The National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA), established in 1928, is a professional organization dedicated to serve and provide leadership for the advancement of all levels of the sport of wrestling with primary emphasis on scholastic and collegiate programs. The membership embraces all people interested in amateur wrestling.
The Business Challenge
As a not-for-profit organization who selected Salesforce for their system of engagement to manage and maintain a vast country-wide network of coaches and former wrestlers, they needed to share a variety of information with their constituents without breaking the bank.
Heavy on educational content due to the sheer variety of wrestling styles and techniques, it’s not a stretch to say their collection of videos, articles, nutritional information, assessments and groups were daunting. Add to that news articles and thought leadership blog posts needed to educate and enhance retired wrestlers who are now coaches working full time at schools and clinics, it was an uphill battle. Until Magentrix was discovered.
The Magentrix Solution
Nate Naasz of NWCA describes the scenario “Things were challenging before we formalized interaction with our members using Magentrix. With so many different techniques, philosophies and academies, state to state differences all requiring unique documents or assessments, we knew there had to be a better way to pull it all together. That’s when we found Magentrix and the difference is night and day.”
The New Portal Experience
After implementing a Magentrix portal, each and every coach now has 24/7, self-service access to the tools and information required. It was designed to alleviate the stress of finding information and giving users the tools they need to succeed.
Here’s an outline of the experience from a new portal user’s perspective:
NWCA Membership
As part of becoming a member of the NWCA, they automatically receive an email welcoming them and are provided with a link to login to the portal.
Video Page
One of the most popular portal features is a searchable video collection. This is specific for coaches and is organized by logical groupings of wrestling techniques, philosophies, drills and presenter styles.
Document Management
A critical requirement to the NWCA was the ability to tailor a vast library of documents and files specific to either groups of users or individual coaches. This library contains resources, files on risk management, tips & techniques as well as nutritional information. NWCA manages access as not all information is relevant to all users. As an example, users in New Hampshire likely don’t need to see documents for Florida as they are not relevant.
Groups
With all their members in the same portal, NWCA can now easily provide the ability for them to collaborate. This group collaboration means users in the same state can collaborate and discuss techniques or even arrange to meet in-person at fundraisers taking place in different schools.
Events
An overlooked yet powerful capability is events. In North America, there are numerous wrestling events. State, or national, these are great opportunities to learn from thought leaders and network with the community. Scholastic leadership academies run 25 events across the US every year and having those in an easy to access calendar in a portal where coaches are already makes all the difference.
Surveys
With so many differences in wrestling state to state, the best way to receive feedback are surveys. Included in the portal are links to numerous surveys. These can be program assessments, business case questions, scholarship nominations or salary & budget related.
Consolidating feedback to the state or region level often leads to ideas or proposals.
News Articles
An area geared towards scholastic coaches, this section provides relevant wrestling news, thought leadership and items that are recommended to improve overall education.
With the active user count quickly approaching the 10,000 mark, NWCA has seen an average yearly growth of portal users close to 300%. Coaches and portal users love the self-service access and are actively promoting the NWCA and providing them feedback.
Associations like the NWCA are prime candidates for digital and customer transformation. Eliminating barriers and providing 24/7 access to the tools and information relevant to their constituents is saving time and money to all involved. It also serves as a platform and grows and evolves over time based on feedback. That is the power of a Magentrix portal for Salesforce.