Humane Society of Westchester - Westchester Marketing Cafe, LLC

The website was designed to showcase a bold new look, matching their new brand!
A robust list of options to support the Humane Society of Westchester is broken down into clean, clear action items for visitors.
Online volunteer sign-up forms streamlines back-office processes freeing up staff for other tasks.
A responsive design ensures that the site is as easy to navigate on phones as it is on computers.

The Challenge

The New Rochelle Humane Society was changing its name to Humane Society of Westchester at New Rochelle to better reflect all 19 communities they serve. They needed to rebrand and update their website as well.

They already had a lot of great content on their website but lacked a way to highlight upcoming events. While users could make donations online, the process was confusing and cumbersome. Many tasks such as reporting a lost or found animal required calling the Shelter and having office staff take down the information to then manually enter it into their database creating a disruption to staff workflow.

Solutions

A content management strategy provided staff and volunteers with a road map for adding new content; everyone understood how and where to include new articles and information.

By moving to WordPress we enabled staff to take control of editing and updating the website removing the need to rely on volunteers with technical expertise.

Online forms were used to collect information electronically and eliminate a significant bottleneck in the front office freeing staff to focus on more important tasks.

Key Successes

We were able to greatly improve the user experience by focusing on visitor needs to serving up the right content quickly and easily. Attractive graphics promoted upcoming events and top priority news drawing readers deeper into the site.

We were also able to significantly increase office efficiency by using forms with conditional logic; HSW could now collect information online and have it sent to the appropriate staff members for action.

Within three days of launching the new website the Humane Society of Westchester received via the new online forms 40 pre-adoption applications from prospective families via the new online form, 4 reports of lost pets and 5 donations including a sponsorship for an animal in need!

What You Can Learn

Understanding who your specific audiences are allows you to communicate with each in an appropriate manner.
Your website can act as a great tool to solve operational challenges for your organization.