Revamping the User Experience at the Reeb Avenue Center
Helping the Reeb Avenue Center integrate itself into the South Side Columbus Community as a "Hub of Hope"
THE CHALLENGE
Understanding the landscape of users' needs, desires, and pain points within the South Side Columbus community in order to create an easier and more accessible experience with the Reeb Avenue Center.
MY ROLE
Conducted user research in the form of in person interviews, surveys, and ethnographic studies performed on-site and at important locations within the community.
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Performed secondary demographic research as well as surveyed several non-profits within the Columbus area to learn about successful strategies being employed to reach users.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
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Understand the current awareness and community perceptions of the Reeb Avenue Center
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Determine needs and desires of the community in the scope of social services
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Identify barriers and pain-points to consumer awareness and accessibility of the services provided by the center
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Propose ideas to align the center's service offerings with the users' desired experience and optimal path for awareness
Project Background
Team and Setting
We were presented this project as our final capstone class at the Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. This class was designed to be the final culmination of our studies throughout our business administration degree. Our capstone groups included students from all specializations to emulate a true business scenario and encourage collaboration using several business strategies and perspectives. Our group was composed of 7 students with specializations in marketing, finance, logistics, operations management, and communications. This project was conducted over the course of the spring semester in 2017.
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Introduction to the Center
The Reeb Avenue Center is a community service center that is focused on being a "Hub of Hope" for the South Side of Columbus community. Residing in what was once the Reeb Avenue Elementary school which had been built in the community since 1904, the Reeb Avenue Center houses 14 nonprofits offering social services including early childhood education, workforce development, and sustainability through free resources. Some of the partnering organizations include The Boys and Girls Club of America, The Alvis House, Godman Guild, South Side Roots Cafe, and House of Hope. These resources are all provided in an effort to build the community's prosperity and drive economic growth while also providing love and care for all those affected.
While these services are being provided free of charge, many members of the community are unaware of the free resources available to them. Tanny Crane (CEO of the Tanny Crane Group) and Jane Grote Abel (Chairwoman of the Board for Donatos), founders of the Reeb Avenue Center, came to our class with the question of "How do we further reach the community, address their needs better, and integrate the Center into the community to effectively change one life at a time?"
Constraints
Overcoming the cultural and socio-economic differences to truly and deeply empathize with those in a very underdeveloped community was the biggest hurdle in this study. At one point in our ideation, we decided one of the most cost effective strategies would be an overhaul in the social media campaign. After going out into the field and actually speaking to users, we found out that a large portion of users did not have access to the internet outside of public libraries. While phone and internet access is something that our group had always had the privilege to have throughout our lives, coming to this realization showed us that we needed to dive further into the constraints our users had for not only awareness but access as well to truly empathize with users.
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As with most non-profit organizations, our team was limited in the fact that the funding was very scarce and we need to develop a plan with limited resources. The budget constraint removed several plans from our initial ideation, but also simplified our outlook when reaching the community that has been stricken by an economic downturn.
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Research Methodology
In-Person Surveys to Gauge Community Awareness
We started by creating surveys geared towards gaining insight into users perceptions, the level of awareness of the center, and how users learned about the center if they did know about it. This primary data looked to generalize the overall awareness, give insight into what has worked in the past in terms of building relationships, and analyze opportunities to further reach these markets within the South Side Community. Our group conducted these surveys at high traffic locations within the South Side community including downtown Kroger, the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Roosters in South Side, Plank's Cafe, and Southeast Lions Park.
Insights:
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All participants who had used the Reeb Avenue Center's services lived within the South Side, no participants lived outside of the South Side Community
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Of ​those living outside of the South Side, over half had never heard of the Reeb Avenue Center
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39.47% of all participants said they found the Center by word-of-mouth
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The second highest category being "other" at 21.05% with phrases written in such as "live nearby", "kids who went to the school", "I went to school there", and "church friend"​
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Social media came in fourth at 15.79%
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Only 45% of of all respondents who had visited the center owned a social media account while 85% of those who had not visited the center
Remote Surveys to Learn from Established Non-Profits
Second, a survey was sent out to several other non-profits in the area to learn about how they have reached out to the users in the area and attracted donors in the process. The goal of this survey was to investigate the use of different marketing tools for reaching the users, raising awareness, and getting people in the door.
Insights:
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Non-Profit organizations that responded ranked word of mouth as the top avenue for reaching users with newspaper and social media coming in at 2 and 3, respectively​
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The most used social media platform used by non-profits was Facebook. Twitter and Instagram trailed behind at 2 and 3
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50% of organizations partnered with other non-profits in the area on a monthly basis to help reach more audiences​
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The highest ranking source of non-profit donations comes from individual donations with corporate donations coming in close behind
Secondary Research of Demographics and Surrounding Environment
After learning from users directly through our surveys, we dove into some further research to get a better understanding of how to tackle this issue from a non-profit perspective. Our secondary research included the South Side demographic and socioeconomic breakdown, mapped out areas of interest in location to the Center, and searched examples of how non-profits in the past have used their influence and positive impact to bring communities together.
Insights:
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7000 total residents living in the South Side in 2016
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2000 of those residents are under the age of 18​
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47% of all households make less than $25,000 annually
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1 in 4 homes are boarded up and are unoccupied
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The unemployment rate was at 22.5% in the South Side
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Unemployment in Columbus was​ sitting around 4%
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Ethnographic Studies
Over the course of several weeks, our team visited the Center during different hours, days, and events hosted at the Reeb Avenue Center to observe how users interacted with the Center's offerings. We often sat down and had real conversations with those in the community to truly learn their stories, backgrounds, wants, needs, and struggles. We used this time to try to truly empathize with our users and develop a true relationship with the problems they were facing. We also walked through many of the organizations during their hours to see how users interacted with the specific offerings within the Reeb Avenue Center.
Insights:
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Almost all residents that we met with did not have access to the internet or to a cell phone
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To access these, residents used public resources such as the Columbus Metropolitan Library​
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From very personal conversations, we learned that many residents have not accessed resources due to a sense of pride. Residents do not want to "be helped" and resent feeling that people assume they need help
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Reeb Avenue Center brought a large majority of families who accessed the childcare resources while the parents worked. We also saw kids visiting the center right after school when parents could not bring them home
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There is a tremendous sense of pride and welcoming in the Center. Users are greeted with friendly faces and many residents want to talk and learn about others.
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The most popular aspect of the Center is the Roots Cafe which uses a "Pay What You Can" pay structure and also allows residents to volunteer an hour of time for a meal​​
Proposed Strategy
From our research, our group proposed that the Center focuses on a very human-centered approach. The biggest and most successful form of marketing and bring in users, were other users. We focused on using word of mouth and success stories as the key motivator for others to visit and learn what the Center had to offer. The Reeb Avenue Center was almost a hidden gem within the community as so few residents actually visited and explored the many options that were offered. Our proposed strategy began with introducing the Reeb Avenue Center to the community on a very personal level with high degree of personal engagement to become more than just a provider of social services, but a truly engaged member of the South Side community. We broke our plan into the following aspects:​
Personal Outreach
From our surveys and field studies, we really wanted to drive home the importance of real conversations and connection. We started by planning events that brought the Center out into the community to connect with the community and establish trust and true relationships. Some events include:
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Hosting Community Picnics
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Game Nights
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Football and Basketball Leagues
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Movie Nights
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Tuesday Dinners
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We also developed a Reeb Avenue Center Ambassador Program to create an even more personal connection to the users. Ambassadors would be users of the Center's resources or highly involved volunteers who are willing to share their stories and how the Center has impacted their lives. These ambassadors would speak at hosted events but would be a true face of the organization. The goal is to spread the success stories and personal experiences by creating direct interactions as both testimonials and word-of-mouth were found to be the most effective methods of outreach.
Testimonials
To further build on the Reeb Avenue Center Ambassador Program, we wanted to further develop the word of mouth marketing by focusing on testimonials and sharing success stories. These testimonials will be effective in creating deep connections and building the trust users are looking for. In addition to sharing these stories in person, video testimonials are a great opportunity to present at events outside of the community, donor meetings, and be featured on the website and social media accounts. As there are currently no testimonial videos or stories on the website, this will be an especially effective strategy change for the Center to show the change and impact the Center is having on the community.
Partnered Outreach
Next we focused on reaching users through partnerships with establish community organizations close to the South Side Community to not just wait for users to come to the Center, but going out to meet members of the community. We proposed partnering with churches, schools, medical centers, recreational centers, libraries, food pantries, and civic centers as these were found to have overlapping goals with resources offered at the Center. This would be a good opportunity to bring brochures, have ambassadors give testimonies, and again, have real conversations with members of the community. From our research, this will be a strong tactic in driving awareness along with creating an approachable and inviting vibe for the Center.
Social Media
Our final point in our plan was the social media aspect. While we found that word of mouth is the most successful and most desired by the users, social media was close behind. Since a large portion of the South Side residents as well as the users of the Center are younger kids, we proposed social media to connect and create engagement. We focused on publishing content through the top 3 platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Posts could included previously mentioned outreach efforts such as community events, video and story testimonials, as well as a bi-weekly feature of non-profits/services offered at the Reeb Avenue Center.
Final Comments
The Reeb Avenue Center was an amazing project for embracing constraints and understanding the importance of empathy within a project. Surveys, interviews, and general market research didn't scratch the surface of the pain-points individuals and families have faced in the South Side. We sat with and talked to so many amazing people at the Center, we were so inspired by their pride and care for the community they were a part of. We were honored to work with such a caring organization that has impacted so many individuals. If you would like to learn more about what the Reeb Avenue Center has been doing recently, please check out their website below!
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I have included our team's full 113 page report below for anyone who would like to dig deeper into our research as well as proposed strategy executions.