Since Wild Apricot is an Internet company, we don’t usually get a lot of opportunities to actually meet with our customers in real life. So this past week, we tried out something we have never tried before: we sent an invitation out to a group of local customers, and asked them to an informal meet-up in our office!
Despite a rainy downpour in the morning, we had a small group gather at our downtown Toronto office around 3pm. Our Chief Apricot, Dmitry, gave our guests a tour of the office, and we gave a presentation of our upcoming version 4.4 features.
After the presentation, there was an opportunity for the customers to talk to us, describing issues they’ve had with setup, some support-related questions, and chat with each other about how they were using Wild Apricot.
It was a small gathering, but we learned a lot. We got some ideas on improving the overall customer experience, discussed features on our Wishlist that we should take a second look at, and more. We heard from some administrators who had inherited their Wild Apricot site from predecessors with very little training. We found out how these customers found out about us, what kind of organizations they’re running, and how we’re able to help them grow.
And we weren’t the only ones to benefit! Suzanne Foote of the International Pedicure Association felt that a user group is an excellent idea.
“It was good to hear of other uses of Wild Apricot, I got ideas for additional uses for my member organization, and I also got questions answered. I look forward to the next versions – they look great!”
And according to Don Purvis of the Cabbagetown South Resident’s Association:
“I found it helpful to listen to other user’s problems and successes…I was thinking after I left, we should have asked for each other’s website so could look in on each other’s progress.”
For a pilot project we felt it went very well, and we’re looking forward other opportunities to meet with customers soon.