How FIXR helps Exeter Guild support 300 societies and 31,000 students

Regularly ranked among the top universities in the UK, the University of Exeter is home to thousands of students from across the globe.

These students are represented by the Exeter Students' Guild, which is home to many aspects of student life, from representation, campaigning, volunteering and advice to a wide range of societies and events.

We spoke with Luke Appleton, Digitial Manager at Exeter Guild about his experience using the platform for their extensive event offering, and how FIXR helps them support their societies and achieve their goals as an organisation.

What is Exeter Students’ Guild, and what is your role?

The Students’ Guild is basically the students' union for Exeter University, and I am the Digital Manager. So I manage all the digital platforms in terms of their deployment, strategy, road-mapping and what platforms we're using.

What are the main objectives of the organisation?

Our guiding star is that we exist to make sure all 31,000 of our students love their time at Exeter. That's fundamentally it. There are lots of things that come out of that, but that’s the most important one.

How do you go about trying to achieve that?

Essentially, we cover a lot of the non-academic stuff related to students' lives.

Many of our students engage with us through societies or volunteering opportunities, and we have a sort of citizens' advice service for students at Exeter. Students are often away from their families, so we're there to provide some of the support they might otherwise have back home.

We have a lot of demand for events and experiences that help our students meet new people. So we have an extensive event offering with our Give It A Go programme focused on those types of experiences, and we sell tickets for those through FIXR.

What was your introduction to FIXR, and why did you choose to use it for your organisation?

The primary reason we signed with FIXR was because FIXR is the most popular events platform in Exeter.

The 'stereotypical' undergrad arrives on the Friday before Welcome Week, and the first thing that happens in their halls is somebody in a ‘Welcome’ t-shirt knocks on their door and says “We're all going to Timepiece tonight. Do you want to come?”.

They say yes, and they‘re told to install the FIXR app and buy their ticket. So by the time they get to us on Monday, they’ve already got the FIXR app installed.

It's about making a first impression; you have a very on-trend platform that looks really good, which benefits us.

We also had several societies using FIXR already, so it made a lot of sense for us to have a master account to manage all of those sub-accounts in one place.

What is your experience of using FIXR to set up and manage events?

Although it’s predominantly managed by other teams and individuals, I have lots of experience because I taught many of them how to use it.

The core product is very good, which is important. It’s a very competent platform.

As a students’ union, we have unique event requirements and there are always more features I’d love to see! I know one is already in the works with your message centre, so I’m very pleased about that.

How do you use our data analytics and Insights?

I'm interested in the new Insights that you just rolled out. From my perspective, I want to understand demographics, engagement, who’s doing repeat sales; things like that. But I'm also conscious of our societies and their committees.

Part of the reason we provisioned FIXR for them was because we think it’s a tool that will help them.

It helps committees keep track of who comes to one social and then drops out, or who are the most loyal and engaged members.

Let's say your society organises a social once a week; you can see from your Insights that eight or so people have all bought tickets every single week, religiously, without fail.

When March comes and it's time for the committee elections, who should I suggest runs for committee? I've got that insight there; these are the people who keep coming to the events and engaging with the society.

How else does FIXR support you?

I appreciate that your team is very responsive.

There were some changes needed for our sign-ups to improve gender inclusivity, and the level of support from FIXR was great.

Ultimately, my priority is to provide the best possible experience for students. That’s my focus, so we will always choose the platform that serves us the best. And while FIXR is the answer to that question, we’re going to be with you guys!

If you're interested in learning more about how FIXR can help you manage your events, and grow an engaged audience, don't hesitate to get in touch.