Moving the Academy for Housebuilders into an app that improved access and engagement

Gateley Legal launched their Academy for Housebuilders in 2015. It’s a 12-month, four-module course tailored for graduates and staff who are early on in their careers in the land, technical and planning teams within house builders. It’s usually delivered across three regions of the UK, the North, the Midlands and the South, and has been delivered remotely during the pandemic.

All of the information and content for the course was sent out by email, which was a challenge both for the cohort of delegates and for Gateley themselves. From Gateley’s point of view, it was difficult to know whether all attendees had seen the information they’d been sent about the live training modules. Any responses or questions coming in from students were also spread throughout the Gateley team’s inboxes, rather than being kept in one place.

It was also hard to engage with attendees in between each live training module. This meant that keeping motivation going throughout the course could be difficult at times, and there was no easy way to stay in touch with each cohort once they finished the course.

The team at Gateley Legal felt that moving the course onto an app would make it much more accessible for their next cohort of the Academy for Housebuilders. It would also make it easier for them to relay information to the cohort via push notifications, and then have a clear view of who had seen the content.

With this being the company’s first app, and with only one person on their team with current coding skills, it was important for them to find a platform that would allow some customization, but which could also be used by everyone on the team.

We have Sam, who can add code in when we need customization, but I’m also happy to go in and change things in the app.

I can add new speakers to the speaker directory, and add additional modules and content. It’s very accessible and easy to use.

The team at Gateley Legal created a detailed guide on how to register for the app, letting delegates know what they would be able to access and when, and how best to use the app during the programme. They also covered this in training sessions, so that delegates could make the most of the app.

In terms of security, the team at Gateley have the ability to control who can access content via the app. So if anyone who isn’t an academy delegate decides to download the app from one of the app stores, their access is restricted. This is an essential feature for Gateley.

The Fliplet team has been fantastic. We had quite a tight timescale to deliver this in, and they kept us on track and kept pushing us forward so we could deliver on time.

And when we’ve needed help to make tweaks to the app they’ve been very responsive. It meant that in those first few weeks of the app being live we could really refine everything and make sure we had the perfect processes in place.

When rolling out the app, the team got immediate positive feedback from delegates and saw an influx of downloads from the start.

The app is now the go-to resource for delegates. It contains all of the resources they need to complete the academy, including key dates, information on how to access each module, and interactive activities designed as a knowledge refresher. Delegates know exactly when each live training module will be delivered, and they can notify Gateley via the app if they can’t attend for any reason.

Engagement has increased and it’s easy to monitor delegate behavior and interactions within the app. For example, all queries that come in from delegates are now housed in one place, rather than scattered through an email inbox, so the team can easily spot common questions and update the app with the relevant information.

The Academy for Housebuilders app really elevates our offering. It’s unusual to have a supporting app for a dedicated training programme like this, so I see this app as a real differentiator for us.

And it’s helping us solve the issues we had with engagement both during and after the academy.

The feedback we’ve had from delegates has been really positive, and our team here at Gateley are delighted with it too!

When the current cohort finishes going through the academy, the team plans to create an alumni section in the app, so they will still be able to push content out to app users even after they’ve completed the course. This will enable Gateley to maintain a strong relationship with delegates beyond the course finish date.

In addition, the app will enable teams within Gateley Legal, and in other areas of the business, to promote additional relevant content to app users. Podcasts, webinars, articles and other thought leadership pieces will all be pushed out to the Academy for Housebuilders delegates and alumni.