Helping the City of Menlo Park Meet the Expectations of their Tech-Savvy Community

Key Challenges

Before Nick was in his current role as Assistant Director of Library and Community Services, he primarily worked for Menlo Park Library. Then, in 2020, two of the city’s departments merged, bringing together three major operational divisions of Menlo Park, including library services, recreation services, and childcare and senior services.  

With this merger, it became clear that the formerly used management platforms wouldn’t cut it for the newly combined department—especially regarding their parks and recreation offerings.

Outdated, legacy software with many limitations

With a retro look and functionality, the incumbent software that the city had been using for program registrations was a legacy platform with extremely limited capabilities. In particular, it offered very little flexibility, an outdated user interface, and almost no customer support.

“Our [previous software] looked like it was from 1992, and it worked like that too. It was very, very limited. If you needed support, you would call in but then you'd have to wait a month or so for somebody to call you back. It was really backward, and it was not flexible. It was not able to do the kinds of things that we needed a software to do for us.”

Poor user experience not aligned with the “Capital of Venture Capital”

What’s more, the City of Menlo Park’s incumbent platform was not the type of cutting-edge software that the community members of Menlo Park are used to interacting with. Nick and his team felt passionate about providing their customers and staff with a solution that would better align with their community’s expectations for an innovative and user-friendly online experience.

"Our customers couldn't interact with [previous software] very well. There was an online portal, but it wasn't great. There wasn't an app. It was generating more work than it was saving. So, we knew we needed to do something for both the staff and the community. Menlo Park is home of Meta and Sand Hill Road—we're in the capital of Silicon Valley, and people expect a lot in terms of tech. To have our community stumble upon our web page and to have it look really bad, that wasn’t good. We needed to make a change to help ease the burden on the staff, but also just to make it easier for our customers.”

The Solution: A Partnership with Xplor Recreation

And so, the newly merged department of Library and Community Services decided it was time for a change. Alongside a group of his colleagues, Nick led a team that evaluated several different software vendors.  

After doing a lot of research, speaking to many of his colleagues up and down the San Francisco Peninsula, and going to RFP, Nick and the City of Menlo Park decided to move forward with Xplor Recreation as their software of choice.

“I made a lot of calls and talked to a lot of people about what they had. I asked what other agencies liked and what their challenges were, so that we had a good bit of background before we even got into the process of talking to different software companies and evaluating their proposals.”

From our comprehensive recreation management platform to how easy it was to work with our team, Xplor Recreation checked all of Menlo Park’s wants and needs. 

A more comprehensive management platform

One of the main deciding factors for Menlo Park to partner with Xplor Recreation was how robust our platform is. Nick and his team knew that it would help solve a lot of the problems they were experiencing with their incumbent software. 

“Our department is made up of a bunch of different teams, and we offer a wide range of programs for everyone from preschool age to seniors. We also have two libraries, 17 parks, and a lot of sports fields and courts. With so much stuff going on, we needed a more robust management software than what we had with [previous provider]. We were looking for a company like Xplor Recreation that was going to be able to work with us and help us manage all of the different points.”

Better automation, with the ability to customize

Nick shared that another reason the City of Menlo Park selected Xplor Recreation was because of how flexible our solution is. Automation and customization were two key factors missing with their previous software that our platform easily supports, which they knew would save their staff time and unnecessary headaches.

“We needed things automated and flexible, and we wanted to give customers lots of different touch points, so they didn't have to always be managed by staff. With [previous software] we were missing simple things like customizable confirmation emails and automatic wait lists, especially for really high-demand programs like our gymnastics classes, which fill up in literally five minutes. We saw that Xplor Recreation would allow us to manage our wait lists without needing to always be on the phone. We knew it would save our staff a whole lot of time.”

A transparent and flexible software vendor

Another major reason Nick said that Menlo Park decided to go with Xplor Recreation was the fact that our team was transparent about our software from day one. He appreciated that we were open about what our platform can and cannot do—but also flexible enough to find solutions to certain challenges that were important to him.

“When people are pitching software to you, many will tell you that it always does everything. That it’s going to solve all your problems—but I've been around long enough to know that's not the case. One software can't do everything. But Xplor Recreation was honest about what the software can and can't do. And your team was willing to work with me on certain things that were important to me, so I wouldn't have to change my systems to fit the software. It's flexible enough that we could do that.”

An easy team to partner and collaborate with

And finally, the team at Menlo Park were looking for a partner they could rely on. Nick shared that the deciding factor to go with Xplor Recreation came down to how easy it was to work with our team.

"Ultimately, we chose you because of how easy it was to work with the Xplor Recreation team. Everyone is just very easy to talk to. I had lots of questions before we partnered, and your team was always able to get me answers. That combined with both the price and the functionality is why we went with you.”

The Results of Our Partnership

Once Nick and his team decided on Xplor Recreation, he continued to lead Menlo Park through the onboarding and migration process. He shared how positive the city’s partnership with our team has been from the initial training, right up to today.  

From unparalleled support during implementation to helping them save tens of thousands of dollars with our embedded registration portal, the City of Menlo Park has experienced some incredible results over the past few years. 

Great support during implementation and training

Nick shared that his team felt supported by Xplor Recreation right from the start. In particular, he mentioned that we took the time to make sure Menlo Park’s staff was comfortable using our system now and into the future. 

“Your team was kind and patient through the set-up and implementation process and then through the training. During the training period, the Xplor Recreation staff took the time to get our department ready and familiar with using the system. You helped us develop our own internal training documents and, now, if someone has a question, we just point them to the documents. It's a really good system.”

Successful launch, despite fears of rolling out a new software

No matter how confident you are in software, rolling out something new to your staff and community can be stressful. Fortunately, despite feeling a little uneasy about launching a new recreation management platform, Nick shared that their launch went off without a hitch.

“You always worry that technology is not going to do what it says it’s going to do, and that then you'll be scrambling to try to solve problems caused by the software. I was worried that switching platforms was going to take more of our staff’s time if people needed to lean on them for help with signing up or registering. Those were my fears. But our launch went really well. The first thing we opened up registration for was our childcare summer camps, and it went so well that we ended up being overstaffed. We were like, ‘Oh, what do we do now?’ We had a room full of staff ready to help, and we didn't need them. So, we were having them do other things. That was pretty great.”

Hesitant staff now love the new workflows

Similar to Nick’s initial fears, his staff was also feeling a bit of trepidation over switching to new software. Acknowledging that change is always hard no matter what, Nick said that his team quickly came around, realizing just how much more our software could do to support them. 

“Change is hard for everybody. Even if it's chocolate instead of vanilla, it's still hard. I wouldn't say [previous software] was horrible, but it just couldn't do what we needed it to do. So, we brought together our core users, and we showed them what they could do with Xplor Recreation that they couldn't do before, like automated workflows. You want to be able to automate all of the routine stuff, so staff can spend time on the more challenging customer service issues and the more creative programs. The ideal software lets you do that, and that's been the case with Xplor Recreation. So, as far as the staff’s concerns, those quickly turned into excitement.”

Simplified activity guide production with embedded portal

One of the most noteworthy results that Nick shared with us was their ability to move away from producing printed activity guides. He mentioned that they no longer issue these and instead provide all programming info directly on their website through our embedded registration portal. Nick said that this change has saved them countless hours, as well as up to $70,000 per year. 

“We used to spend probably $70,000, at least, on producing and mailing out three iterations of a paper activity guide every year—it was a gigantic undertaking. And now it's all online—we simply embedded the Xplor Recreation portal onto our city web page. That's our activity guide now. People can just go and register whenever they want, and it is tens of thousands of dollars a year that we're saving. Plus, it's just a lot easier.”

Streamlined registration experience for both customers and staff 

Nick also shared how much the general community of Menlo Park has benefited from their switch to Xplor Recreation. In particular, he mentioned how much easier our interface is for customers to navigate, freeing up time and energy for the city’s staff. 

“It's an easier interface to use. I remember the first time we did childcare registration and signed everybody up for an account. We thought it was going to be a nightmare—but it wasn't. People were able to use the web interface and the mobile web interface. We had a bank of computers and staff ready to help people sign up for their own account, and maybe three people out of 300 needed that assistance. Everybody else just went to our site and signed themselves up. There's no way we could have done that with [previous software]. It would have been lines of people waiting for us to register them. It would have been a nightmare. But with Xplor Recreation people were just able to do it themselves. That was an ‘Aha!’ moment for me. It was pretty cool.”

90% of the community now signs up online 

With customers finding the registration process so easy, Nick also told us that most people in their community now register for things exclusively online. This has had an incredibly positive impact on their staff, resulting in only one staff member managing their peak registration periods—instead of the 15 they used to have on standby. 

“Online registrations are well north of 90% now. Instead of needing 15 staff on the phones and online to make sure everything goes smoothly for sign-up day, now it's just my coworker, Mark—at home in Pacifica, working maybe three hours on registration day to field the six or seven emails that may come in.”

Community members love the user experience 

With such a high adoption rate, it’s no surprise that the community members of Menlo Park love the user experience. We were thrilled to hear just how much of a difference our software has made for both the city’s staff and customers. 

“The community loves it. There’s an ease-of-use for the customer. They don't have to call us on the phone or come in and talk to us about registering. They can book programs and spaces online without any staff intervention. I don’t get any complaints about the software. It's just night and day. Plus, our ability to set up payment plans for some of the bigger ticket items like childcare registration and annual soccer field rentals has been huge for community members. All of these things have been great for our customers, and we don't even have the Xplor Recreation Mobile App yet! So, we’re just talking about the web and the mobile web interface, which means there’s still even more things that we can do to make it easier for our customers with Xplor Recreation.”

Helped support a historically disadvantaged neighborhood 

Another key result that Nick was excited to share was how our team worked with the City of Menlo Park to help with a unique challenge they were facing. Specifically, the city wanted to be able to offer lower pricing for a traditionally disadvantaged neighborhood. Working alongside Xplor Recreation, Menlo Park was able to implement a seamless solution through our software that met their exact needs.  

“We opened a new multipurpose facility a few years ago in a historically disadvantaged neighborhood of Menlo Park called Belle Haven. Meta built us this new building with a pool, our senior center, one of our childcare centers, a library, and a gymnasium. And we wanted to make sure that the facility was for the immediate neighborhood first. Other people can use it, but we wanted to make sure that the neighborhood felt that it was for them. So, we came up with an idea to offer hyperlocal pricing for classes and facility rentals, and we worked with Xplor Recreation to do an integration and automate a process for a geographic information system fence to offer that pricing to the right people. That was really, really helpful, and it's been really successful.”

Proactive customer support from Xplor Recreation 

A final result that Nick shared with our team was the fact that he has been very impressed with our partnership as a whole. From our proactive account management approach to our team’s willingness to uncover solutions for Menlo Park’s unique challenges, Nick noted that he truly appreciates how easy it is to work with our team.  

“Xplor Recreation is responsive and easy to work with as a company. Your team has been proactive about asking me about things. Sometimes, I worry that the only time a software company is going to contact me is when they want to sell me a new feature. But you guys check in with me. And when we really needed to solve that problem with the hyperlocal pricing stuff, you guys were really great about working with us to find a solution.”