Highlights of the Club Survey Results

The Club Survey results are in, and they have given us some excellent insight into how Zone4 can serve the needs of the Clubs better.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in the Survey.  We really appreciate your feedback, and the insightful comments that you gave.  The most notable conclusion the Survey revealed was that Clubs across Canada are truly diverse and have many individual needs to suit their programs and activities.  Zone4 is committed to responding to the needs of the Clubs, and the feedback you have provided has given us renewed energy to move forward with producing numerous upgrades to the systems.

In looking at the data we have collected from the Survey, there are a broad range of answers, comments, and diverse needs voiced from the Clubs.   We would like to address each of these needs and will continue to work diligently to respond to them.  There were three areas in particular that a large majority of the Clubs indicated they would benefit from Zone4 upgrades.  The three most significant were the desire for a practical Communication Centre, the need for a more User-Friendly System, and a wish for an improved Reporting System as part of the Financial Upgrades.

Communication Centre

An overwhelming 80% of the Clubs indicated that a Communication Centre would greatly benefit them.  Being able to customize email lists, send Notifications, and create Newsletters are some of the features this Centre could provide.  Currently, Clubs have the ability to export email lists in order to compose and send emails from their own email programs or email managers such as MailChimp and Constant Contact. Having this built directly into the Zone4 registration system is much easier for Clubs to manage compared to exporting to a 3rd party application. Emails could be setup to be automatically sent out based on registration parameters. For instance, members who select a Jackrabbit program on their registration form could receive a specific welcome email with program information, and a different email could be sent automatically to trail cleanup volunteers with the work-party schedule.  The Survey shows that most clubs would prefer to use an integrated Communication Centre rather than managing exports to an external application. Because of such a big response to this need, Zone4 has already begun developing the Communication Centre, and we will begin testing it this summer.

User Friendly System

In the Survey, Clubs have given us many excellent ideas on how to make the Zone4 Software a more User Friendly system.  Whether you use the program quite regularly or only once in a while, we would like to make the experience less complicated and manageable. It is still important that all the diverse features that Zone4 provides are available for Clubs to use, however, we are working towards streamlining the system so that Users can navigate through the program in a more straightforward way.  Upgrades to help make the System more user friendly will always be ongoing.  Software is never done as it is an evolving process. User expectations are never static, and the supporting technologies change every year. When Zone4 first began in 2001, the iPod hadn’t been invented yet and the iPhone was still 6 years away from release. Gmail didn’t exist and JavaScript was unheard of. The resulting user-interface and functionality created back then, would now be so obsolete as to be considered useless. Even 5 years ago, the concept of mobile apps was nascent, and Android had only just been released. Today, Android has 80% of the global mobile market share and mobile access accounts for 50% of website visitors and email reads.  We have only a glimpse of the kinds of revolutionary concepts that will occur in the next 5 years.  Zone4 recognizes this fast paced changing world, and is committed to evolving with user expectations and technology trends.  Our programmers are hard at work on these upgrades, and you will start to notice many positive changes beginning this summer and fall.  

Financial Upgrades-Reporting System

The Survey also showed that many Clubs are wanting more features available for customization of their Financial Reporting needs. 78% of Clubs who responded to the Survey would like to have some upgrades which include more summary information for each registration form, and for each remittance, as well as a report that shows a list of all transactions.  We find that each Club has very specific needs for their financial reporting.  We are working hard at trying to meet these specific needs, while still maintaining a simple and easy to use program.  Zone4 is developing an interface by which Clubs could specify the criteria to create a report on their financial details, using any combination of data fields.  Also, a list of previously generated reports and/or frequently generated reports would be maintained for the Club’s use.  We expect these features will be in the testing phase by the end of this year.

There are many other notable suggestions and that you have given us in response to the Survey.  We consider every idea and recommendation valuable, and we are continuously working towards putting them into action.  We greatly value your feedback and look forward to any further comments you have on all of Zone4’s products and services.

Zone4’s Survey revealed 80% of clubs were either “Very Satisfied” or “Extremely Satisfied” with Zone4’s products and services, and we endeavor to raise this number by working diligently on  the upgrades, and looking to the future.  

Thank you to everyone who took part in our Survey.

Zone4 Support is always available to answer questions and give assistance if you need help. Contact us at support@zone4.ca.