Top 5 product feature releases of 2020

With 2021 is upon us, we wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on 2020 from a product perspective. We know the importance of continually advancing JRNI’s capabilities to help you build strong customer relationships through unique, personalized experiences. We have an ongoing dialogue with our customers and industry experts to drive our product forward, ensuring our platform helps customers maximize their success and ROI.

As you might imagine, 2020 was like no other year! At the onset of COVID-19, we did what we do best: focus our energy, our creativity, and our years of experience to build the best product and release features to help our customers thrive.

Reflecting on last year’s product launches made us realize how excited we are for what’s to come! While 2020 certainly taught us we can’t predict what’s coming next - we will remain flexible to ensure we are always meeting customer needs and adapting to the current environment. With that, let’s review the top product features from 2020!

1. Video appointments

• What is it: Video appointments enable businesses to serve their customers by offering appointments via phone and video. Video appointments allow you to provide service, demonstrations, consultations, and the like - all remotely to give your customers the one-to-one - and one-of-a-kind! - experiences they are looking for.
  
• Why we did it: At the beginning of the pandemic, the entire world was shifting to remote work. While video appointments was already in process, the release was accelerated in response to COVID-19 - as we knew the dire importance of being able to shift from a face-to-face to remote business model. Video appointments give customers a way to stay connected while also staying safe, and will continue to be an important part of the experiences you provide.
• The biggest challenge: When it came to adding video appointment features to our platform, the biggest challenge was around deciding the best way to balance our customers’ needs. On the one hand, many of our customers were already using Zoom, and were interested in using that same platform for conducting video appointments with their customers. On the other hand, other customers didn’t want to throw a third-party solution into the mix - specifically because of all the InfoSec work that often goes along with it. That’s why we decided to make it possible for our customers to decide what was best for them: video appointments via Zoom, or video appointments via JRNI’s own native remote appointments offering.

2. JRNI Analytics

• What is it: JRNI Analytics allows you to measure and improve upon the success of your experiential relationship management strategy, so you can increase revenue, profitability, and efficiency, build stronger customer relationships, and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. By tracking revenue and conversions, JRNI Analytics allows you to measure ROI and to understand how your one-to-one and one-to-many experiences drive value.
• Why we did it: We strongly believe in the importance of analytics - and using it to drive powerful business decisions. We designed JRNI Analytics so that you can see the story behind the statistics - and use that information to take action and build upon your successes. Having an easy way to analyze your experiences is crucial to growing your revenue and profitability.
• The biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge with JRNI Analytics was making sure that the tool was usable by anyone - not just data scientists, or people who were already skilled in business intelligence tools. That’s why we filled it up with pre-populated dashboards based on the kind of data we know our customers need most - so anyone could simply log in and start seeing information that would help them improve their business.

3. Accessibility

• What is it: At JRNI, we strive to provide an open, accessible, and compliant experience to all users. We prioritize accessibility, and have worked to make it a core part of our development process to ensure, to the extent possible, that our end-user interfaces follow all internationally recognized best practices in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. With our ongoing focus on accessibility, all users, including those with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities can access and use the JRNI platform.
• Why we did it: Accessibility is important to ensure all users, regardless of ability or disability, can access and use our product. This is a commitment we’re dedicated to - to make sure your staff and customers have access to all the information they need on the JRNI platform! This is why we aim to meet WCAG 2.1 (AA) standards by following its four design principles and twelve supporting guidelines.
• The biggest challenge: When it comes to accessibility, it is challenging to meet the needs of every user due to the wide range of disabilities, and the fact that people experience varying degrees of conditions. Accessibility is a moving target - and staying up-to-date with changing regulations and developments will always be challenging, but we fully accept the challenge! As accessibility evolves, so will we! JRNI is also regularly tested by a third-party company, QualityLogic, to ensure that we’re adhering to guidelines. We will continue to make inclusion a top priority in our development strategy.

4. JRNI for Credit Unions

• What is it: JRNI for Credit Unions helps credit unions stay connected with their members by giving them the ability to offer unique experiences. Our specialized credit union package helps deliver the great, personalized service that makes credit union members choose a credit union over a bank in the first place.
• Why we did it: Credit unions were looking for additional ways to connect with their customers, and we wanted to provide a solution that allowed credit unions to deliver a personalized touch - while also being able to provide essential services remotely, control branch traffic for safe social distancing, eliminate lines with virtual queuing, optimize staff time, and improve the member experience.
• The biggest challenge: When we designed our credit union package, we wanted to make sure it was packed with all the features credit unions need, not just a bunch of bells and whistles. Our biggest challenge was making sure we delivered on that promise - and we’re so grateful to our customers and other experts who made sure we did it just right.

5. Member portal

• What is it: The member portal feature provides a seamless experience for your customers, allowing them to easily manage their appointments with you from one place. With the member portal, your customers can log in to view past, upcoming, and canceled appointments, reschedule existing appointments, and book new appointments.
• Why we did it: At every step of the customer journey, we want to ensure your customers are having the best experience possible. By creating a one-stop shop for appointment management, the member portal gives your customers full flexibility and control over their appointments - improving their overall experience.
• The biggest challenge: The biggest challenge when developing the member portal was making sure that the experience provided additional value, not additional effort. That’s why we made sure that member portal could integrate with a brand’s existing customer account system, so that their customers didn’t have to have multiple logins - one for their standard customer profile, and a separate one for managing their appointments.

Looking forward

Even as a technology company that is used to rapid change, 2020 truly showed us what it meant to pivot quickly in the most unusual of times! That is a lesson we will always carry with us. While we don’t know exactly what’s on the horizon, we do always take a proactive approach to our roadmap, and are excited for another great year.

We look forward to our journey together with you this year! If you have any questions or want to share feedback on what you’d like to see on our roadmap, be sure to reach out to your Customer Success Manager! And if you want to see how JRNI can work for your business, then drop us a line.