Hi all. Hopefully, most of you are quite familiar with our website, but have you seen our app?
The Spaces app (which is only used on a smartphone/tablet) provides a way of accessing and using many of the functions you can find on the website. It is quicker to load than using the website on your phone, and shows a summary of your bookings when you open it.
How well are both the website and Spaces used?
Here are a few pictures to show how both our web site and Spaces app are used.
The orange line on the graph below shows last year's requests to play (bookings), through both website and app. The blue one shows this year's requests.
Last season, I sent out an email reminder every week listing the following week’s matches to book, with a link to the match calendar on the website. This year, I haven't done this, which might explain why the number of bookings this year is, in general, slightly lower than last year.
We have had a sizeable drop in web bookings over the last 2 weeks, shown on the right hand side of the graph. Here are a couple of possible explanations:
1. Each time the team sheets were published on Clubhouse Chat, an automated web email went to all members with a link to the website, as well as a ‘push notification’ linked to the Spaces app The web email facility was turned off in May as we were exceeding our email limit, in spite of an increase of our allowance from 250 to 500 per month. Members now receive a push notification only, which takes them to the Spaces app, rather than the website.
2. Some members have not yet tried Spaces. If they do not have the app, the notification shows an error message when the link is clicked
3. Some members are having problems with Spaces. This may be due to old phone operating systems. Spaces is supported on iPhone: iOS 11 and up or Android: 6.0 and up. Again, if this is the case, the link displays an error message.
Maybe this is why our web bookings are down?
That's just the way it is!
Alternatively, people just may not be able to play, for health or other reasons. We are coming into holiday season; also, many members do not play in certain types of matches, such as ladies in the league and numerous men who do not play in mixed friendlies.
Since Umbrella started, more members are in the club on a Monday night, and are more easily able to sign up on the paper team sheets.
Using Spaces vs the website
The 2 upper lines on this graph show website usage as a whole, rather than just booking. The purple one is last year, and the green one is this year. It looks like people were reminded weekly by emails to click the links to the team sheets, the blogs or.the match calendar, which is why the purple one is spiky. This year's green line is smoother, showing a steady and increasing use of the website as the season goes on.
The red and blue lines are the Spaces app. Last year and this year are similar in terms of use.
What matches are requested online?
This graph seems correct. For example, at the moment, most external and internal competitions are not booked online, so fewer bookings are showing.
Which players request online?
John W is at the top of the bookings league table - influenced by his wife....?
Several of our newer members are booking online regularly, and quite a few people have had one or two goes.
What does all this mean?
We have some choices to make, which might help people if they don't know where to start, or are having trouble access our website and/or Spaces:
1. I could hold a couple of sessions to get people started on both the app and the website, if they are stuck.
2. I could restart the automated web emails when team sheets are published; this will use an extra 64 emails per week, plus more if other forum posts are made, but it will help people see the information they are looking for. You may have noticed that all match reports are now in a once- weekly format, including the umbrella which was a separate weekly report last year. This has saved at least 64 automated emails per week
3. It would be good to make sure people have clicked Follow on the team sheet category in Clubhouse Chat to enable them to know when new team sheets are posted
4. The club is going to be renewing its subscription to the website software in November. It would be great to see that we are getting value for money, by everyone making use of the facilities that both website and the app offer.
Finally, 3 questions for you
Just click the answer that is the nearest:
How often do you look at our website?
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Hardly ever
Do you use the Spaces app?
Yes
No
Would you come to a help session if it was organised?
Yes
No
Kim Wright
Good stuff as always Kim. Good job!
Thanks Kim. Really appreciate this. Much obliged for your hard work