The New Cherriots.org Improves Communication for Riders

Target Audience: Our target audience was Cherriots riders, partner organizations, and community members who needed information about our agency. (Cherriots was formerly Salem-Keizer Transit.)

Strategy Objective:Our goal was to completely overhaul the website by implementing a new design using our new brand colors, look, and feel. We also wanted to completely rebuild the site structure, making all information logically ordered and easy to find for our riders. We wanted to add new tools that helped our riders understand our service better, like the interactive System Map and SMS text alerts. Our final goal was to build a fully-responsive site that looked and functioned seamlessly on mobile and tablets.

Situation Challenge: Our website is the flagship communication tool for Cherriots and it wasn't reflecting our new brand. It contained outdated and incorrect information. Tools like the Trip Planner weren't working correctly, causing confusion and frustration among our riders. Our site wasn't very mobile friendly, with some features not fully available on riders' phones. Overall, our website was hard to navigate and find accurate, easy-to-understand information.

Results Impact: The new Cherriots.org has dramatically increased our professional image and our credibility in the community. Our riders know they can trust our consistent, cohesive communications. The site also offers many more pages in Spanish than before, the dominant second language in our area. Internally, refining our communications and updating information on the site caused a number of departments to refine their own processes in preparation. It has also caused these departments which are not on the front lines of customer service to think more intentionally about riders' needs in their own work.

Why Submit: Members of our community have long seen Cherriots as a simple bus service. This project was not only a website refresh, but a comprehensive overhaul of our most visible communication tool. Our riders now see that we offer integrated mobility solutions. They have clear information and powerful tools at their fingertips; easy to find and easy to use. They can understand our system, our services, and plan their trips without always needing the help of our customer service staff. Their experience on our site is consistent with all printed marketing materials and consistent from desktop to tablet to mobile. We're excited to continue to innovate and add features in the coming years to better serve our riders.