The requests that eat the most time in MRO aren't the routine reorders. They're the oddballs. A tech hands your rep a worn-out grease fitting with no markings. A planner emails "need the same caster as last time, the gray one." A maintenance manager sends a phone photo of a nameplate on a pump nobody has bought parts for in ten years.
Then there are planned shutdowns, where the maintenance team sends a long list of everything they'll need for a week of repairs, much of it items they don't buy any other time of year.
These requests matter. They're often urgent, and the distributor who answers them earns the routine business too. But chasing them by phone and email is slow.
AI Quick Quote: say it, type it or show it
AI Quick Quote lets a customer say or type what they need in plain words and get a priced quote back. "Box of 3/8-16 by 1-1/2 grade 8 hex bolts, a case of blue shop towels and two tubes of medium-strength thread locker" becomes a priced list matched to your catalog.
The quote re-check goes a step further: right after a quote shows, every line still being checked is checked again against the full description and updated on screen. When a customer pastes in a list from a competitor's invoice, every crossed line shows the competitor's invoice text and full description next to your match, so the buyer can see exactly what's being compared.
Get this for me
Not everything is in your catalog, and nobody expects it to be. Get this for me lets the customer ask for anything they don't see. The request goes straight to your purchasing team and comes back as a quote.
It's the digital version of "can you find me one of these?" and it keeps those requests from turning into a long email chain. Your reps can do the same: if a customer asks for something special on a visit, the rep can buy it directly or send it to purchasing from the field.
The email quote desk
Some buyers will always email. The email quote desk prices and answers quotes requested by email, so a list emailed late on a Friday gets worked instead of sitting in someone's inbox. Every decision the agents make is logged so your team can check them.
Here's how the three fit together on a typical day:
- A tech photographs or describes what he needs and uses AI Quick Quote for the standard items.
- For the unusual part, he uses Get this for me and purchasing takes over.
- The plant buyer emails a list for a planned shutdown, and the email quote desk prices it.
- Once the quote is ready, the customer accepts it in the app when they're ready to buy.
Why this is where you win
A national with a huge catalog can sell a box of bolts. What maintenance managers remember is who found the obsolete limit switch or the odd-size hose fitting. Quoting hard-to-find items quickly, and without making the customer repeat themselves, is how a local MRO distributor earns a reputation that price alone can't touch.
It also turns special requests into data. Items that keep coming up through Get this for me are candidates for your stock, or for a customer's storeroom.
Want to see it with your own catalog? See how it works.