“With a business that runs 24x7, 365 days a year, we needed a system that could empower KOA’s great people to be more self-sufficient,” explained Jef Sutherland, Vice President of Information Services at KOA. “When we first implemented Numara FootPrints, we had a specific process for addressing questions, submitting requests, and resolving issues at any time of the day. This was very important to us and one of the drivers in our selection of Numara FootPrints.”

In addition, the Numara FootPrints knowledge base was a critical feature that drove KOA’s selection process. The knowledge base enabled KOA to centrally store solutions online, and let users quickly search for answers to their questions – without having to wait for support. KOA was also impressed with Numara FootPrints’ flexibility and multi-level security for help desk activities. With these features, KOA can support different users at the same time and provide varying levels of access to members of the support team and other Kampgrounds users. The software also supports multiple groups simultaneously, which was extremely important for KOA.

Numara FootPrints is so easy to use, and offers the ability to automatically set up multiple projects within the system and can customize each project. When KOA first deployed Numara FootPrints, the support team created nearly 10 projects within the system including an internal/external support project, an online self-service project, enhancement requests and bug tracking project, a contact management project, a site consultation project, and a vendor management project.

For nearly three years, site managers and other front-office personnel at many of KOA’s campgrounds utilized KampSight™ - a proprietary software product designed to centrally manage reservations, process credit card transactions, and automate point-of-sale, billing, and other activities via the Internet – while only a few utilized the Numara FootPrints product. However, after realizing the full-capabilities of Numara FootPrints, KOA wanted to fully optimize the solution to help the company accommodate growth and better manage customer relationships.

“Over the last couple of years, we have really changed how we view Numara FootPrints,” explained Mr. Sutherland. “We were originally using Numara FootPrints as a tool to keep track of program enhancements and program ‘buzz,’ but now we view the product as a total package, with CRM-centric applications built-in.”

Since its initial deployment of Numara FootPrints, KOA has expanded its use of the comprehensive, flexible, and easy-to-use product to quickly and efficiently resolve technical support issues. KOA has customized the system to accommodate increasing growth and current and past business challenges. With more than 450 campground sites, KOA has seen the number of campgrounds using Numara FootPrints grow to nearly 300 from its original 20.

“At first, we were using Numara FootPrints as a tracking system for a small number of campgrounds,” said Mr. Sutherland. “Although we didn’t originally think about it, we were using Numara FootPrints to handle CRM the entire time. Over the last couple of years, our use of Numara FootPrints to handle CRM has grown tremendously, as we have expanded to 300 campgrounds that use the system.”

Beyond KOA’s initial deployment of Numara FootPrints, KOA has utilized Numara FootPrints as more of a CRM-specific solution. The company has created separate tickets for each of the 300 campground sites that have adopted the Numara FootPrints system. Within these projects, KOA keeps a profile of each campground and tracks the IT equipment used at each location, including number of PC’s, Internet connections used, contact information of the campground owners, and much more.

KOA’s sales department also created a “Sales Tracking and Lead Management” project within Numara FootPrints that tracks all prospective campground owners. According to KOA, this project compiles information such as a prospect’s email address, mailing address, and phone numbers.

“As this sales project started to grow, we saw how easy it was to create a form that could keep track of anything and everything related to sales,” said Mr. Sutherland. “We could do things like create letters and mail merges, making it easy to run a sales lead system.”

From this new project, a new ticket is created within KOA each time a person purchases a campground and a KOA staff member is assigned to the campground. This ticket then manages that campground for two years. Surveys conducted by KOA found that campground owners often struggle within this initial period because they are unfamiliar with the business. By assigning a dedicated person to each of these new owners, KOA helps each campground become a success.

As technology evolves, KOA continually provides its campground owners and campers with the latest technology advances. According to KOA officials, when determining how technology has affected the camping business during recent years, there are two different perspectives from both the camper and the owner.

“For the camper, it is really important that he or she has wireless broadband service,” explained Mr. Sutherland. “Campers often carry their laptops wherever they go, and they expect that every camping facility they visit will offer wireless broadband service. Not only do we offer this service, but we have created a project in Numara FootPrints that helps us keep track of track of who is signed up for a particular “hotspot” at each individual campground.”

Although KOA is not a public company, it operates using industry best practices to be compliant with rules and regulations. In addition, by documenting these processes, no issues fall through the cracks.

“Last year, our main initiative was to document all of our daily procedures, including documenting security procedures, as well as keeping track of changes to our system,” explained Mr. Sutherland. “We created a Numara FootPrints project, and now all of our standard operating procedures, and any system changes are partitioned into five categories that we call diaries. Anytime there is a change within one of these five categories, agents are responsible for entering necessary information into this Numara FootPrints project.”

For example, if there is a configuration change to a router, that information would be documented in KOA’s network diary. If there is an outage within KOA’s KampSight system, that information is documented in the KampSight diary. “Often in the past, there would be an incident and our people would say, ‘I vaguely recall how we resolved that last time,” said Mr. Sutherland. “Now that doesn’t happen. By tracking every incident in Numara FootPrints, we never have the problem of figuring out how we resolved a similar issue in the past. The best part is I didn’t have to go and find a specific program for tracking and documenting everything because I already had a structured system in place with Numara FootPrints.”

According to KOA management, Numara FootPrints has brought tremendous value to the company. The product has helped KOA work efficiently through a number of different projects within the company.

“The response to Numara FootPrints has been extremely positive,” explained Mr. Sutherland. “Everyone who uses it is thrilled with the system. Campground owners love it because we’re much more proactive in responding to their requests. At the same time, they can be just as proactive in answering their own questions, submitting requests, and getting the information they need, when they need it.”