Oct 06 2008
Case of: Shapland Swim Schools
We have realized for some time that the internet was one of the most powerful market tools we had available. The increasing number of our clients who used the term “We’ll Google it” re-enforced this so early 2008 we decided to look around for a firm that could develop a web site that would fit our needs.
Shapland Swim Schools are a franchise which supply friendly, experienced, caring and AUSTSWIM qualified teachers, small learn to swim classes and a warm environment. A successful formula, which ensures everyone, can learn to swim with ease and confidence.
By using franchising they were able to deliver a dream (smaller more personalised centers) as their franchisees are able to supply the most important ingredients for a successful swim Schools, stability, 100% commitment and passion for making a difference in children’s lives.
Challenges
When Sauce Software became involved there were challenges facing Shapland Swim Schools.
- There was no content management system in place to promote and allow potential clients to register online.
- The effectiveness, usability and accessibility of individual franchise sites were dependent on the skill of their franchise owners.
- Shapland Swim Schools was very concerned that its major marketing tool – the website – was ineffective to capture online leads and registration. A lot of money and time was being put into online marketing activities with no online business platform to support this.
- Shapland Swim Schools was looking to create a much more user centered website. There was a real need to remove the technical barriers to managing the content and customer database, so this could be maintained by the owner and not by technical experts.
The old website was unable to be updated regularly and they needed a system which would allow them to run online and offline marketing campaigns simultaneously, to capture leads anytime into the integrated CRM.
Solution – Implementation of SauceOpen
Evaluation by Rha Advertising, a partner of Sauce Software, identified the potential of SauceOpen to not only meet the primary objectives but to also provide options for other sales and marketing issues within the franchise.
Shapland Swim Schools was lucky to have strong support of the technology, therefore after one 4 hour training session they can run their online business platform, reducing the risk in going with an open source product.
As part of the implementation Sauce Software supplied the following professional services to Rha Advertising and Shapland Swim Schools;
- Implementation Services
- Project Management
- Content management and Customer database training.
Shapland Swim Schools has also used a Sauce ongoing support and maintenance packages to increase SEO effectiveness by doing key word research and content enhancements.
Result – Expectations Met
The SauceOpen solution delivered on the initial expectations. SauceOpen was well received by the franchise community – especially by those with little or no knowledge content management systems and customer relationship management (CRM)
It has enabled the Swim Schools to release a new advertising campaign and drive traffic to the website. Capturing many more leads into the CRM, than expected, via the online registration system. The owner of the business logs into the CRM every morning to view how many more registrations they’ve had overnight.
Shapland Swim Schools has now started to utilise the leads captured through the website to grow their list and start marketing to them via the email marketing system.
So far this year (until August 2008) they’ve experienced a dramatic increase in the contact, potential clients have had with the swim schools. Since going live on the 18th of July we have had 219 booking/contact forms come through to our swim schools. The conversion rate of these contacts ranged from 40% to 80% depending on the spots available in the swim school. The schools with the lower conversion rate are almost at full capacity and simply can’t fit in any more clients. Comparing to the same period of time last year this is a 70% increase in registrations.