Blerick, a vibrant district of the city Venlo in the east of the Netherlands, has seen a remarkable transformation in its main shopping centre, thanks to the efforts of Sjoerd van Heijster from No Lemon Centrummanagement.
Sjoerd and the board of entrepreneurs have embraced the Chainels community platform to streamline communication and foster a stronger sense of community among businesses in the citycenter of Blerick.
In Blerick, the Chainels platform is primarily used by shopkeepers, though service providers also benefit from its features. The community comprises a mix of chain brands and small local businesses, with users often being business owners or branch managers.
“There is a mix of chain brands and small local businesses. More specifically, users are often business owners or branch managers.”
Chainels has revolutionised how the city centre's stakeholders communicate, bringing all forms of interaction into one unified platform.
“It brings everything together. You communicate incredibly easily, whether with the board or with members, or between the two. Chainels brings all kinds of communication together and that just makes it very effective for cooperation and collaboration,” says Sjoerd.
The platform is perfectly suited to Blerick’s needs, facilitating communication both within small groups, like the board, and larger communities of a big group of entrepreneurs.
Before Chainels, the community relied on a variety of disparate communication tools like WhatsApp, email, text messages, and newsletters. This fragmentation made it difficult to maintain consistent communication.
“Chainels brings all those channels together in one place. Instead of using Dropbox, Google Drive, or other storage apps, you can just store all your documents on Chainels.”
According to Sjoerd it doesn’t matter whether you are a small or a big city, any citycenter looking for efficiency benefits from the platform.
“Chainels creates a good structure here for a lot of moving parts to come together. That's really the most important thing.”
With Chainels, onboarding new members has become a straightforward and efficient process for Sjoerd.
“I register them immediately on the platform after they have joined the association. They get an invitation from me via email and they can get started right away.”
To ensure that new users are comfortable with the platform, Sjoerd provides a brief presentation to explain its features and benefits. He also follows up to confirm that they have successfully logged in and are engaging with the community.
“I always give them space, and then I go back and say, 'Hey, you don’t need to post all the time, but if you want to ask questions or respond to messages or things like that, that’s what the platform is for.'”
User adoption can be challenging in any community, but Sjoerd works closely with members to ensure they fully understand the platform and its advantages.
“I just inform them that this tool is here to help them create a community.”
Blerick boasts an impressive 96% activation rate on Chainels. For the remaining 4%, Sjoerd actively reaches out to encourage them to activate their profiles.
“In Blerick, there was a WhatsApp group where I regularly reminded members whenever there was a new message on Chainels.”
“This helped generate excitement and encouraged people to check the platform. Additionally, when questions were asked in the WhatsApp group, I guided the individual to the platform to post their queries there. As a community manager, you have to stay alert and active in this.”
One of Chainels' key contributions to Blerick has been the professionalisation of communication, enabling more efficient collaboration across the community.
“In certain shopping areas, they aim to take a step towards greater professionalism by building a true community as a collective. This can't be achieved through just one annual meeting or occasional gatherings. That’s why I concentrated on convincing them of the value of this tool.”
Managing multiple shopping centres can be a complex task, but Chainels has made it easier for Sjoerd to oversee different sites from a single platform.
“It allows me to standardise things across different locations. I can switch very easily. Whether I'm at De Nieuwe Winkelstraat, the Centre Management Academy, Platform Binnenstad Management, or in one of the BID areas. It works the same everywhere.”
Not only does Chainels simplify management tasks for Sjoerd and his team, but it also enhances the daily operations of the entrepreneurs in the community by providing a quick and effective communication channel.
“Our members can inform each other very well and quickly. Whatever news there is, you can post it and get it seen. You can also include the municipality and other stakeholders in that to spread news.”
Sjoerd’s team has integrated Chainels into their workflow, streamlining the process of keeping the community informed.
“If we need to contact someone, you can just look at the list of members and find the right contact,” says Sjoerd.
“Through the platform, different businesses can connect and learn from each other in ways that they simply wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Without Chainels, they might not even know each other exists. So it helps create a community.”
In addition to communication, Chainels also offers efficient document management, allowing entrepreneurs to store and share important files, such as visuals, posters, videos, meeting minutes, and annual reports.
“It also helps them structure files. If you are talking about visuals or posters or videos, you can put them all there. And minutes, annual reports. That sort of thing. So you can just do a lot there. These are all things that entrepreneurs get in return.”
Moreover, Chainels collects and visualises data in easy-to-read graphs, enabling Sjoerd and his team to monitor community health, identify weak spots, and make informed adjustments.
“In Blerick, we also share a monthly social media performance report with the community. This is a standard practice, as it allows us to show entrepreneurs how their contributions to the collective are being invested.”
When asked about his favourite features of Chainels, Sjoerd highlights the platform’s ability to track and showcase community engagement.
“I always show stats like the 96% activation rate and 92% engagement rate at annual meetings. It just shows how many businesses are engaged and I get a lot of satisfaction from that.”
Sjoerd also appreciates the platform’s capacity to segment members based on their level of engagement, allowing him to tailor communication and ensure that even inactive members stay informed.
“I also like looking at the members on individual engagement levels. Are they high, medium, or low engaged, and are they informed about what matters? What I often see is that even when someone is marked as low engaged, they are aware of the news. Sometimes the emails do their work already, or people inform each other, so that makes me happy.”
Another feature Sjoerd finds invaluable is the ability to set reminders for posts or repost content to increase visibility and engagement.
“I also like that you can put reminders for posts or repost them for further reach. That feature is very valuable to me. I use it if I want more reactions to something or I want to draw attention to something. Then I simply change the title and add ‘reminder,’ and that does help a lot. I do that a lot for surveys, to make sure people are filling them in. I can repost the survey specifically targeted to those who didn’t fill it in so they can still do so.”
Through Chainels, Sjoerd has successfully enhanced communication, strengthened community ties, and driven greater professionalism in Blerick’s business community, making it an indispensable tool in his management arsenal as a city center professional