While shifting from a technology-centric culture to a customer-centric culture proved challenging, our decisive actions also made the project highly rewarding for the established software providers.
Delivering a 107% increase in new sales leads, we also produced a 28% increase in site visitors, a 21% increase in demo requests and a 300% increase in paid-for event requests.
A change of culture delivers 107% increase in leads
While the desire to make things better is a constant, the capability to improve leads, conversions and sales sometimes takes a shift in approach. This was certainly the case for software provider Deltek (formally Union Square Software).
Providers of sophisticated project management software to a mixed audience of 40,000 architects, consultants, developers and engineers, Deltek’s culture was inevitably technology-centric. It creates effective software solutions. Its solutions are based in technology. It’s what they do.
Changing the approach
Yet Deltek had the foresight to do something completely new. As a business, it recognised the need for change. Being a technology-led business meant its website was falling short in terms of the user journey it delivered.
Consequently, an unfocussed value proposition and a frustrating navigation was having a negative impact on its business. The feeling was a change in approach could increase inbound leads for product demos, improve conversion rates and achieve higher sales and, ultimately, the business’s income.
Deltek's end users are professionals from across the built environment
Diagnosing the issues
With this open brief from Deltek, we started by gathering information on what their audience wanted. By researching, listening and exploring the UI, we lifted the lid on Deltek’s current situation. Through a series of workshops, we canvassed the views and circumstances of their product, technical, sales and marketing teams.
This discovery and diagnosis phase uncovered a number of truths, principally one around fragmentation. There were too many website pages. It had a clunky navigation. Also, a fractured event-booking process which needed serious improvement.
Shifting from a technology to a customer-centric culture
Finding the answer
Beyond the website itself, this fragmentation was evidenced in the differing agendas between the internal teams, and in the gaps in the technology stack, where different platforms simply weren’t connecting.
We soon discovered the solution for both issues were one and the same. This was for Deltek to adopt a much more customer-centric approach, where everyone’s efforts would be focussed squarely on what the customer wanted, needed, and expected, and on nothing else.
Acting with confidence
Confronted with solid research evidence to support this diagnosis, Deltek had the courage to recognise the value of change and the confidence to alter direction, enabling us to act decisively to improve the customers’ digital experience.
We improved the navigation, design and structure, so users could find what they were looking for quickly and easily. We improved the tracking of site visitors, so users are shown more personalised content depending on what they need from the site. We improved the event sign-up experience by consolidating Deltek’s HubSpot, Mailchimp and Pure360 subscriptions into one platform.
Project management software used on site
Delivering impressive results
By reducing four systems into one, costs were reduced. Efficiency increased by freeing Deltek’s teams from repetitively inputting data for emails, input errors and reducing the time spent on a disjointed manual process. By automating the event sign-up process, customers received what they needed when they needed it. A confirmation email, a reminder, how to pick up their badge, parking, lunch arrangements and every detail that makes a successful event.
The results speak for themselves. A 107% increase in new sales leads. A 28% increase in site visitors. A 21% increase in demo requests. A 300% increase in paid-for event requests. 16 hours of admin saved every week.
Adopting a customer-centric approach
But ultimately, beyond the commercial KPIs and the immediate return on investment, the improvement proved satisfying both for the website user and the website owner. Because, while the former embraced a new user experience that put them first, the latter found that adopting a more customer-centric approach galvanised the business. Uniting its teams, delivering more efficiency, more effectiveness, and more satisfaction in serving software to its customers on an easier to use platform.
Reducing costs, improving outcomes
All this was achieved by providing research findings to prove the need to swing the pendulum to customers, and through Deltek’s courage and flexibility in accommodating a shift in culture. The rewards of doing so were pleasingly immediate, enabling Deltek to reduce its MarTech stack spend by thousands of pounds and improving tracking, reporting and the efficiency of the website.
