ESSA Water Activities Centre

As ESSA, a water activities centre, grew, they needed their website to be easy to use, both for them and their customers. The event booking software that had become fundamental to their business can now be accessed from each of their activity or customer groups pages. The user experience and the buying journey are now really quick and simple.

ESSA is a water activities centre that provides water activities. These may be, eg, sailing, windsurfing, katakanuing taster sessions or courses. They provide these to individuals, youth groups, or groups from schools among others. They first approached me because they wanted to move away from their website platform. It was very hard to maintain and navigate. They had a manual booking system in place, with an actual live person. It didn’t give a straightforward customer journey and made it hard to grow. They wanted to implement booking software into their website to provide a better customer experience.

Initially

Because their budget was tight, I concentrated on the booking software while they created the copy and page structure themselves. Events were listed on their home page in a calendar. Not all activities had pages. There was a single Groups page which went into far too much detail for some customer groups and not enough for others.

Business growth

As ESSA has grown, the booking software has become fundamental to their business. However, they felt that the website we first produced had become harder to manage for them and for their customers. It was unclear what ESSA could offer to different customer groups. The calendar on their home page was changed to a list of events, but this became very long as they grew. The calendar was still available, but with so many events, it became hard to read and use especially on small devices.

booking software has become fundamental

How I helped

easier to use

Over 2 VIP Intensive Packages, we changed things around.

In the first package, I put all the framework in place to make it easy for ESSA and give them the confidence to write the copy for the new activity and customer group pages.

The second package brought it all together and was implemented in time for a half-term holiday. The website is now much easier to use: .

  • There is a simple booking system for each of the activities or customer groups, making the user experience and the buying journey really quick and simple;
  • The home page now showcases the customer groups, links to the main Activities page and Volunteering page, and shows customer feedback.

quick and simple user experience and buyer journey

How likely are you to refer a friend or colleague to my VIP Intensive Packages?

In a few sentences, please tell me what you thought about the overall experience.

It was great to have a specific date to focus on the development work and a deadline for when information was required to work to.

Please share any other comments, questions or feedback you have about your VIP Intensive Package experience.

It was really useful to have an kick-off call to get the team together to discuss the business requirements and put together a specification to meet those needs. We came away from the meeting with a clear vision and well defined objectives of what we wanted to achieve, an idea of the information that was required for the next stage of the process and a date to work to.
It is useful to have one platform for communication.

What would you say to someone who is considering purchasing from me?

Anita is hardworking, professional and tenacious.

Emma W, ESSA Water Activities Centre

What sort of VIP Intensive?

2 packages