CivicPlus, LLC

““The people we talked to from CivicPlus were always open to our ideas. They didn’t try to push their agenda on us. What we wanted from the beginning didn’t really fit most of CivicPlus’ templates. We wanted something different and they were open to that and helped us every step of the way to build the website we wanted.””

““Just having responsive design and providing a good experience on mobile has led to increased traffic,” he said.”

““Our residents were always engaged, but we have seen them become even more engaged as we have begun offering more services through our website,” said Stinson. “Our residents always used our website to look up boards, commissions, and council meetings, but now they can request services, report issues, and watch city council meetings live. We are slowly rolling out more services, like planning review submissions and inspections. We keep finding that the more we offer, the more engaged our residents become.””

““Any questions that we received from residents asking where they could find specific content in the new system paled in comparison to the positive feedback we received relative to making the homepage simple, and offering the main things residents wanted in easy-to-locate areas on the home and department pages. We also received positive feedback from residents and individuals outside our main footprint who were looking to do business in Durham, or who have traveled through our community.””

““Thanks to the heatmapping analysis our [CivicPlus] consultants provided we were able to reassess how to layout our homepage. It even encouraged us to place links on our website for services we don’t offer ourselves, such as utilities other than water, so that our civic website could serve residents as a one-stop-shop for all their civic needs.””

““The way everyone worked together was great,” remembers Ferrell. “We would get in a room, and actively look at other leading local government websites and we’d all bring ideas from other sites that we’d researched. Our [CivicPlus] consultants were always open to our ideas, which would inspire more suggestions and guidance. Being a relatively small team helped us to more easily reach a consensus on strategic decisions.””

““With CivicPlus, the cornerstone of their development is to help municipalities and local governments create websites. They have good templates, but more importantly a good understanding of what residents want from a government website. When they showed us the tools and best practices they would leverage to help us make data-driven decisions regarding our site content, organization, and navigation, like heat mapping, we knew we wanted to work with them on our project. Plus, we appreciated their commitment to helping us migrate our existing data.””

““We interviewed a lot of different companies and CivicPlus was the one we felt we could work best with,” said Ron Ferrell, senior public affairs specialist and web content editor in the Office of Public Affairs in Durham. “We enjoyed collaborating with the CivicPlus team right from the beginning. They had good ideas and seemed responsive to our ideas right from the beginning as well.””

“Absolutely, there are benefits. Having everything integrated is much simpler, and having one technical support team to go to with questions instead of several is ideal. We enjoy having everything in one place.”

“Compliance was nonexistent before, so we spend more time checking accessibility. CivicPlus makes it so easy that our entire workflows are more seamless.”

“In terms of accessibility, before, we were almost completely inaccessible. But it was essential to the town that we get there for our residents.”

“Reaction to the site has been very positive. We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback. In general, they find it extremely usable.”

“Switching from tables to a CMS has been great – just drag and drop, and you’re there.”

“CivicPlus had all the tools we wanted, and the price was amazing too.”

“The initial design process was really easy. CivicPlus was great to work with. Everyone is very friendly – even now, the project managers and account managers we work with are really good with communication.”

““We’re able to leverage the tool to set up forms so that citizens can send us requests and inquiries related to recent weather events, such as tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes,” said Regula. “It’s helping us receive reports from the community more quickly.””

““CivicPlus offers a common look and feel across solutions,” said Regula. “That consistency makes it easier for our users and us when interacting with the software.””

“At CivicPlus, the software works, and the people work harder. The people at CivicPlus know their customers. You can rely on them. Whatever your challenge is, they have seen it before and can leverage their knowledge to help you build a better solution.”

““Overall, the modernization of Chesterfield.gov, centered on interconnectivity, has significantly enhanced the civic experience. By creating a more accessible, efficient and user-friendly digital platform, we have seamlessly connected residents to the services and information they need. This initiative has addressed immediate challenges and laid the groundwork for continuous improvement and innovation, ensuring Chesterfield.gov remains a valuable resource for our community,””

“CivicPlus doesn’t box us in. It’s a platform that lets us integrate the tools that work best for our community.”

“We’re not just meeting compliance—we’re creating a better experience for everyone.”

“Our navigation used to be a source of frustration. Now, our users can easily find what they need, either by directly visiting content or through our enhanced site search, and then they can carry on with their day. Interacting with government should not be painful.”

“Acquia Optimize gave us the data to demonstrate the real impact of our accessibility efforts. We’ve been intentional in how we remediate issues, and the platform’s tracking is one of the clearest ways we’ve shown that our work is making a difference.”

“CivicPlus is really the connective tissue across the many systems we use—from content management to accessibility tracking to public meetings. It lets us bring everything together.”

““For us, being successful was about deciding on our project goals, involving our community, CivicPlus listening to what we wanted and making it happen, and then watching it unfold and taking notes so that we can focus on what we want to do next.””