GrowthZone helps associations get bigger, tighter with Flatfile data onboarding

The challenge

For GrowthZone LLC, makers of software that helps organizations large and small build and manage their members, new customers come ready with long lists of names and data in highly differentiated formats. The task of entering that data into GrowthZone’s cloud-based platform was as varied as the associations they serve. That meant each customer required its own import scenario to ensure that all of their critical data got into the system correctly. 

“Because getting the data into Growthzone was so challenging, we tried training our customers as we went along,” said Tamara Larsen, Head of Implementation Services at GrowthZone. “We’d build data sets while we were waiting for customers to fill in their data. But, we soon figured out that this was a waste of time because our software didn’t become real to them until they saw their membership data and their membership structure in the system.”

Time matters

Those early days of customer onboarding can be the most critical for the success of a new business partnership. When customers get their first taste of a new software platform, it makes a lasting impression. And you don’t want that first impression to be one of frustration.

“Our standard process was to ask our customers to clean and enter their membership data,” says Larsen. “We’d repeatedly follow up with them, asking them to complete the data cleansing process, but often they just didn’t have time or the necessary skills to do it on their own. This frustrated them, and it frustrated us.”

GrowthZone needed a way to make this process easier for everyone. It tried taking on the import task itself, but that would require them to create new import templates for every association it dealt with. And it also required a lot from GrowthZone’s own resources.

Flatfile gets the data moving

Flatfile was designed to address the very challenges Growthzone was experiencing. It provides a simple process for importing large data sets cleanly and efficiently. Flatfile’s underlying AI understands data and knows how to format it to work in any target database, whether that is a bespoke customer resource management (CRM) tool or a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. And once it has learned how the user wants to format its data, it remembers it for the next time, making future imports even simpler.

Tremendous Time Savings

Once GrowthZone implemented Flatfile managing its data imports, their project managers were able to show off their results to great acclaim. 

Using Flatfile, GrowthZone has decreased its average implementation time from about 6 months to as little as 12 weeks. And as a result, their customers are able to serve their members faster and more effectively.

“Initially, it was Flatfile’s data mapping abilities that interested us,” said Larsen. “That’s a big part of the onboarding process; just making sure the right data is put into the proper columns. But we soon found that Flatfile increased the accuracy of our customers’ data overall.”

All these benefits have resulted in GrowthZone increasing its net promoter score (NPS) by 400% within their first year, with 87% of GrowthZone’s customers recommending their product.

“Now we are able to  tell our customers (regardless of their technical ability), ‘Give us your raw data and we’ll format it for you,” said Larsen. “Flatfile has been truly empowering and transformational for us!”