Is ‘Customer Service’ Important?
Most nonprofits probably don’t think of themselves as providing ‘customer service’ … certainly not on the sense of merchants and retailers.
But if you do think — for a moment — of donors and members as customers, your organization most likely does have quite a number of customer-like interactions — everything from address changes to info requests to merchandise and donation transactions.
So it’s worth considering The Retail Consumer Report, based on research conducted by Harris Interactive with individuals who made online purchases during the past Christmas season.
Just how important was customer service to these consumers? Consider these responses:
- 95% have taken action after a bad customer service experience, and 79% have told others about it.
- Nearly all consumers (82%) have stopped doing business with an organization as a result of negative experience and most (75%) do not return.
- After a negative holiday shopping experience with an online retailer, 21% of consumers decided not to buy anything from the retailer.
Most impressive are the positive findings …
- 68% of consumers who posted a complaint or negative review on a social networking or ratings/reviews site after a negative holiday shopping experience got a response from the retailer. Of those, 33% turned around and posted a positive review, 34% deleted their original negative review, and 18% turned into loyal customers and bought more.
- 85% of consumers said they would be willing to pay anywhere between 5-25% over the standard price to ensure a superior customer experience.
- For those consumers that had a positive holiday shopping experience with an online retailer, 21% recommended the retailer to friends and 13% posted a positive online review about the retailer.
- And 66% cite good customer service as the most significant driver encouraging greater spending.
Finally, further underscoring the importance of communicating with disgruntled customers, 58% of customers who post a comment on a social net site like Facebook expect a response.
So pay careful attention to how your organization interacts with donors and members. And if someone has a bad experience, don’t add insult to injury by not communicating with them!
Tom
P.S. You download the full report here.
2 responses to “Is ‘Customer Service’ Important?”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
Read Full Answer
I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
Read Full Answer
Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
Read Full Answer
Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
Read Full Answer
There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
Read Full Answer
I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
Read Full Answer
I’m always surprised that more nonprofits don’t take this seriously. A donor is a precious thing and should be appreciated at every turn. Retaining your donors is the best way to save on the expense of donor acquisition and to build your support base.
Thank you for offering this post!
I run an annual NFP mystery shopping programme for Pell & Bales in the UK. Even some of the leading organisations fail to get the basics right consistently. Across a number of years our attempts to make a regular gift failed on 50% of occasions because of a breakdown of basic processes. And whilst most organisations understand the need to be proactive, the majority fail in practice to see each interaction as an opportunity to create supporter value. For example, when we call to cancel, few try to save us or convert us to an alternative form of support.
The answer? First:, organisations need to have rigorous discipline around business process management. If you have a systematic view of your processes, when something fails you can fix the underlying problem rather than the symptom. Second, leadership need to invest in giving front line teams the resources, skills and confidence to engage proactively with supporters, managing value, not managing transactions.
As ever, it starts with leadership: fundraising leaders need to make customer and supporter care an integrated component of their supporter value strategy, not just the banking and thanking back office.