about the project

Choose A Challenge is the UK’s leading provider of fundraising challenges, offering adventurers the chance to raise money for charities with excursions to Kilimanjaro, Everest basecamp and Machu Picchu amongst others.

The business requirements

Their booking engine and events management system lies at the heart of their business, but in early 2018 it was experiencing ‘growing pains’. The client approached chilliapple looking for an expert Laravel partner to support their ambitious development roadmap.

Our solution

After migrating the site to a new and improved server we investigated and resolved a number of urgent bug fixes on the legacy system, including instances of customers being double charged for payment instalments. The features available via the charity dashboard, for use by organisations including Mind and the Meningitis Research Foundation, were also enhanced, enabling them to report on changes to fundraising targets and event attendance.

Once the system was running smoothly we moved on to a redesign of the front-end registration portal and purchase funnel, to provide potential customers with clear and concise information about all aspects of the trip including optional add-ons and extensions, flight arrangements and charity fundraising options.

The Laravel back-end has also undergone major enhancements for administrative users to manage both charities and their event attendees. This includes a feature to move users to alternative events if the original trip is overbooked, an event log collating failed payment instalments, and email triggers to customers when such failures occur.

The results

The redesign of the registration portal has led to a significant reduction in purchase drop-offs, as customers receive a clearer view of the payment schedule and the various trip extensions available to them throughout the checkout process.

The upgrades to the Admin section have also helped keep staff on top of overdue or failed payments, and minimised the likelihood of trips being cancelled.