes a roadmap with a corresponding timeline, identified dependencies, technology, implementation, and training costs.