THE CHALLENGE
The Carrollwood Area Business Association (CABA) was approaching a deadline. With two employees and 500 members, they had 30 days to make a change from their existing software provider, or renew a lengthy contract. Their provider’s inability to provide an affordable responsive website, lack of a mobile app, and clunky back end system was the driving force in exploring better options.
The provider wanted to charge them for a responsive website. Eventually, they conceded and provided it at no charge. However, the site they provided required an extended knowledge of HTML for the content to look right on a mobile device. Director of Operations, Melissa Marison, said “It just never worked seamlessly and was downright embarrassing from a viewer standpoint.”
THE SOLUTION
CABA looked at many alternatives for website development and maintenance; they even considered having one of their members design a new site. They ultimately decided that would require too much intervention and could get expensive. They began evaluating membership management software companies including GrowthZone.“
I found GrowthZone to be one of the more “available” businesses to discuss our needs,” she said. “We were in a major time crunch, and GrowthZone said they could make it happen. This was such a MAJOR change for us – and they gave me confidence that several of the other companies didn’t.”
According to Melissa, CABA made the decision to go with GrowthZone based on cost, mobile capability, ease of use, and willingness to help.
THE RESULTS
“GrowthZone has brought us to a new level of member exposure with the enhanced profiles and the mobile capability. We LOVE THE APP – and we love the true mobile responsiveness of the website. Our staff does not need to be developer level to work the back end,” Melissa shared.
Their favorite features? Enhanced Member Profiles, the InfoHub, and the Event Management Tool. “Our membership has really taken to the feeds in the back end. The GrowthZone InfoHub makes it easy for even inept users to navigate. It has been fun to watch,” she said.