SmartFence case study
SmartFence grew directly out of TAG’s fractional work with Wallace + Wallace, a fencing company and existing TAG client. It’s a different kind of case study for TAG, not an engagement TAG was hired into, but a product TAG’s founder built after spotting the gap himself, now spun out into its own company, Future Front Innovation Inc. (FFI).
The challenge
While working with Wallace + Wallace, Gareth saw the problem up close: fence companies had estimation software available to them, but the experience fell short of what homeowners actually needed. None of the existing tools offered real guidance: a way for a homeowner to work through what kind of fence actually suited their property, their budget and their reasons for fencing in the first place, before ever talking to a salesperson. On top of that, businesses running these tools had no visibility into how people were actually using them: there was no way to see where users dropped off, or where the experience itself was creating friction.
The solution
Gareth designed and built SmartFence: an interactive estimator alongside a chatbot that answers a homeowner’s questions about products and the company. Built into that chatbot, and also available as its own standalone application, is Fence Advisor: a guided set of questions that helps a homeowner understand which fence type actually fits their needs, rather than leaving them to guess. Alongside those customer-facing tools, SmartFence gives fence companies visibility into how their own funnel is performing, something the tools it replaced simply didn’t offer.
SmartFence has since been spun out of TAG into its own company, Future Front Innovation Inc., which now owns and operates the product. It’s currently in use at Wallace + Wallace and Shorty’s Fencing.
The results
Both conversion and visibility are up since launch, according to the businesses using it. Just as importantly, SmartFence gave those businesses something they didn’t have before: real insight into how their online estimator was actually performing: where users were dropping off, and where UX friction was costing them leads. Previously, that was impossible to see at all.
Curious what SmartFence looks like in practice? Visit SmartFence →