ClubExpress - Avis

Le produit est plus facile à utiliser. Les options d'adhésion et de renouvellement des membres sont très cool.

La prise de main nécessite une assistance en ligne très souvent.

Centralized database for our membership and club documents that makes creating emails with newsletters (that are then available on the website) so easy.

Creating a graphical user interface based on templates is a little clumsy to use, but is certainly serviceable.

It's tailored to clubs & social organizations making it's functionality ideal for us. The modules are, I believe, are unique to our (clubs) environment.

Formating is a bit of a PIA and can be cumbersome. Picture & photo upload is limited to resident computers only. There's no direct access to social media or cloud storage which is a definite negative. Event questions are very limited and do not offer If-Or linking. Event registrations can be confusing for the non- tech users/ members.

Your offering has the best value for the money. The customer support is wonderful, second to none. The constant attention to upgrades - and that you plan them ahead - shows incredible organization and constant dedication to your customers and to your product.

The features are very robust. It shows that you are really listening closely to your customers' requests - perhaps better than any competitor out there - and responding to them! I do believe that it is possible to offer robust features in a more simplified and intuitive way.

The longevity of several staff members is very impressive, and their dedication to problem-solve with and remember their customers' specific needs and preferences is VERY impressive. I have felt that on several occasions.

When asked if I'd recommend Club Express to others, I want it to be a 10 based on how outstanding you are for the reasons above. Yet, the feedback I receive from many of our members - and the amount of volunteers' time for the learning curve - makes it difficult to recommend it to other organizations' executives when they may not have the same level of volunteer support. Make your site more intuitive and efficient and I will gladly recommend you to everyone!

1. Club Express focuses on developing a new function, rather than first on how the user can best experience it. I suggest greater ease and intuition (UI/UX) with feature development. E.g., when the new Events/Calendar functionalities rolled out 1-2 years ago, it greatly increased the complexity (and number of mouse clicks) to set up an event. More features are okay, but should be intuitive and efficient.
2. Your data organization is not conducive to simple, obvious changes. Good, intuitive design does not require the tiny-text prompts that I turn off, but have to do so in the site code. What should be simple changes are stuck behind the organization of how the database was structured. Get rid of the instruction prompts (obvious to modern-day computer users); do not let them affect Chapter Finder and other key functions. Information should be built separate from functionality.
3. More attractive, fully responsive template options
4. Mobile set-up (duplicative efforts) should not be needed and currently degrade for tablet
5. Give us more CSS control; place classes on div's, etc. so that our CSS can target them
6. Member registration MUST be simplified; I detailed a PPT of 20 ways to improve it and was shocked that none of the modifications were possible.
7. If you had a modern-looking, fluidly-flowing app that automatically input information from the website databases (directory and design), then you would rock our world and really step it up in many organizations' eyes. :-)

ClubExpress reduced our workload for membership processes by 95%, automating our correspondence, dues collection, and renewals.

Ours is a parent-child group, and we find it frustrating that families are not linked in the directory. Our members organize events, but an admin has to assist every time there is a fee. Our membership manager has to separately track additional criteria for renewal.

It's all encompassing with one additional feature that many others didn't have. We were able to point our domain at our ClubExpress site and through them create aliases for all the officers, the committees/forums etc. that can be maintained through the site via memberships. These email addresses allow our board and users to interact via email the same as they would with direct email addresses or using a listserv.

They don't support DSEC/DMARC yet for email systems so aren't able to tag outbound email as authoritative for our domain so some mail receivers will put inbound email in a users spam email box. Also their email relay has a delay unlike many listservs and only processes mail a few times/hour.

Ability to create paid for events. Lots of options and functions for creating pages and customization, especially if you understand computers a little. You don't have to be completely computer savvy to use this product.

Hard to get around, I feel like I'm clicking all over the place.

My organization really dislikes the forums and we need to reset settings, but we'd have to go through 600+ users to reset each setting individually due to an error during set up. The forums seem to be either too difficult for users or somehow not engaging enough for them. I think my organization is looking for a platform like Facebook, so communication between members is easier.

Poor chat service.

Classifieds are not easy to use.

Formatting issues often happen and s

The richness of its features and the customer care.

1. The designers fail to think about how to open a screen and focus the attention of the user on the area of the screen where the user's attention should be directed.
2. The lack of an incorporated database with the ability to do simple inquires.
3. Over-whelming confirmations.

I use this software to manage a professional association of about 600 members. The best features are the various sorts of automation for our annual member drive and renewal. CE will send email notices with customized messages and/or snail mail to expired or potential members. They are then able to log in, select a membership level, and pay their dues without any effort on my part. It automated what used to be a two-week process.

Once you log in and get behind the facade of the website, the interaction itself is fairly clunky. The graphic interface looks like it's from AOL in the 1990s, and the functionality is not always intuitive.

We have all of our membership data in one place. We can also send emails and maintain our website from this platform.

There is some functionality on the emails and website that are cumbersome.

The ClubExpress package has all the pieces we need in the ICF Cleveland chapter. We coordinate monthly events, manage membership in the chapter, and communicate what the chapter is all about. The software is easy to use, and has more options than we even need. ClubExpress is designed for uses like this, and we're excited to tap into even more of the capabilities. We also manage our mailing list with the software, and have had good success with that option.

The learning curve is pretty steep, and I don't find the software to be intuitive. However, the support system is an under-utilized asset for me. I suspect that once I have a better sense of the big picture strategy behind the software I will find the learning curve to be less steep.

This software has greatly improved our outreach and communications internally and externally and thus increased the scope and effectiveness of our organization, all the while being relatively easy to use. We can manage our member database easily and have saved much volunteer time though automated volunteer sign-up and member and event management, not to mention communications to our membership. The support response has been excellent with one support person assigned to our account, with others available if that person isn't. Club Express is continually improving and expanding what it can offer.

There are occasional issues such as non-members having difficulty joining if they have been on our non-member mailing list due to a conflict of their login as a non-member. The person attempts to join via the website without an administrator knowing they are trying to do this, and thus they are not able to join. Club Express has indicated it is working on a solution to this issue.

Club Express is easy to navigate. The learning curve was relatively brief for the things that I use: aspects of the People tab to locate members or update membership, the Website tab to access and update the Event Calendar, and the Money tab to keep tabs on purchases of tickets or memberships.

The Event Calendar is full featured. Some events recur with slight change from month to month, and this is easy to enter. Other events might recur irregularly, but it is easy to search for an event and duplicate it with changes.

There are lots of options in some of the menus, and it takes some time to determine what is the best choice. I like to view some reports online as a pdf, other times I prefer downloading in MS Excel format or csv format.

No real issues anywhere. The wealth of options can be overwhelming at first, but it is quick to learn.

The developers and other staff seem to be constantly available to help. They typically answer emails immediately.
In my organization (a nonprofit working for informed citizen participation in government) the membership team and the finance team appreciate Club Express features that handle dues and event fees and donations and the like. As webmaster I work much more on preparing Custom Pages with information about our work than on member rosters and bookkeeping.

Custom Page construction with the Page Rows remains awkward. Spacing is inflexible, fonts change for no apparent reason -- frustrating.
Developers are constantly revising--improving--the software, which can be hard on users. The volume of instructional manuals is overwhelming. There is no "help" guide for specific problems.

This software is absolutely essential for our organization. Without it we would not be able to coordinate the efforts of volunteers and would have to have paid staff. That would add hundreds of dollars to the nominal cost we now charge our elderly members who receive services. I've been able to operate as an online organization without a physical office for the last dozen years. This means that volunteers can work from their homes coordinating services and finding volunteers for members. The software handles all of our renewals even sending out snail mail letters to members who do not use computers when they need to renew. Our website is completely generated using the club Express software.

There are no major features that we can think of that are missing. That's not a coincidence over the last dozen years club Express as responded by adding those features we think we need sometimes involving major development effort. Only mind tweaks to increase efficiency are needed from time to time.

It put our 400 person ski and sports club online for the first time. It is reasonably easy to use once people get trained on the product. The company has good tech support which is available online or on the phone without a long wait period. They are very responsive and have adopted some of our requests for improvement.

The payment scheduling is not functional for us. We need each member to be able to know exactly how much is owed on a particular trip or event and to have the amount correct in the box when they go to pay. Right now there is a "pencil icon" that must be changed to the correct amount. This is particularly troublesome for trips with multiple payments as not all members sign up at the same time. Repeated attempts to get this to change have been unsuccessful. It is the main issue that keeps me from giving 5 stars to the product.

The product offers multiple ways to accomplish the same or similar tasks, from fairly simple to very complex. After a learning curve for someone not familiar with web development, I find it well thought out and pretty well implemented. I have yet to find something that I really need to do that I can't find a way to do it. There are plenty of features this product has that I have not explored, but it keeps me coming back to see what else it can do.

I think the editors for various functions could use a little work. The editing screen gets a little tongue tied at times and the cursor has a mind of its own. Exiting the current session and starting back up always seems to fix the problem.

Fairly intuitive and easy to learn, lots of options, great support with manuals, videos and help screens. Can customize to a fair extend.

Very slow sometimes and glitchy. Sometimes out of the blue a function does not work properly.
Ie when signing up for event we have a waiver that comes up that needs to be acknowledged. One person signs up OK. Then another person, same membership status, no changes on event, tries to sign up and the waiver does not appear. Lots of odd stuff like that. Mostly it just happens one time and you are left scratching your head. Then some thing similar happens in another function.
A few functions are more complex and take longer than they should to complete. ANd there are a few processes that just don't make sense. ie The list of registrants appears or disappears depending on registration option setting which is stupid. If I set the option to show registrations, the list of registrations should show regardless of whether registrations ae open/closed/admin.

Range of features and capabilities. Ease of use (mostly). Ability to play in "sandbox" demo site was a big plus for the individual committee members.

Minimal integration to Quickbooks. Changed roster information has to be manually determined and re-entered into Quickbooks. Current "export" is an all or nothing which trashes the Quickbooks info because member number is not a matchable field to Quickbooks.

Page editing is still very difficult to do. Especially with imported excel spreadsheet/tables.

Inability to assign resources long-term and be able to bill (boat slips to be billed on a quarterly basis).

Limited capability for reporting. Existing reports are usually unreliable and new reporting module is too little actual value that isn't worth extra cost. Need to expose entire database to each club via SQL stored procedure (which is very secure to other clubs) and allow them to create their own reports with third-party software.

Still cannot create lists of members for interests, committees, etc. easily. Need to add members one at a time rather than select several from master list.

ClubExpress offers a complete, out-of-the-box business structure to operate a Club. If your Club operates in accordance with ClubExpress' business model, then it will work very well. ClubExpress customer service is generally available, is reliable in returning calls, and is very willing to give the time necessary to learn to operate its program. Customer service is unfortunately unable to be flexible if your Club's business model does not exactly match the business model that ClubExpress has decided is the best for every club.

ClubExpress insists upon handling my Club's money without providing any notice. ClubExpress withdraws its fees from the Club's bank account without any e-mail or other notice of the amount to be withdrawn, or the amount that has been withdrawn. ClubExpress collects the Club's money from members without providing any e-mail or other notice that the money has been received by ClubExpress. Instead, I am required to check into the website daily, and then navigate through the website to a report which lists financial transactions in order to become informed of what ClubExpress has done.

ClubExpress is not set up to operate as a traditional club. That is, ClubExpress has no means of having Club members attend a function, to sign for their purchases, and then be billed after the function. Instead, ClubExpress is only set up to have members prepay for all function expenses, including such variable purchases such as food and drinks. Instead of accommodating traditional club operations, ClubExpress has told me that we should change the Club's business model, and should "train" our members to know in advance how much they will eat and drink.

We are a cruise club and our main purpose is to host cruises for our members. With Club Express my members can easily sign up for a cruise, pay for the cruise online, and even see which other members will be joining them. I can track attendance which enables me to recognize those who are active with the Club. I can advertise the Cruises with photo albums and emails. Member photos allow our members to get to know each other a little easier. We need to notify the marinas who will be attending a Cruise. Club Express wrote me a report whereby my Fleet Captain can instantly print a PDF "Cruise Roster" to send to the appropriate marina.
We also host a number of social gatherings . For our Christmas party I was able to create a dinner menu that each member chose from. With this report I was able to easily plan for quantities. There's a lot to like with Club Express and in my opinion the pros outweigh the cons.

Club Express wasn't designed for MY Club but for ALL Clubs. The system is somewhat non-intuitive and it took quite a bit longer than I expected to setup. Since my Club is somewhat unique I often have to find workarounds for situations where I could, if allowed, write a bit of code to personalize the software for the Searayders. There's some system 'quirks' that require me to provide additional training for my members i.e., the 'primary' member must pay the dues even though our Club doesn't really have primary members or secondary members.

I really like the many options available to us from forums to picture sharing and album storage -- the registration/sign-up capabilities, the shortcuts available, running reports. I like the ease of finding members and all the records I can keep on file within my profile that are easy to access. Though we haven't used this amenity yet, I do like the availability of paying online for club events and registrations. Our group has been using ClubExpress for the past 10+ years, and it has revolutionized our communication and organizing -- everything at our fingertips.

I can only think of three things that I don't like or areas where I have difficulty with ClubExpress?
Finding and accessing archived forums, forum post timing out and not saving, and maneuvering through a myriad of ever-changing options for registrations.

Easy to use, support our club administration very well. This package has taken us from using purely paper based processes where information was mislaid often, to real time membership data that ensures we have the most accurate information about our membership and a single version of truth. The website builder is also simple and flexible, and the blast email function is very useful.

The product is very US based and we have had some issues with using this in Australia. The spelling of words as per US standard has put a few of our members off, and we have had issues with the letter vs A4 format of printing, especially around newsletter labels. The time stamps on some things also causes some confusion as some items show up as yesterday based on the US time zone. I do believe these topics are being worked on though.

It offers a bundled solution for "birds of a feather" type groups

Maintaining the site and keeping content current. Facebook has clobbered ClubExpress with interactive or time sensitive activities such as user-to-user communications and comments and content uploads such a photos. Where ClubExpress could shine compared to Facebook is in archiving group documents and photos, but it is so convoluted to do using ClubExpress that few users are willing to go through the extra hassle, and instead use Facebook. When users user Facebook to share tips and tricks for example, we lose all that information as it is virtually impossible to capture and transfer Facebook entries into anything worth archiving. I have complained to ClubExpress until I am blue in the face about the antiquated photo and document uploads, but apparently no other clubs care about such things. ClubExpress is still a viable platform for us, but just barely. Taking a page out of Facebook's book allowing easy photo and document uploads would go a long long way to making us happier "clubbers".

Also, without solid HTML knowledge, it is virtually impossible to maintain the website. Not unusual for a 90's product, but hard to justify today.

I find CE not especially easy to use. Your telephone tech support is pretty good, but at times, we even stymy them with report request or tech issues.

Trying to create an emailing is frustrating. Elements jump around, text doesn't look the same in the emailing form as it does when sent in an email. I have to go back and forth and back and forth to make sure what I see on the emailing form comes out correctly in the actual email.

I also find searches and reports time-consuming. First, it's difficult to customize a report. Second, I often have to sort and re-sort reports to get the exact data I need and often have to do a manual count.

Also, this year we transitioned away from a dues-paying membership organization. We call former members Friends. There is little flexibility to easily customize Club Express's membership model to our new model, even tho we need and use many of the CE capabilities.