They were looking to both attract new members and keep existing members engaged and well-managed. They also wanted to improve reporting and remove some manual processes to increase efficiency.

IE Digital began by talking to users and stakeholders, and looking at the existing data to find out what barriers were stopping interested new members from completing the sign-up process. This revealed that there was a significant dropout rate during the lengthy application form stage, and once they’d applied there was often a lag before the enquiry was followed up.

Another problem hindering recruitment was the content on the website, which lacked recent, relevant, content for each of the local Tables. Keeping content fresh was an administrative burden, which meant that visitors to the site struggled to find compelling reasons to join.

The streamlined form would collect only the minimum data required in the first instance – name, contact details and choice of local Table. Each application is checked for a valid email address, but administrators no longer have to second-guess the most suitable Table for a prospective member based on location, putting the choice in the hands of the applicant.

Speed of follow up was key to conversion, so we designed a mechanism to pass validated leads to the local Table recruiter by SMS, enabling them to act on the lead quickly and place a recruitment call.

We also learnt that members were far more comfortable updating Facebook than using the website CMS. IE’s solution to keeping local pages updated with news and events involved linking 400+ Facebook page feeds to the relevant Table web page. This automatically populates the site with a rich stream of posts and event details without any replication of data entry.

Combined with a much more attractive user interface, this would be key to driving enquiries through to the recruitment team.

Drive more enquiries from potential new members and simplify the process of recruiting them. Our systems notifies the local recruiter by SMS when a new membership enquiry requires follow up. A simple SMS reply logs the outcome the recruitment call in the CRM, without a need to login, speeding up follow-up. 

Rebuild the contact management system to improve how enquiries are distributed and processed, automating manual tasks and improving the reporting of enquiries. We improved accessibility and engagement, taking a cut-down version of a previous site for mobile users and simplifying the form for prospective members. Later we built a fully responsive new website, building a set of APIs to feed in event details and content from local Facebook pages. 

Reimagine and rebuild the full member site, integrating it with social media and simplifying the user experience. 

Split and rebuild the large bespoke CRM, minimising head office administration, and creating a series of simplified CRM dashboards to measure acquisition and retention activity. 

Improve the membership management system to simplify a lot of manual admin tasks and encourage members to keep their data up-to-date, plus automating email comms to keep members engaged.

IE Digital continues to manage Round Table’s public websites, members’ websites & CRM system through our Silver Support service.