Helping the City of Brampton Achieve a 95% Online Registration Adoption Rate
About the City of Brampton
Located in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Brampton is one of the largest cities in Canada.
Serving a community of over 700,000 people, the City of Brampton’s Recreation Division offers a range of programs across more than 25 community centers. From classes to events, as well as activities for all ages, the City of Brampton is well known for its outstanding facilities and programming.
Anand Patel has been the city’s Director of Recreation since 2020 and has worked for the City of Brampton’s Recreation Division since 2017. He leads his community with a rich professional background that includes more than 10 years of experience as a Public Sector Leader.
In 2020, it became clear to Anand and his team that their current recreation management software solution wasn’t going to be able to service their growing needs—and population.
They were looking for a provider who could offer them a modern tool that would be intuitive for staff, easy to use for customers, and evolve alongside their community. Their search led them to Xplor Recreation's all-in-one parks and recreation management software
In this case study, we’ll share the City of Brampton’s key challenges, why they selected Xplor Recreation as their solution, and the results they’ve experienced since transitioning to our software in 2020.
Featured Quote:
“One of the key benefits we've experienced since switching to Xplor Recreation is the online adoption rate. We've had 95% of people switch to online. Previously it was predominantly in-person registration.”
- Anand Patel, Director of Recreation, City of Brampton
City of Brampton’s Key Challenges
Providing exceptional programs and services for any community can be a challenge. But when you have more than 700,000 residents interested in registering for your programs, events and activities, it can seem almost next to impossible.
“We were told there were lines out the door. It was so busy that we had to put chairs down for people as they sat and waited for half an hour to an hour, sometimes more, just to get served at the front desk.”
- Samantha Yee, Manager, Administration and Special Projects, City of Brampton
Serving a large community with limited bandwidth
In the latter half of the 2010s, the City of Brampton’s Recreation Division was feeling stretched extremely thin.
“Our programs are so great that the demand was outweighing the supply,” shared Anand.
Essentially, it was up to Anand and his team to serve their very large population within the limited bandwidth of their former recreation management software.
Peak seasonal registration periods
Their previous solution’s limited capabilities also left the Recreation Division staff with little to no time to internally evaluate their programs or activities. Making improvements to their community offerings was simply out of the question, so long as they had to focus on the headaches of manually registering members of such a large community.
“We were told there were lines out the door,” shared Samantha Yee, Manager, Administration and Special Projects at City of Brampton.
“It was so busy that we had to put chairs down for people as they sat and waited for half an hour to an hour, sometimes more, just to get served at the front desk.”
User friction with former recreation management software
In searching for a new recreation management software, the City of Brampton team knew that they needed a much more robust solution—that was also easy to use. They couldn’t afford to stick with a software that created more challenges than solutions.
It needed to be more than just a point-of-sale solution, while also being intuitive for their many users.
“We had to go with something that covered recreation and supported us for every user,” said Samantha.
Solution: A Partnership with Xplor Recreation
In discovering Xplor Recreation, the City of Brampton found their ideal recreation management software partner.
“Ultimately, I think it'd be hard to find another vendor who works as collaboratively with us and provides the level of support that Xplor Recreation has provided us.”
- Samantha Yee, Manager, Administration and Special Projects, City of Brampton
Jenny Bennett, Coordinator, Recreation Business Systems at City of Brampton told us, “Xplor Recreation really helps to bring together that customer service experience that we strive to have here at the City of Brampton. Having that partnership is truly what makes all of it really come together.”
As a platform that’s constantly evolving, Xplor Recreation was also able to provide Anand and his team with the modern solution they were looking for.
“We really wanted to move to a more futuristic or tech-based solution for our residents,” Anand shared.
Not to mention that our recreation management software definitely offers more than a point-of-sale solution.
“We chose Xplor Recreation because of the breadth of functions that it helps us with,” said Samantha. “It's not just for programs, it's also for rentals. It helps us with appointments, and it helps us with memberships.”
“Ultimately, I think it'd be hard to find another vendor who works as collaboratively with us and provides the level of support that Xplor Recreation has provided us,” concluded Samantha.
The Results of Our Partnership
Since partnering with Xplor Recreation in 2020, the City of Brampton has experienced some incredible results. And both the community members and the staff have benefitted from the switch.
A 95% online registration adoption rate
Before transitioning to Xplor Recreation, the majority of community members in Brampton were registering for programs in person. Now, 95% of these residents have adopted online as their method of registration.
“One of the key benefits we've experienced since switching to Xplor Recreation is the online adoption rate. We've had 95% of people switch to online,” shared Anand. “Previously it was predominantly in-person registration.”
During peak registration times, there are often as many as 15,000 people trying to register for programs simultaneously, all within just a couple minutes. Xplor Recreation has been able to support the City of Brampton handle this incredible load, enabling the team to enroll all members of the community in their programs of choice without issue.
Customer wait times reduced by 83% during peak registration
And those community members who used to sit in line ups for an hour or more waiting to register for a program? The City of Brampton is now able to serve residents in person much more effectively, clearing any lines within 10 to 15 minutes thanks to Xplor Recreation's easy-to-use software.
“Now we clear through most of the rush in about 10 to 15 minutes,” said Samantha. “The customer experience has been wonderful and it's very intuitive for our users.”
The ability to focus on their holistic community offerings
On top of that, our comprehensive software has helped the City of Brampton staff take a well-deserved step back from the former chaos of registration days. The team finally has time to focus on how their programs are running, without being pulled in multiple directions.
“Instead of having to focus on only registrations,” shared Kayla Vieira, Coordinator, Recreation Business Planning at the City of Brampton, “we can really focus on our programming and just give some time back to staff, so that they can get back into the community.”
“We're constantly doing these comparisons and looking at information to better our programs and our services,” added Jenny. “With Xplor Recreation, it really comes at the ease of a button.”
Enhanced usability and improved communications
The staff at City of Brampton have also been blown away by the ease of use of our software. “You can use Xplor anywhere you are, which is extremely helpful,” shared Kayla.
Jenny added, “It allows us to gather all the information that we need for the people we need to communicate with, at ease.”
Would the City of Brampton Recommend Xplor Recreation?
When asked if they would recommend Xplor Recreation’s software, Anand and his team from the City of Brampton gave us a resounding, “Yes!”
Anand elaborated, “I would absolutely recommend Xplor Recreation to other municipalities. We can breathe easy knowing that Xplor Recreation will support us today and going forward.”
