{"id":121409,"date":"2024-06-29T08:28:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T08:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/userpilot.com\/blog\/groupize-gamification-case-study\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T23:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:06:00","slug":"groupize-gamification-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/userpilot.com\/blog\/groupize-gamification-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"[CASE STUDY] How Groupize Gamified Their New User Onboarding With Userpilot"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Justin Peticolas, the Manager of Implementation and Onboarding at Groupize, the modern meetings management platform unifying travel, spending, and compliance, learned his then-existing onboarding solution is shutting down, he had 6 days<\/em><\/strong> to find and implement a new user onboarding tool<\/a> before their next big launch.<\/p>\n

Based on a personal recommendation, they reached out to Userpilot.<\/a> And in less than a week, they were ready to go. \u201cI could recreate the content in Userpilot<\/a>, ramp up, and make the experiences look good very quickly. It saved the day.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

And it not only saved the day – but also led to the development of G.G.- an innovative gamified onboarding assistant, that got Groupize a nomination for Skift Idea Awards 2022<\/a> \u201cthe travel industry\u2019s most coveted achievement for excellence in design, creativity, and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Groupize<\/picture><\/figure>\n

PLG at the heart of the company<\/h2>\n

Since putting customers first and being user-friendly is at the heart of Groupize, Justin looked for a product adoption platform<\/a> that would be equally intuitive and customer-centric:<\/p>\n

\u201cGroupize is a software platform that assists companies with managing group and corporate business travel and events, both from the spend management and attendee management perspective. Our platform differs from others out there in that we are really user-friendly<\/strong>. So unlike other event management technologies out there that require dedicated resources and lots of experience, Groupize is designed to \u201cdemocratize events management\u201d<\/strong>. It allows anyone regardless of their level of knowledge to use a technology tool to make their job easier.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s why Groupize was looking for a tool like Userpilot – to make their tool even more user-friendly with self-paced onboarding.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we have such a user-friendly tool, and there might be some training involved, we want the training company to be user-friendly. So a really good self-paced onboarding and training, and the ability to deliver content just-in-time for the users, was really important to us.\u201d<\/em> – said Justin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Justin was looking for a tool that would both deliver timely content to Groupize\u2019s users and tell them more about product usage<\/a> and adoption.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs adoption was increasing coming out of COVID, we wanted to know more about what\u2019s going on.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And they found exactly that in Userpilot.<\/p>\n

Award-winning G.G.<\/h2>\n

Moreover, with Justin\u2019s creativity and Userpilot\u2019s flexibility, they could gamify their onboarding<\/a> by creating a Groupize Interactive Assistant – G.G. – ready to help Groupize users through Userpilot\u2019s interactive elements. The idea was so innovative it even made the shortlist of Skift Idea Awards 2022<\/a> rewards – \u201cthe travel industry\u2019s most coveted achievement for excellence in design, creativity and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Justin: \u201cG.G. stands for Groupize Guide, much like Siri or Alexa. G.G.\u2019s always there when you need her. It\u2019s like a having a professional event planner that spent years on the job inside the app, that that our users can ask for advice anytime. G.G. has the battle scars – theh have the lessons learned. And they\u2019re passing on their knowledge about our tool to our users.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Groupize<\/picture><\/figure>\n

Since some of Groupize\u2019s users are \u201coccasional planners\u201d – doubling as office managers or executive admins, they may need extra help. G.G. offers it through onboarding tours, step-by-step checklists<\/a> (this is where Userpilot is used to help G.G. deliver this) as well as live chat, LinkedIn page, and email address.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea was to make her knowledgable and accessible when you need her, but not too pushy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GG<\/picture><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe used to have G.G. pop out with the help of Userpilot on every page, and got feedback that it was a bit too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/picture><\/figure>\n

Instead, Justin made G.G. more subtle and utilized Userpilot\u2019s resource center<\/a> to let users summon G.G.\u2019s help, as well as provide more detailed help articles.<\/p>\n

<\/picture><\/figure>\n

Users can also trigger guided tours<\/a> of each individual page of the app from the resource center:<\/p>\n

<\/picture><\/figure>\n

Do you want to build guided tours in minutes using Userpilot? Sign up for free now!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Qualitative Difference in Support Tickets<\/h2>\n

After implementing G.G. with the help of Userpilot, Justin noticed qualitative and quantitative differences in the support tickets<\/a> they are getting from their users:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are more focused and directed. People use G.G. as the first defense line and only write to us if they cannot find the answers via G.G., or via the learning center. So it\u2019s less of the obvious questions like \u201cHow do I add a hotel\u201d and more of specific queries \u201cI have a problem adding a hotel. I followed these specific steps and something is not working…\u201d<\/p>\n

Groupize has seen a qualitative change to their support requests, which means their CS team is now mostly involved in answering questions that really need human intervention.<\/p>\n

Justin also likes that he doesn\u2019t need to \u201cbother their engineers when there\u2019s a release\u201d to create \u201cinfo-popups\u201d using Userpilot\u2019s native tooltips<\/a> and inform users about the new functionalities and changes:<\/p>\n

\"tooltip<\/picture><\/figure>\n

How did Userpilot help Groupize bring G.G. to life?<\/h2>\n

Justin found a great partner in Userpilot because of the tools\u2019 really short Time-To-Value:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I really like about Userpilot is that it\u2019s very intuitive. I could build out content and flows with the Chrome extension, and nothing had to be installed or downloaded. I could just get in and start building, and that right in my own app – I didn\u2019t have to build it somewhere else, and then open a separate window and keep refreshing like with some other technologies. I like that it\u2019s basically real-time building, and I can see the results in real time.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By the time Justin had his first onboarding call with Userpilot\u2019s Customer Success team, it wasn\u2019t so much about training them how to use Userpilot as about \u201cconfirming what they already knew\u201d and \u201ctroubleshooting what they already did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ramp-up time was very very quick. Userpilot exceeded my expectations there.\u201d<\/p>\n

How can Userpilot help your own company streamline onboarding?<\/h2>\n

If you are inspired by Groupzie’s success and want to improve your onboarding process too, Userpilot has all the right features to help you achieve that goal.<\/p>\n

Here are some ways Userpilot can help you:<\/p>\n