Evolving a Financial Service Association's Member Portal

Challenge

Over the past decade, the member portal has evolved from a document-based Sharepoint system to a dynamic marketing tool with a flexible open source framework. The strategic vision has always remained the same: Become an indispensable resource to associated firms.

As this financial service association has collected more data, the direction of its member portal has become increasingly data-driven. A recent user satisfaction survey flagged several improvement areas like site search were necessary to aid in customer retention goals.&nbsp

Mediacurrent's Solution

The financial service association chose Mediacurrent, its long-time digital agency partner, to lead an upgrade to Drupal 8. The work to create a one-stop, self-service portal didn’t end here. Mediacurrent also expanded portal functionality based on user feedback and built integrations with key systems (Act-On, Sugar CRM). New dashboards and a Google Analytics integration allow the financial service association team to analyze data on a deeper level. With the right vantage point and clear visualization, data from website traffic can be used to impact the top-level organizational goals. 

Evolving Technology, Data, and the User Experience

Visualizing Search Data

To make enhancements to the search, we first needed to understand current user behaviors. In conjunction with a new site search tracking configuration, an analytics dashboard created to better understand search site patterns and provide an easy way to visualize how different characteristics of the audience utilize search. With the new dashboard in place, the financial service association team can quickly uncover new search patterns to inform their content marketing strategy. 

Feedback from users of the member portal called for a modern approach to simplify the navigation design. A sticky navigation menu achieves just that, reflecting current UI patterns

Expanding Site Search 

The member hosts a wealth of resources with over 120,000 searchable data points. A solution was needed to help locate these assets – from Services and Technical Help,  Staff, to Documents, CPE Courses, Webcasts, and Networking Opportunities – more efficiently and effectively. Using Solr search from Acquia, the search engine was optimized in several ways:

• Relevant and Roust - The optimized site search now includes events, CPE, documents, and updates. 

• Connecting Members -  More advanced search options for People Search include the option to filter by experience in a specific industry, production, and/or service. Users can now continue the same search on the main website. 

• Intelligent Autocomplete - The redesigned search function offers taxonomy-based autocomplete predictions and suggestions. 

• Learning Opportunities - Education and professional development are a key part of the value offered by the portal. Users can now explore over 7,500 CPE courses and sessions needed to build their professional knowledge base and fulfill licensing requirements. 

Centralized and Self-Service FAQ 

Portal users had questions, but there was no central place to submit help requests. A Help Center was developed to provide users with a one-stop-shop for help while streamlining workflow for staff. The new implementation provides a Help Desk page on which most of the Help Desk options are collected into a single page on the portal. This page greatly improves access to all important technical desks and other help materials as well as categorized FAQs. The Help Desk’s integration with SugarCRM allows for submission tracking and ticket response.  

Information Discovery 

The Marketplace is an effective tool for organizing and marketing the different services available to group members. The Marketplace helps these members discover services, products, and discounts to deepen the relationship with the client. The search filtering feature, also using Apache Solr, allows members to hone in on exactly what they need. 

Acquia Cloud Hosting

The member portal required a top-tier hosting partner to deliver new digital experiences at scale. Acquia Cloud provides a powerful and flexible infrastructure with the stringent security controls needed to protect sensitive information. With a reliable system in place, this financial services association can ensure confidence in its member programs, mitigate the potential for loss of revenue, and protect member productivity. 

Final Thoughts

This most recent evolution of the portal connects its members to the resources and relationships they need. An early look at analytics shows that the streamlined search experience has improved access, lowering search exits and bounce rate by nearly 20%. Through a continued partnership, Mediacurrent’s team of Drupal developers and open source security experts will ensure the platform continues to perform at its peak.