Simplifying Complicated Purchases In the Online Era

As much as focusing on implementing the most innovative technology might initially propel a business forward, at the end of the day, the gold standard of success is a flawless customer experience. So how do companies go about marrying these two sometimes-competing priorities?

James Hafen, SVP of Product & Technology at ExtraSpace Storage, and Nick Devlin, VP of Tech Ops at Orangetheory joined Ironclad’s Director of Sales for Ironclad Clickwrap to discuss how they approached this tension and evolved their digital strategies to meet their customers where they were – without letting messy paperwork get in the way. Check out the full webinar below, or read on to dive into how Orangetheory used Ironlcad Clickwrap to create a seamless member onboarding experience.

Though Orangetheory is a well-known fitness brand with 1,500+ boutique studios across the country, it has always thought of itself as a technology company first. It focus its client experiences on seamless member sign up and mobile-friendly class scheduling, and its classes even integrate smart fitness tech like heart rate monitoring to let clients easily track their own performance and progress.

But implementing technical solutions for the operations of the studios themselves–which are franchised and therefore independently owned and operated– is much harder. When Nick Devlin, the current VP of Technical Operations joined Orangetheory in 2017, the company was just beginning its efforts to consolidate solution systems and digitize processes wherever they could. Fast forwarding a couple years, the COVID-19 pandemic made having paperless, frictionless solutions for every kind of operation more critical than ever, especially for a company whose core customer demographic was made up of digital first, tech-savvy millenials. “We just started that evolution and we’ve really focused on the innovation and being that leader in the fitness space when it comes to technology,” said Devlin.

After tackling one of his first big digital transformation projects, shifting studio treatment like promotion deployments and price changes from individual roll outs to bulk, enterprise-grade operational implementation, Devlin and the team turned their sights on optimizing their sign up experience for customers. They started researching, leaning heavily on customer feedback to identify what the biggest gaps in experience were, and then started internal assessment. “We had to keep all these departments close to us because we were changing the way of thinking. We’re asking things like, “Does this document really need to be six pages? What can we digitize? What can we trigger based on specific use cases?'” Devlin shared. “But we had great support from our franchise advisory council and our internal legal and operations teams to make this happen.”

The team saw that their membership agreement, which was indeed a whopping six pages, presented an opportunity to digitize and streamline the sign up process for members so they didn’t feel like they had to bring a lawyer with them to sign up for a workout. It also presented an opportunity to save on paper documentation and storage costs. After coming across the Ironclad CLM, Devlin and the team found that its click-to-accept product, Ironclad Clickwrap, offered a great way to speed up the membership agreement process. Ironclad Clickwrap transformed the six-page physical membership agreement into a digital document that users had to check only one box to instantly accept during their online sign up flow. Dubbing it the “online joint solution,” the team rolled this self-service sign up service out to studios across the country, and though it’s only been five months since its launch, the results have been fantastic. “[We’re] running anywhere from 10 to 15% of our members through that channel, which is just kind of phenomenal.”

The initiative is still in its infancy, but Devlin is excited about the opportunity it presents for other areas of the business, not just in terms of execution but also a paradigm shift in thinking. “[We’re changing] even how we think about what should be on a form and how that should be captured and managed.” For a company focused so much on digital transformation, the possibilities are really endless. As for what’s next, Devlin says there’s “huge potential, but we don’t want to give too much away.”

• Research, research, research. Take the time to really understand what your users’ pain points look like. Sit down with them, ask questions, and try to live their experience so that you know exactly what to build for and for whom for when product roadmap drafting comes along.
• Work backwards from the ideal customer experience. To avoid plateauing, it’s critical to map out exactly how you want the customer to experience the sign up or purchase flow. After all, it doesn’t matter how innovative your technology is if it’s buried below a poor UI.
• Always be iterating. You might already have a pretty decent digital experience for your customers. But is it perfect? Is it keeping pace with surrounding innovation? The best customer experiences are ones behind which the team is constantly listening, A/B testing, and making incremental improvements. Don’t settle for good when you could be great.

Interested in seeing how Ironclad Clickwrap can speed up contracts for your business? Talk to one of our digital contracting specialists and get a custom demo.