My Pierret: an online platform for happy customers

Premium production, in Belgium and beyond  

Pierret is also a successful exporter, thanks to the unrivalled quality of its products. “In addition to Belgium, we sell in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and France,” says Touillaux. “One of the reasons our products are so popular is that we took a gamble in 2014 by completely renewing our range. Back then, we offered a single thickness of 88 mm for our four types of frames — wood, aluminum, PVC, and wood and aluminum — while others were offering thicknesses of 68–70 mm, which provides better energy and acoustic performance and also greater security. This has attracted the construction sector, even though it’s traditionally a sector that’s very reluctant to change.”  

A very human partnership with every client

The success of the Pierret group is also down to its relationships with its customers, whom the company considers more as partners. 

“We work with three segments,” says Touillaux. “On one hand we have general contractors and turnkey builders for whom we also take care of installation, on the other hand are independent carpenters, and finally tailor-made projects. What’s important to us is that we provide everyone with the same high-quality, human service that keeps our customers happy. To achieve this, we rely on our extensive internal expertise. For example, our R&D teams will answer customers’ questions directly. This kind of service is essential to establishing a strong partnership with each client.”  

Pierret had this level of customer service in mind when it called on delaware to design My Pierret, an online platform that allows its partners to track and manage their orders more easily. 

Hop on the digitalization train  

“Five years ago, we knew we had to get on board the digitalization train,” explains Touillaux. “This meant we needed simpler and more precise IT tools than the ones we had been using. We were working with too many programs, and the information we needed had to be accessed through different touchpoints, which complicated life for us and our partners. We called in delaware to help us rationalize and standardize our IT. We had to organize all of these disparate strands into something tidy and efficient. That’s what led to the birth of My Pierret, a unique, homogeneous, and fluid online platform that we developed in several phases. The first phase focused on facilitating communication and access to information for our partners. Using My Pierret, they would be able to easily view every aspect of their order: deadlines, dates, prices, technical specs, etc. The development of this first part of My Pierret also allowed us to spring clean our processes and build stable IT foundations, which was essential to achieving our other objectives.”  

Trust is key 

But why did Pierret choose delaware for this ambitious project?  

“Because after looking at the competition, we were persuaded by delaware’s experience and expertise,” says Touillaux. “And we quickly established trust, even from our first exchanges. The delaware team researched the specifics of our business and our sector, and we learned what was possible for this type of project. Ultimately, there were few limitations, and we’ve been able to move forward together very quickly.”  

The initial analysis work that the delaware team carried out was foundational. “Many of us have been part of the Pierret group for years,” says Touillaux, “which gives us the advantage of extensive experience. But we were so buried in our own processes that we didn’t always have a clear overview of how we operated. delaware’s analysis allowed us to get back to the fundamentals and re-examine everything we had built over the years. And we realized that we had developed a complex machine that needed to be simplified. Developing My Pierret made it possible to overhaul and refresh all our processes. For example, delaware encouraged us to move away from the culture of exception and adopt a more standardized way of working. On this basis, we developed more coherent and easily explainable workflows. 

Action-oriented  

After the launch of phase 1 of My Pierret in September 2021, the Pierret and delaware teams began working on the second stage of the project. “This phase 2 aimed to make My Pierret an action-oriented platform based on automation” says Touillaux. “The platform allows you to carry out a whole series of operations from a single place that previously involved several channels, such as e-mailing. That was important, keeping in mind that we exchange some 80,000 emails per year, all linked to orders."

Now our partners can place their orders themselves or consult with sales staff, whatever works best for them. To streamline their experience, they can also access dashboards and review the entire order process at a glance.

For our internal teams, phase 2 is also an important step forward because it allows us to eliminate work that added no real value — data encoding, for example — and concentrate on the essentials of providing great customer service and a human touch.

This new version of My Pierret went live in February 2023 and was quickly adopted by both our partners and our teams, thanks to its functionality and ease of use. Today, our average order processing time has gone from seven down to two days, thanks to the new platform!”

On the way to phase 3 and then?  

Phase 3 of My Pierret is already in development. “We really want to get all of our teams on board with My Pierret, which is currently only used by IT and sales,” says Touillaux. “Phase 3 will see us launch a new website and implement a CRM system to better process our leads and move toward intelligent marketing automation. We don’t want to blindly launch massive campaigns, but rather to act with purpose and intelligence to reach the right people at the right time, with a message that doesn’t encourage unnecessary consumption, which would contradict our strong sustainability positioning.”

To conclude, Touillaux takes stock of five years of collaboration with delaware. “We continue to evolve with delaware, and our teams are becoming more independent every day. This partnership has truly given us a new outlook. There is genuine trust there, and the optimization of time has been particularly appreciated. I can say with confidence that delaware and Pierret are a solid team!”