- Success Story
- Coos Bay, Oregon
How Coos Bay, Oregon Used Technology to Reinvent the Way it Serves and Engages its Community
Overview
Coos Bay, Oregon, the largest community in Oregon’s Bay Area, got its name from a local Native American tribe. After establishing the need to improve its website, meetings management, and email marketing, Coos Bay selected Granicus as its solution partner; partly due to the consultive collaborative nature of the Granicus Government Experience Cloud. This union resulted in a striking subscriber increase, an impressive email engagement rate, and improved efficiency for city workers.
Metrics
- 89% subscriber growth In first seven months
- 65% engagement rate Compared to 60% benchmark*
- 35% open rate Compared to 30% benchmark*
- Eight months From project start to full launch
- *Benchmarks represent median for local government in 2022
Reinventing Government
Coos Bay Assistant City Manager Nichole Rutherford knew the city needed a new website, as well as better meetings and email marketing solutions. Following a traditional strategy to replace outdated government technology, the city was required to review potential vendors and focus on product features and pricing. Granicus was selected for its best-in-breed technologies as well as the Granicus Government Experience Cloud platform approach that features consultative collaboration in a true partner dynamic. This initiative brought changes that went well beyond a simple software update — reinventing the way the city serves and engages its community.
Understanding the Community
Reinventing what government looks like requires a deep understanding of both the community’s needs and the concerns and resource limitations of staff. Working collaboratively with Granicus, Coos Bay was able to introduce value to its residents and staff in an iterative way, collecting feedback from the community at every point in the process to help them identify and deliver upon their overall goals.
More Engaged & Efficient
After eight months, the team was ready to launch its new solutions to the public. In just over six months after launching their new communications platform, Coos Bay saw an 89% increase in subscribers, including a significant influx of new subscribers through the Granicus Subscriber Network, who opted into Coos Bay communications after subscribing to other Oregon-based organizations’ communications. An impressive 65% engagement rate illustrated a major improvement in interaction between the local government and the community. The new combination of web, email, and meeting solutions has also improved efficiency for city workers.