customer success story

Coaches Center: Configured Experience Cloud (Community) to Connect and Empower Coaches

Customer Profile

Meet Our Customer

Company Type:

Nonprofit: Education Services and Community Engagement 

Location:

Headquartered in Chicago

Partnership

Allium Partner since 2017

Project Background

UtMostU is a non-profit post-secondary support network that leads 16 community schools to support nearly 900 student-fellows in underserved communities as they navigate their college and/or career paths.

With a growing coach and fellow-base, UtmostU needed to maximize user-experience for coaches to easily navigate their workflow and caseloads – and in turn, create a positive, meaningful experience for their fellows. Additionally, they wanted the interface to serve as a self-guided tool that empowers coaches to take next steps, without requiring UtmostU support to complete tasks.

Together, UtmostU and Allium worked to develop a more intuitive and centralized command center for coaches in Salesforce. UtmostU also wanted the ability to capture key data points that would provide insights on how to better support fellows through the program. This meant working with Allium to eliminate overcomplicated processes and dashboards, adding more user-friendly enhancements to streamline their workflows, and improving functionality and access to resources for coaches and UtmostU staff.

A Simplified Approach

Create an Intuitive Experience for Coaches

UtmostU worked with Allium to create a guided coaching experience for program coaches using Experience Cloud (Communities) and develop a user-friendly, ready-made ecosystem for coaches to effectively manage their caseloads (with minimal UtmostU support). Plus, they wanted coaches to have access to key data.

Implemented Coaches Center Using Experience Cloud (Community)
Allium created and implemented an Experience Cloud Site (known internally as Coaches Center) to provide a more intuitive, portal-like experience for coaches. This simplified workspace lets coaches know where their fellows are in their career or college cycle and what they need to be working on.

Create Tile View

Bring Coaches to Resources in One Click

An intuitive starting page created more autonomy to execute tasks and become experts, without relying on UtmostU staff for directives:

Fellows to Contact

Coaches access a list of who to contact from their caseload and at what time       

Persistence/Emergency Funds

Outlines the process and forms to access funds with clear guidelines on eligibility

Engagement Dashboards

Gives coaches their own individual analytics on metrics and success etc (+UtmostU admin now has ability to view data from all coaches in one dashboard)

Coaches Chatter

Internal message board for coaches to ask questions and receive info from each other and UtmostU staff

Mental Health and Career Advising Referrals

Created flow for referrals that allows coaches to submit referrals on the spot, connecting to fellows within 72 hours

Texting via Mogli

(recommended by Allium)
Allows coaches to send individual texts within individual contact records. Plus, view mass texts from UtmostU staff and see responses from fellows

Eliminate Complexities

Simplification and Scalability

UtmostU and Allium worked hard to remove complexities; Anything that could be simplified in Salesforce, we did. Allium took UtmostU’s vision and worked within Salesforce to find ways to accommodate their needs:

Lessened fields to be more user friendly

By reviewing data usage, fields that are redundant or irrelevant are depreciated

Simplified How Contact Cycles are Calculated

Coaches contact students on a regular basis throughout the year. These touchpoints were structured into flows, reports, and dashboards to create consistent expectations  across the network 

Added Salesforce Path to Visualize Fellow’s Current Progress

Path displays where the fellow is in the education & coaching cycle or what the next steps for those who are career bound. It also offers guidance to the coaches appropriate to where they are in the path

Incorporated Salesforce Documents Library to Provide Resources Natively in Salesforce

Path allows users to click into documents. Prior to this addition, APEX was required to use the libraries

Nurturing Connections

Branding That Builds Community

Incorporated brand elements to create a connection point for coaches and improve overall user experience.

  • Added UtmostU branding, affiliate logos and colors

  • Incorporated branding for each coach’s organization using Audience functionality

 

    Meaningful Results

    Experience Cloud (Community) Wins

    Today, UtmostU leverages the Salesforce platform to provide Coaches from each community school the tools they need to support their fellows throughout their journey – and successfully across the finish line – all in one place – via tailored check ins and communications, financial aid opportunities, mental health support, and more. 

    Focused on Creating a Guided Coaching Experience

    Incorporated Salesforce Path to visualize Fellow’s current progress and provide guidance for coaches

    Salesforce Documents/Libraries provides resources natively in Salesforce 

    Coaches Community for a more intuitive/app-like experience

    A More Scalable Platform/Program Overall

    Intuitive coaches community interface, utilizing Path and related coaches guide content, with low-lift training and modest ongoing user support

    Integrated form submission tool to reduce manual data entry

    Self-guided tool for coaches, including ongoing new affiliates and their coaches and fellows

    Salesforce Experience initiated a way for UtmostU to cost-effectively scale, as the SF Cloud licenses can be difficult for a limited non-profit budget

    Simplified Approach

    Reduced Complexity and Administrative Load Needed to Maintain the UtmostU Salesforce Org 

    Eliminated unnecessary SF fields 

    Overall simplification of cycles eliminated annual maintenance 

    Tailored Platform Affiliate Branding

    Enhanced user interfaces for Coaches with branding, including affiliate logos and colors

    Reinforced relationship between coaches and fellows, and their organization

    More  promotable benefits for UtmostU in securing additional affiliates

    Coach Impact Profile

    Jasmine Nelson

    How Long Have You Worked with UtmostU?

    I have worked with UtmostU for almost 4 years! I started as an Alumni Coordinator in September 2019 coming from college student services. 
    I am now Manager of Post Secondary Coaching.

    How Do the Coaches Center Enhancements Help You Do Your Job Better?

    Our Coaches Center enhancements have been amazing! The Coaches Center allows me to track the information, activities, and accomplishments of my fellows. I have found that having the Coaches Center has encouraged me to better store and more frequently review the data that UtmostU collects.

    Prior to the Coaches Center, it was difficult to manage and review data. Much of our data was stored on multiple spreadsheets and within multiple documents. Now that the data is in one place, it’s so easy to store and review it. The Coaches Center also hosts all of the links that I need in one place. I do not have to go searching for the information that I want to share with my fellows. I can go right to the Coaches Center to find everything that I need.

    How Has the New Dashboard Helped You on the Day-to-Day?

    Dashboards allow me to review information quickly and effectively. I can see the data we collect visually. Additionally, I have used dashboards as a “checklist” to ensure that I have all the information needed for each of my fellows. Lastly, dashboards have allowed me to better understand which fellows are receiving which services through our program.

    Have You Seen More Success From Fellows Based on These Updates?

    I have seen coaches become more informed, recommend UtmostU services more, and use their data to make better decisions in the service of fellows.

    Do You Feel Better Equipped to Support Your Fellows? 

    I feel like I am so much more equipped to support my fellows with the Coaches Center. I am much more organized. I can easily upload and store information. I can make reports and pull information very easily. Overall, I am a more organized and data-informed coach because of the Coaches Center. 

    Customer Action Plan

    Create an Intuitive Workspace for Coaches 

    With a growing coach and fellow-base, UtmostU needed to maximize user-experience for coaches to easily navigate their workflow and caseloads – and in turn, creates a positive, meaningful experience for their fellows. 

    Download the customer story snapshot to see how Allium helped UtmostU overcome CHALLENGES, take ACTION, and garner meaningful RESULTS in Experience Cloud.

    Download the One-Pager

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