We predicted our ballot result within 2% using Vicinity
The journey through a successful renewal process with Vicinity
In this case study, we spoke to High Wycombe BID and Reading BID to understand how Vicinity’s ballot tools helped them to accurately predict their ballot outcome, increase turnout and take stress out the ballot process.
For Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), navigating the renewal ballot process every five years can be daunting. From ensuring data accuracy to engaging stakeholders, the challenges are varied, demanding and come on top of the day-job. Crucially for the BID team, an unsuccessful ballot could leave you without a job so it is crucial to demonstrate the value delivered in the previous term.
Challenges
Is my levy list accurate?
Who exactly is the voter for each hereditament?
How do I get my data into the correct format for election management services?
How can I ensure the ballot card reaches the right address?
These are just a few of the practical and fundamental questions that a BID needs to get right in order to achieve a successful ballot result. However data lists can often be out of date, it can be time consuming and difficult to get data from your local authority and then merged with your existing dataset and BIDs often approach ballot in a haze of uncertainty about the result.
Jamie Clattenburg, High Wycombe BID
"Once we implemented Vicinity and within hours of meeting the team through the training sessions, I felt we could use it pretty quickly and I don't think we would have got the result we did without it. Turnout increased by 11% from the previous ballot with an 87% result in favour by number and 97% by RV"
Implementation: Leveraging Vicinity for Ballot Success
Vicinity have always followed a method of customer-led development to find solutions to many of the processes needed for a manageable data-driven journey to renewal.
Identifying voters and assigning them to their respective hereditaments is an important and time-consuming activity, which has become straightforward with the filtering capabilities of the database.
No more sending ballot cards into the void – Vicinity helps BID teams to ensure each one lands exactly where it needs to be. And with clear records of contact history, you never have to wonder how long a contact has been on file or who needs updating.
By analysing the data, you can identify the most influential stakeholders and tailor your outreach efforts accordingly. Gone are the days of blind ballot predictions; now, you can forecast outcomes with confidence, giving you a strategic edge in the renewal process.
How do BIDs approach the renewal process using the technology?
Vicinity acts as a central hub for your entire team. Its status as a single source of truth ensures accuracy and consistency across all interactions, eliminating the need for external spreadsheets.
It contains a range of functionality designed for the ballot process; used both in the office and while out and about, ensuring no detail is missed. With readily available and easily filterable reports to gain comprehensive insights into all areas of BID data, enabling you to identify and address gaps in engagement. Find out more:
Vicinity’s ballot toolkit
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Vicinity's data updater will save hours of time, updating the database using the latest local authority data to get you ready for ballot. This ensures that the information is always current and accurate, laying a solid foundation for renewal efforts.
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The ability to select voters for each hereditament and store the correct addresses for the ballot card. Quickly stored and easily accessible against each record.
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Capture voter sentiment against voters throughout the BID term, so the whole team can assess their activity and understand who is being converted to supporters as a result of BID activities.
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Drawing on voting intention records, this report gives you a graphic overview, identifying key voters and predicts the outcome. Useful for reporting to team and board, this takes the stress out of the ballot process and helps you direct resources.
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Export your data in a format ready for the ballot (compatible with election management services).
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As the ballot cards are received, use the local authority updates to capture who has voted in the Ballot Progress Report. In a Kanban style board, easily manage the process and quickly identify who is yet to cast their vote and chase up those important stragglers.
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Vicinity offers tailored support calls to help identify gaps in the database and implement best practices gleaned from their extensive experience working with over 100 BID customers. Their insights are invaluable in optimising our processes for maximum effectiveness.
Alexa Volker, Reading BID
"During the ballot process we receive bi-weekly reports of ballots returned, we input this into Vicinity with our prediction of how they may have voted. For the second ballot now Vicinity has helped us predict the outcome very closely"
Results and Impact
Jamie Clattenburg from High Wycombe BID shared his experiences of using Vicinity for the ballot process. He highlighted the importance of getting your data in order and the leverage it can give the whole team when communicating with BID members.
“The data in your database is the most crucial data to go into the Ballot period with, you can pull everything from one system for your whole ballot period.
The length of the process running up to the ballot could be detrimental to a small team, especially if the system you are using is not user-friendly. Once we implemented Vicinity and within hours of meeting the team through the training sessions, I felt we could use it pretty quickly and I don't think we would have got the result we did without it. Turnout increased by 11% from the previous ballot with an 87% result in favour by number and 97% by RV
Your data from the council is the most crucial part because that should be the most accurate piece of BID member data you can get.
Initially, when we first took on the system it helped us identify where we were missing data, the Business contact report makes it very clear if you have not got contact data, you can filter the report to target certain areas. Seeing the gaps is really important and that is where we started our piece of work populating the system with up-to-date contact data, time investment is key while working through this process but now we have a system that we can confidently rely on and use it to demonstrate our value
It is only as good as the data that you put in, it is a precious tool, it's about coordinating as a team and using it to allocate responsibilities so you are capturing as much BID activity as you can to strengthen the conversation with the BID Members and when communicating with your board.
The beauty of Vicinity is you can pull up a timeline, you can clearly demonstrate to new businesses or existing members the clear benefits of being within the BID area. We record everything because it is easy to filter down to specific benefits and pull out the statistics i.e. how often it has been done, how much it would be if the business outsourced that themselves and ultimately how much value they get from paying their levy.
Recording all the activities delivered gives you a chance to turn a ‘No vote’ into a ‘Yes vote’ “
In Reading, Alexa Volker was able to predict the results of their ballots to within 2%.
Alexa said:
Here at Reading BID we have used Vicinity for our last two ballots. Each time we have begun the ballot process at least 18 months in advance where we analyse our data to find any gaps in contacts and investigate whether the contacts we do have are correct or would be the voters.
At the same time we update our perception of what their voting intention might be and this gives us a good feeling as to what outcome we might expect, as well as where to concentrate our efforts.During the ballot process we receive bi-weekly reports of ballots returned, we input this into Vicinity with our prediction of how they may have voted. For the second ballot now Vicinity has helped us predict the outcome very closely.We use Vicinity to record business engagement and the work of our wardens and their shoplifting duties, as well as businesses who have taken up our training and wellbeing offers. This has been invaluable when we report back on all of our activities.
Abbey Quarter
Reading Central
Jamie Clattenburg, High Wycombe BID
"The beauty of Vicinity is you can pull up a timeline, you can clearly demonstrate to new businesses or existing members the clear benefits of being within the BID area"
Conclusion
The implementation of Vicinity has been instrumental in the pursuit of a successful ballot result, providing BID teams with the tools and insights necessary to engage the community, demonstrate value, manage the ballot process and predict the result.
Secure your success
Are you ready to see how Vicinity can help you through your BID renewal process?
Let’s turn your renewal process from a daunting task into a strategic opportunity for growth and collaboration.