GrowthZone - Avis

GrowthZone is so much better than the last management system we had to offer. We love it!

We wish the integration with Quickbooks was better. We have more duplication of work in our accounting department.

Capacity is key in any business. If a business does not have the capacity to fulfill its mission, it dies. Operating a small, rural chamber with big goals and a staff of 4 to manage 470 members without GrowthZone would be a nightmare. From the internal management to the member benefits, GrowthZone allows us to stand out in our community as their advocate and partner in growing their business. The customer service and technical service is above the bar in knowledge and attentiveness. They allow us a to operate at a more professional and top-tier level than other member-based organizations without this service.

There are only a few cons which pertain to technical features for the back-of-the-house users such as not being able to preview blog posts prior to publishing and having different banner size options for our sponsors.

Helps us track our 3 levels of membership and collect dues. We've had some success enrolling members into workshops with the option to pay online.

Where to begin...Back end is not at all intuitive with lists and committees that need to be populated in a separate setup in order to be functional.
We tried using their "event management" to sell and track ticket sales to a festival, which is our number one fundraiser for our non-profit of the year. It was near disastrous because GZ assumes your event is a business conference. We sold 2,000 tickets and had so many confused customers emailing us and calling asking whether or not they had actually purchased tickets. Many people said they never received any confirmation especially if they signed up on their phones. We will only use their event tool for in-house member workshops going forward and never again for a public event. We'll have to use Eventbrite or Brown Paper Tickets instead.
The Member Hub is clunky and not one of our 70 + members actually uses it. There is no cloud storage included so the only items we can upload to the member hub to share with our members are text forms. It's OK for meeting minutes, but if we really want to share ideas and interactions between members, this is not the place to do it.
The fees that GZ (or Stripe, which they partner with) takes out of online credit and debit payments are not clearly communicated. So for instance, the festival that we sold over 2,000 tickets for online...accounting for the money is a nightmare because there is no flat rate. The average rate was really high like over 5%!

GrowthZone is user friendly and has many features that allow our large organization to manage our membership base, pull reports on various items, and easily update our website.

The only issue I ever run into is with members trying to log into the portal. If there was a way for me to see why they cannot log in, it would make troubleshooting much easier.

I like the email designer and the landing page creator. It has seen many updates and I can't wait to see where it goes - I've liked all the changes so far and it makes my job easier and helps me avoid unnecessary 3rd party sources when possible. I also really think the event pages are great and it makes it easier for us to promote our classes/events.

I would say the forms - There seems to be a disconnect in some places when I am creating or editing our membership applications or surveys. There is a lot of different tabs I have to open to find what I want and sometimes the option to edit certain items seem to be completely lost to me. I like to think I'm relatively good figuring things out on a computer with a Marketing and CS degree but this is where I get lost. Would love to see the member applications and forms section get streamlined in general so it's all in one place. Also, I would love to see the website integrations get touched up a little, you can tell the difference between our page and the GZ implemented ones because it seems some elements get moved around or changed a little, but for what it is and what it adds it is really impressive!

I've used ChamberMaster for years and the continue upgrades and how they listen to their customers is one reason I continue to recommend them to our Board and other Chambers. The Support team not only knows the software, they are patient and kind when I've called them. It is user friendly and I can edit, correct or change the website myself without having to call, email, or make a ticket for everything. When I do make a ticket or call, they are quick to reply and correct the issues.

I really cannot say I dislike anything. Just this last couple of weeks, I've learned something new. The event tab has been wonderful and I learned how to improve it but with that improvement I also learned that it changes other areas in the software that I was not aware of until I was using it. It worked out, it just made more steps to complete my task.

Switching from one system to another is never easy, but GrowthZone made it a smooth transition, from decision to launch! The entire process took us about 9 months to design and implement both a management system as well as website. All tools are easy to use and reporting is effortless!

I appreciate that GZ takes user recommendations into consideration (voting process) and offer ongoing development!

GZ customer support is fantastic!

GZ has great report templates, but sometimes I need to report on something not available. I wish we could create our own queries/reports without needing GZ to do this for us.

I wish GrowthZone would integrate directly with QuickBooks. To continue utilizing this accounting software, it requires manually updating QB with deposit summaries vs. automatic batches.

Ease of use and ease of training. Training is very simple and employees can continue to learn more through tutorials and webinars. Support has also been excellent with little down time despite the fact it is Internet based. It is flexible for me to be able to use my membership software and make updates from home or on the road. Having so much information about your members and multiple ways to contact and interact with them through the software has made a huge difference that has been noted by our members.

The website module saves time and allows us to keep our website content fresh. I wish it was a little more adaptable within the templates.

Automated options and team at GrowthZone

Not enough reporting options to match the functionsReporting options available are not accurate and don't pull consistent informationEngagement report does not include all the activities

GrowthZone has everything we need compiled into one. I have been able to keep up with our members/non-members and enter policy information into the system and send invoices very easily.

Reports can be a little tricky to understand how to pull which report for what I need.

I like that GrowthZone is the hub for the majority of our organization's functions. Keeping everything in one place makes it easier to manage, organize, and train.

The design seems outdated. Especially when directing our clients to the ChamberMaster Member Center, I wish there was a sleeker, more modern look. We also have not integrated our billing systems and manually updating everything so that the software communicates with other programs is a pain.

Before signing up with GrowthZone, we have several spreadsheets going for contact management, membership tracking, events and volunteers. Trying to coordinate and update each item took exorbitant amounts of time and allowed for far too many mistakes.

Since we've been utilizing GrowthZone, productivity has been dramatically increased. We all have access to the same information whether we're in the office or remote. Team members are also able to see what communication has occurred among members and vendors so we are all on the same page. Events, membership and overall productivity have increased dramatically.

Also, onboarding and support were great! The videos and live support helped clarify and reinforce what I was learning about the software. If I forget something, or get stuck, they are a few clicks away.

The only thing that I can see as a con is also really a pro as well. -This software does SO MUCH it can be hard to process and retain it all.

Can't think of anything that made it stand out.

For a membership-based organization, it is not user-friendly and is cumbersome to use.

The data capturing components and that it is not limited to the amount of data you input in all areas. I like the many features, the reporting, the statistics for the members and the interfacing with our website.

It is not graphic friendly. It does not allow for changes in all set up features of retrieving data such as the e
referral component. You should be able to choose and customize the data you send to your members - consistency isn't always king. Many times members and consumers asking for different information from each member.

The program was in place when I arrived at Lakes Region Chamber (NH) in January 2016. As the Membership Manager, I utilize the program to track my new member prospects, communication with our nearly 500 members, share member marketing results and continue to grow and strengthen member relations.

I found the formatting of custom letters a bit time consuming and not as easy to use as the rest of the program. I attended a local day long training last year and that helped me to overcome any remaining issues.

Overall functionality works well. Gets what I need done

The renewals are harder than the older system
Adding free registration is more difficult than the older CM

Using GrowthZone is a an ongoing education. We are still working out some anomolies from the onboarding process. Our previous system was beyond antiquated and caused many difficulties with Growth Zone. It was like trying to make a Ferrari run on a Model-T powertrain. Overall, we are satisfied. the support we receive is excellent, and issues are resolved quickly.

We would like to have the ability to have Growth Zone set up functions that we do once a year. We cannot remember from year to year how to do some of our procedures, and it would be really beneficial to have them just handle it.

We love how easy CM is to work worth and how they are continually adding new features as requested by users. We use many but not all features!

Sometimes it crashes, but not very often.

Up-to-date Contact information on a business/organization is very important in my daily job function, whether dealing with another member or the public. The ease of registering attendees for an event is great.

The Reports feature can be overwhelming with all the different options available and not sure if you are selecting the right Report that best suits your needs.

I love that it's completely online and allows us to work remotely. Also that it has features for each of our job roles: membership, education, E&O policies, communication - and billing features for all of these.

Sometimes editing communication templates and billing documents can be confusing and small changes can cause changes in other areas. Despite this, GrowthZone has an incredible support system so it's never a huge stress.

Calendar, events registration, online payment option, directory, low maintenance database (MemberZone takes care of all the maintenance, yea!)

Not at intuitive for group/mailing lists. I would like a little more options for customizing fields.

The great support, on-going, professional, always there to address your questions and very interested in your feedback and experience. Good value.

The communications functions could be better - do not use communications as much as I would like since so many emails are not received. Also, does not provide for ability to re-send an email.

Growth Zone knows and understands the users needs. The staff here needs to get things done and this database makes that easier by providing simple instructions and specific help when needed. The uptime for the cloud based system is surprisingly good.

One area that could be improved is the ability to customize reports. While it is available, the interface to get what you need is clunky. They are great at how to get the data into the system - it's complicated to get the data out in a format that is relevant.

Love the new features popping up all the time, constantly keeping up with the demand of society. The intgration of this product with our Chamber website and credit card processing has made office work run smoothly.

I don't have any cons after unisng this software for over 5 years.

I appreciate the time and efforts the GrowthZone team puts into each of their customers. They are willing to listen to your needs and if possible make the adjustments.

We house a state society of 3,000 members, it is easy to have duplicate accounts for our members.