Transforming HIA’s Sense of Belonging into a Digital Experience

The Challenge

HIA was looking for innovative ways to engage with their existing customers and further grow new market share. The digital strategy was a key driver to deepen the connection with HIA and their member base through relevant and targeted digitisation, services, benefits and communication.

HIA’s objectives were broken down into three customer goals:

• Increase Sense of Belonging & Loyalty - deepen the connection that existing members and non-members have with HIA as a “trusted advisor” they can rely on for advice and not just another service provider.
• Build an Efficient Digital Operating Model - create a platform where HIA customers are able to self-service their queries online via the website.
• Raise and Capitalise on Awareness - help users understand HIA’s value proposition, who they stand for, and reveal the full product offering and breadth of features, increasing both retention and transactional revenue.

The Solution

The overarching theme was to create the foundations and guidelines to enable HIA to realise their digital future. The solution to achieve HIA’s goals consisted of:

• A foundation site with a plethora of reusable, flexible components
• A content strategy and taxonomy which allows content editors to surface relevant content as well as the ability to cross and up-sell across all areas
• A backlog of concepts and ideas that can be built upon to meet HIA‘s objectives for the years to come
• A digital style guide to govern a consistent user experience across any digital platforms and enhancements made in future iterations
• A platform where HIA are able to sell ad space to sponsors and personalise content based on member profiles
• A consolidated database for all digital customer data that shares data across all sites, personalisation and analytical reporting

The Digital Strategy aims to make HIA more aligned and proactive in its digital approach by establishing foundations and enabling HIA’s digital team to self-sustain and craft usable, personable digital experiences for their customers.

The Result

Built into the strategy, HIA are able to better leverage customer data and insights in order to keep an eye on trends. Continually optimising the approach and experience, with the opportunity to pivot if the need arises.

The customer data also supports the creation of a cohesive digital brand and experience; creating personalised, targeted content for their users as the industry evolves resulting in greater customer loyalty and future-proofing the business.

The Challenge

To create a Digital Resource Library (DRL) to sort the wealth of information available on the site. The users must be able to easily navigate through the library to find resources that engage them on popular topics and encourage them to join as full HIA members.

With an improved DRL comes the need to improve the integrated commerce platform to support customers purchasing these resources as a result of these digital assets being readily and easily accessible.

The Solution

The digital resource library was designed with content filters and categories in order to create a more seamless and intuitive user experience. The DRL consists of a combination of free and paid content and links to previously siloed content. If a site user is viewing a training course inside the DRL for example, they are also shown related content, such as articles and events.

Working across these digital assets is the integrated commerce platform. Supporting the opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell content from increased site traffic as a result of the improved DRL. The new commerce solution enables digital access to a number of resources that were previously only available through a customer service phone query.

The Result

The new Digital Resource Library positions HIA as a solutions provider and an industry leader by showcasing a depth of knowledge that spans across a multitude of specialities and fields of expertise.

The commerce solution complements the Digital Resource library by providing a platform that supports cross and upsell opportunities within the HIA experience.

The DRL and commerce solution work alongside each other in converting HIA to embrace digital-first thinking and reinforces that HIA is a knowledgeable asset across the residential building industry.

The Challenge

Building a commerce solution was an integral part of the core HIA experience, where customers purchase products within the context of consuming information around their goals. HIA commerce products include templates, safety products and purchasing physical contracts.

The challenge was to build a new integrated custom commerce solution to create a more seamless transaction process to grow revenue and facilitate return customers. The commerce platform needed to be completely rebuilt and needed to integrate with HIA’s backend application to bring products into the commerce solution and push transaction details back for a consistent order fulfilment process.

Another feature that presented a unique challenge was HIA’s Tradepass platform which was an existing ‘Contractor Management’ Solution that assists builders and contractors to manage administrative tasks. The feature required a full reimplementation of its core functionalities, and additional business rules were added to ensure a better user experience and a seamless integration with the HIA's CRM, leveraged by their custom in-house built middleware.

The Solution

HIA’s new Sitecore XP solution (including Commerce (XC) and personalisation) is a single platform across B2B, B2E and B2C that connects all data and delivers scalable content management, rich data insights, automation and personalised digital experiences.

Sitecore’s commerce solution supports omnichannel experience and creates these customer experiences with headless architecture and unique fulfilment strategies across all interfaces.

The personalisation capabilities enabled tailored experiences as required by new business rules which set up variables across membership status, pricing and content.

The Result

A simple and integrated platform that works across HIA’s digital assets and supports the opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell content online, enabling access to a number of resources that were previously only delivered in-store or through a customer service phone query.

The Challenge

HIA’s program of work was split up into three phases in order to design a successful digital transformation roadmap and to understand how we could add value through our capabilities and Sitecore technologies.

The three phases included:

1. Discovery & Strategy - This phase allowed a deep dive to learn about HIA, their customers, understanding their pain points, identifying opportunities for improvement to build out a tailored strategy.
2. Enablement - Modernising existing technology while adding value through the introduction of new capabilities such as Sitecore Commerce, advanced tracking and personalisation features.
3. Enhancement - Continuous optimisation, delivering on new online functionalities and the integration of solutions between the backend systems and the new HIA website.

In addition to this HIA were also in the process of their own internal project overhauling their CRM system. Switch and HIA worked together to retest and refactor all the integration points between the new website and the interfaces with their new CRM system, ensuring that the features previously delivered would continue to work whilst working on the implementation of their digital transformation roadmap.

The Solution

In order to deliver on the multi-faceted HIA project, it was imperative to be proactive in our approach whilst prioritising what was important in a collaborative and engaging way.

Our multidisciplinary team worked together using an action priority matrix where “quick wins” were often combined with larger pieces of work in order to continuously deliver enhancements across various areas of the solution.

To establish clear communication and transparency across the teams and all stakeholders a number of ceremonies were executed:

• Design and Build Showcases
• Backlog Grooming Sessions
• Sprint Planning
• Steer Co Meetings
• Regular Standups

Continuous engagement with all stakeholders guaranteed maximum flexibility, the ability to address changes in an agile fashion and ensured open and informed discussions.

The Result

The new HIA website and successful digital transformation is a result of collaborative and proactive digital teams who regularly engage in open dialogue and use advanced program management methodologies to deliver an award-winning customer experience.