Better course management. Easy online registration. Intelligent data and reporting. Smart marketing. These key Arlo features saw Stream Marine Training reduce manual administration and increase course bookings.
Based in the UK, Stream Marine Training Limited (SMT) is a world-class provider of fire-fighting, sea survival, survival craft, and HSE training for the global maritime, oil and gas, renewables, and construction industries.
Darren Payne is the Head of Projects at SMT, and is focused on delivering change through technology innovation, overseeing the booking and fulfilment program and driving process improvements. When Darren first started at SMT, the company was using manual booking sheets and a basic e-commerce platform to sell and manage their courses.
While these systems met the basic requirements of the business at the time, Darren could see that they were limiting the potential for growth. He quickly identified the need for a course management system like Arlo.
“There were a number of competitive solutions in the marketplace, and we narrowed the options down to two vendors. In the end we chose Arlo for a variety of reasons – value, flexibility, accessibility, simplicity, and the Arlo staff always being engaged and willing to assist.”
It was the right move. Arlo’s features, such as website, marketing, integrations, reporting and business intelligence have helped SMT reduce manual administration and increase course bookings.
Website and marketing
That “flexibility and accessibility” that Darren refers to is Arlo’s ability to be seamlessly integrated into an existing website, and other software applications such as Zoom and Xero.
SMT transformed their existing website by integrating with Arlo via the WordPress plugin. They now have a best-practice training company website that automatically publishes courses when they are created in the back-end of Arlo and an online course catalog that’s on-brand and easy to navigate. It’s also enabled a seamless online registration and checkout process that has increased the speed to book.
As a bonus, Darren says the improved usability and content of the website has given them an organic SEO boost – helping their courses appear at the top of Google searches.
The result? SMT is selling 41% more courses.
“We now have a website where content is easy to change, we have complete visual flexibility, we can maximise our SEO opportunities, and we have an easy online registration process. As a result, we’ve increased our revenue by 41%.”
Integrations
Additionally, SMT took advantage of Arlo’s extensive integration options to further automate manual processes, reduce administration errors and improve the customer experience. With the Xero integration there is a seamless data flow between Arlo and Xero. Cashflow forecasts are quickly updated allowing better oversight and management of the business.
The Zoom integration has enabled SMT to expand their business globally with live online webinar courses, and the automatic webinar registration and confirmation emails have significantly reduced errors and time to process bookings. When a delegate registers for a course online, they automatically receive an email with details of the date, time and location for the course, what they will cover, and joining instructions for webinars.
Darren is now working with the Arlo team on an integration with Freshdesk – an application that SMT uses to improve their customer service. Anyone booked on a course can contact SMT through various channels such as live chat, email, phone and social media. Freshdesk is one of the 3000+ apps that can be integrated with Arlo via Zapier.
Insights and reporting
Arlo’s website, marketing and integration features have had a major impact on SMT’s growth, but Darren says it’s the reporting and business intelligence feature that’s the real winner.
Arlo’s reporting dashboards show information in real-time – including what courses and events are coming up, the number of registrations, and courses that delegates have registered interest in. You can also track the value of orders, create and export reports, and manage daily tasks.
With access to live customer data and insights, Darren and his colleagues can understand how individual courses are performing, see what courses are under-selling or over-selling, and adjust pricing and registration limits to fully optimize revenue and assets. Darren is also interrogating the data to understand trends such as popular locations, popular courses, delivery method and age demographics. He is then using that data to inform their marketing efforts.
“That data allows us to target our marketing, so if one of our programs is popular with a younger generation, we’ll advertise it on a social media channel like Instagram to attract more people from the same age group.”
