Creating meaningful arts experiences while meeting people where they are

The mission of the Lawrence Arts Center (LAC) is to create meaningful arts experiences with and for their community through education, exhibitions, and performances. A major cornerstone in this initiative is the wealth of courses they offer on topics ranging from sculpture engineering to blogging for beginners to just about every form of dance. LAC hosts roughly 650 unique classes and sees around 7,000 enrollments annually from individuals of all ages and backgrounds.

With such a massive catalog of classes and broad reach within their community, the Lawrence Arts Center knew they needed a reliable database to store their important class and registrant information. They also needed flexible solutions that could work with that database to create seamless user experiences on their site when it came to class registrations, searchable directories, purchases, donations, and more. When LAC began partnering with Soapbox Engage, they were in the process of migrating their historic data over to Salesforce, and they were looking for a new class registration system that could integrate with Salesforce and adapt to their ever-evolving catalog.

Providing swift access to art and education with Soapbox Engage

Soapbox Engage solutions are built for Salesforce integration. Through collaboration with LAC, Soapbox Engage built a workable platform that drew on the functionalities of the existing Soapbox Engage Events, Directories, and Forms apps.

The final result was a searchable directory of classes that allowed for filtered views all driven by highly customizable taxonomy structure. Classes are currently searchable by age group, day/time, instructor, subject, and meeting type, but additional fields are easily added. The check-out process is equally customizable. LAC can add custom Salesforce features to their check-out process, allow for pricing adjustments like bulk registration discounts, and support documents like liability waivers.

Simplifying class registration for users and admins with the Soapbox Engage Classes app

To further customize and streamline the individual user experience, Lawrence Arts Center wanted a portal feature where users could log in and view classes they have registered for, manage their contact and household information, and add new household members. The Soapbox Engage Classes app includes the User Integration add-on feature, a portal that integrates directly with Salesforce. This portal automatically saves and updates user information for existing Salesforce contacts. When a new user creates a login, their information is used to generate a new record in Salesforce. The portal feature empowers users to login and edit their own information where LAC has enabled.

Prior to Soapbox Engage, LAC typically saw about 30% of their class registrations through the web portal. The other 70% of registrants enrolled by calling or visiting the front desk. In contrast, their most recent enrollment period saw 80% of enrollments come through their website. Lind said these latest statistics were “a testament to the ease of use of our Soapbox enrollment site” and “the payoff is an easier experience for the customer as well as a massive decrease in workload for our front desk staff, who can now put their time into other priorities.”

Creating meaningful arts experiences during social isolation with adaptable solutions

Lawrence Arts Center has always said, “art is for everyone.” After the Covid-19 pandemic radically altered the way many people could access education and recreational activities, LAC added “art is for everywhere” to their central guiding statement. Though many of their classes could not happen as they had originally been conceived, LAC knew providing outlets for creativity and expression in the midst of social isolation was a crucial public service. They came up with a range of solutions, including “art a la carte kits,” kits of supplies that could be delivered to homes along with guided Zoom classes.

Of the last year, Lind said, “Covid-19 has really brought our platform’s flexibility to the forefront. I’ve been able to add categories for classes based on virtual/in-person/hybrid, we’re about to add a shop link to our enrollment menu for Art Supply Kits, and we’ve added pandemic protocol details to the checkout process.” He emphasized that Soapbox Engage has allowed them to meet people where they are and present LAC offerings in as many ways as possible, while keeping their community safe.