What is the purpose of your groups?
We have a lot of network members who all gather around the same totem pole, the property. If you stack all these different members’ platforms on top of each other, we have a great many of the same type of customers in contact with one another. That’s why our members can benefit enormously from networking with each other from minute one.
Networking is always about giving first, so people can build a relationship. But from day one, people actually have something to give. It’s simply a matter of establishing your name and your competencies, and then you can make each other stronger. And the longer the relationship lasts, the more networking gets shared.
What challenge did you have before you started using Samli?
We had challenges with time spent on invitations and, not least, with sign-ups. We want people to prioritise the network meetings highly, but when everyday life hits, the big client visit, or the people who aren’t quite so organised, they cancel.
That’s a challenge, because we order breakfast at the various locations, for example. It’s incredibly annoying to have ordered breakfast for a certain number and then have five people not show up. But the worst part isn’t the breakfast, it’s the five networking relationships that we, and the other participants, miss out on. Now the system has given us the ability to keep an eye on it and help the less organised members become more structured.
What made you choose Samli?
We weren’t out shopping around at a load of other systems. We looked, in very practical terms, at how we could escape from old-school Word and Excel, but it wasn’t a market where we were overwhelmed with options.
The important thing for us was that we weren’t looking for someone who could merely handle it, because the moment someone “can” do it, every single change comes with an invoice. We were looking for someone who had built a system for networks from the ground up. That made all the difference.
What is the biggest value Samli has created for you?
It’s peace of mind. If we try something new, cross-group events or online meetings, for example, I can quickly gauge whether there’s broad support for it. That saves us a lot of resources, because if it’s not something the network wants, why spend resources arranging it?
The other big value is that members can search and spar with each other between meetings, regardless of how often they meet. Instead of spending the evening in front of the TV, they can open their phone and see whether there are any relevant searches, or add their own. It’s a really good tool. Once the members get used to it, it becomes as indispensable as the saw and hammer are to the carpenter.
Can you give a concrete example of how Samli has changed your everyday life?
Guest handling has really helped us. There are two of us running it, and just being able to go in and see that a guest is registered helps enormously. Guests are our added revenue, so it matters.
In the past, you’d think afterwards: “Did I follow up with everyone?” There were always a couple who got stuck along the way, the one who didn’t show, and the one I forgot in the rush. Now I can go back to the meeting and see it all. That creates a lot of value, and it means no relationships slip through the cracks.