KCRW is NPR’s flagship member station in Southern California.
Grow a dependable base of support with a dynamic membership program
Congruity Works came to KCRW as best-in-class experts on refining and streamlining the complex technology needs of media membership programs. KCRW uses Salesforce, Wordpress and Stripe, but had legacy workflows that required a lot of disparate steps and processes to be managed in order to complete a data processing cycle. The CW team built a portal for members and staff that acts as the connection layer between the KCRW’s systems used to manage audience, donor and membership data. This saved significant time and money compared to a subscription third-party web application.
Connect the interesting to the interested, growing a hyper-engaged LA-based collective through one-of-a-kind experiences
KCRW has a thriving membership program that’s seen as “a passport to cultural experiences.” The station is known for its history of hosting unique live experiences around Southern California as well as providing award-winning coverage of local and regional news and music programming. Members support the station’s events and coverage, and in return, they receive access to special content, event perks, and exclusive presales.
Congruity Works developed a Member Portal that creates a more seamless experience for the end user as well as KCRW staff members responsible for managing the membership program, enabling them to spend more energy delivering on membership perks and stellar customer service and less time and effort troubleshooting and overseeing multiple applications.
Strategy: Creating value by surfacing Drupal as the connection layer
The Member Portal that CW developed and maintains for KCRW acts as the connection and translation layer between multiple systems. This saves membership support staff a noteworthy amount of time and money while significantly improving security and accuracy. In early conversations with the KCRW team, Congruity Works was able to help the staff understand that they didn’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars a year on an application platform like Heroku (or Zapier or AWS Lambda) because Drupal already offers this functionality.
By creating and adding JSON API endpoints within Drupal, Congruity Works saved the client a significant amount on licensing fees and redundant development costs while demonstrating the functionality and universal capacity of a system that the client already uses and trusts.
The CW team has implemented and/or developed the following:
- A Member Portal that connects via API to Stripe and Salesforce to facilitate data movement related to recurring membership payment processing.
- Member authentication on KCRW’s mobile apps via the Member Portal.
- Centralized tracking and updating of payment methods, contact info, membership levels, preferences, interests, and more via the Member Portal, all synced to KCRW’s websites, stores, mobile apps, and back-end CRMs.
- A full suite of A/B testable drip campaigns for the purpose of sending member notifications, including everything from updating payment methods after a failure to encouraging increased giving. Notifications are outfitted with a “magic-link” login system which allows members to access the Portal and complete routine tasks without needing to keep track of passwords.
- A seamless transition from KCRW’s previous system to the new Member Portal without interruption, with all data remaining secure and stable during migration. Both systems continue to run concurrently as renewals are rolled into the new system, with KCRW staff only needing to operate in one back-end interface.
Using JSON API Endpoints to extend accessibility
Congruity Works leveraged existing data architecture to build native objects, using Drupal as both content management system and application server. This allows other developers to interface with KCRW’s Drupal application objects, enhancing the Member Portal’s functionality without the need to invest in external technology.
We emphasized to the KCRW team that using Drupal as an application server isn’t about tying the data to the platform, but about liberating it from the CMS. You may feel your data is siloed in one place in the CMS, as though it’s stuck in a web interface, but we helped them see that Drupal can be used to liberate the data in a way that reduces the amount of technologies that you have to use.