Case study
FocalScope Boosts Pokhara Enduro’s Community Sport Engagement
Would you travel to bike in one of the most popular destinations in Nepal with spectacular views of the Himalayan ranges, lakes, and beautiful hills? Cycling tourism is a market with substantial growth in recent years but it comes with a host of challenges.
Photo by Pokhara Enduro
Industry
Travel and tourism
Focalscope Client
Since 2022
Location
Nepal
Overview
The Pokhara Enduro Race (POE) works hand in hand with a community of locals and overseas volunteers to develop, build and maintain mountain biking trails in the foothills that showcase breathtaking landscapes while respecting the environment and cultural heritage of the beautiful Pokhara Valley in Nepal.
The first round of identifying and developing the routes began in January 2020 with a dozen trail builders and riders from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Nepal. After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the International Enduro race attracted racers from a dozen countries to gather in Pokhara in November 2023.
Challenges Faced
Pokhara Enduro has three main objectives for the race: community development, economic empowerment, and inspiring a new generation of riders.
The Pokhara Enduro Race event demands a year-long preparation of thousands of tasks among all involved parties. Their sales, media, race officials, logistics, trail builders, and marshals teams were scattered around several countries in varied time zones. Efficient and seamless communication with their event partners, sponsors, and participants is paramount to achieving success. Lastly, the race director Sunil Sharma needed a comprehensive overview of all tasks from the race venue in Nepal.
Photo by Pokhara Enduro
Key Requirements Identified
Centralise Communication
Race participants may use multiple channels of communication, making it difficult to keep track. This may include emails, direct messages on social media platforms, and phone calls.
Reduce Response Time
Manually tracking and responding to messages across different platforms leads to delays in addressing participant inquiries and concerns, especially for global queries with significant time differences.
Boost Participant Experience
Inconsistent and delayed responses impacted participant experience and satisfaction. They received feedback from participants expressing the need for improved communication and more personalised engagement.
This partnership elevated the overall quality and reach of the Pokhara Enduro Race.
In our pursuit of excellence, we are proud to partner with FocalScope, a leading help desk and contact centre software solutions provider, to enhance and streamline our communication with our stakeholders.
Before integrating FocalScope into our operations, we encountered several challenges managing internal team and participant communications.
Sunil C. Sharma
Race Director, Pokhara Enduro Race
The FocalScope Solution
FocalScope evaluated the needs and requirements of the race planning team before proposing a custom FocalScope solution with two parts:
Omni-channel Communications Manager:
FocalScope integrates multiple communication channels into a single platform. Emails, WhatsApp messages, Facebook messages, and voice call notes are all consolidated into the same ticketbox.
Communications from the same person via different channels can be assigned to the same ticket to ensure that no context is lost. For example, if a participant sends an enquiry on WhatsApp then follows up with an email, the two forms of communication can be linked to the same ticket so that neither the participant nor agent needs to repeat their questions and answers to fill in context that’s lost in the switch between channels.
Knowledgebase:
The POE team receives hundreds of enquiries daily in the lead up to the race, many of which are simple and repeated questions. The FAQ Knowledgebase empowers potential participants and volunteers to find their own answers, vastly reducing the volume of tickets that the POE support team receives. This frees up the small team to focus on more complex enquiries and deliver a better customer experience.
Three key FocalScope Features included in the package:
1. Cloud Implementation
A cloud implementation was chosen to allow the scattered POE team to start using FocalScope immediately across different countries and time zones. The team could also choose to access FocalScope from their laptops, mobile phones, or a web app, ensuring that they can be connected wherever they travel.
2. Workflow Automation
Auto-reply templates, canned response templates, and email auto-translation allow the Pokhara Enduro support team to streamline their communications with participants and sponsors. These response templates allow support staff to save time by inserting answers to repeated questions with a click, while the integrated auto-translator allows the team to answer queries in their preferred languages.
3. Universal Customer Card
FocalScope’s universal customer card collects every interaction that takes place across all communication channels. Past race participants, their home countries, and past questions can easily be accessed to provide full context, improve the quality of communications, and upsell race packages.
Photo by Pokhara Enduro
Key Outcomes for Pokhara Enduro
Implementing FocalScope has significantly transformed participant communications and event management processes. The key outcomes and impact include:
Enhanced Participant Satisfaction
Timely and personalised responses have led to an increase in participant satisfaction and loyalty. Participants have expressed appreciation for receiving prompt and accurate answers to their inquiries, creating a positive impression of their event.
Increased Operations Efficiency
FocalScope’s automation capabilities have saved valuable time and resources in managing communications. With fewer manual tasks, their team members can focus on other critical aspects of event organisation, such as logistics, marketing, and participant engagement.
Streamlined Processes
A centralised view of participant and sponsor interactions simplified their operations. It also ensured a seamless flow of information across all event teams, such as media, operations, trail building, medical and marketing. Their teams can now quickly access past communications, reducing redundant questions and improving productivity.
FocalScope’s intuitive platform allowed the small Pokhara Enduro team to seamlessly organise participant, volunteer and sponsor communications across 10 countries. This partnership elevated the overall quality and reach of the Pokhara Enduro Race, helping them deliver an exceptional experience to all stakeholders.
Contact us today for a live demo or click to learn more about our omni-channel platform and knowledgebase solutions.
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