This week Nick and I deal with the critically important function of “Donor Service.”

Let’s start with this fundamental question:  Do you really know what good donor service looks like?

I sure hope so, because as we’ve reported before, nearly 20% of all donors who drop out quit because of lousy donor service.

Consequently, any organization serious about improving its retention rates and lifetime values had better be deadly serious about the quality of donor services it provides.

Sadly, this essential ingredient in the Great Donor Experience recipe gets short shrift in most organizations.

Rather than treat donor service as a cost center to be shoved off on an unsuspecting intern, relegated to the lunchtime receptionist, or otherwise ignored, successful nonprofits — just like successful companies — focus on great donor service. And they reap big bucks for their effort.

Solving the donor service part of the retention puzzle is no mystery. Neither does it have to involve high costs. It does, however, require attention, planning, hard work and focus. All worth it if good service prevents 1 out of every 5 donors from abandoning ship.

Let me ask you this:

• Have you called your organization’s donor helpline or service center to get a first-hand sense of what your donors and prospects will experience?
• Can you easily find your organization’s call-in number on the website?
• How long did it take before the phone was answered?
• Were you put on hold? For how long? What did you experience while on hold?

If you had a lousy experience with any of the above you should, of course, should fix it.

We’ve preached and preached about the importance of good donor service and the need to seek constant feedback from you donors to spot and cure problems in their early stages.

These days, for the obvious reasons of Amazon and other sophisticated, service-oriented e-commerce platforms and the ubiquitous use of social media, we need to realize that donor service is not only important –it’s everything.

Today, donors have a direct a direct and diverse set of ways to complain or praise.  And these complaints and kudos are no longer limited to the occasional letter or phone call to your donor service line. Donors can now spread the word – for good or ill—quickly and massively on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Great Donor Service Starts at the Top

Most CEOs will only act and demand change if they see a massive –and usually negative –change in their organization’s metrics.  If there’s a sudden flight of hundreds or thousands of donors and the quarterly report shows an inverted hockey stick you have their attention.

Problem is that poor donor service is like soil erosion.  Barring a massive flood, the topsoil sluffs off slowly and largely goes unnoticed. So, most CEOs aren’t even aware of the slow, drip, drip, drip of donors leaking from the retention bucket.

That’s why any organization truly deserving of the label “donor-centric” will provide its board, CEO (and every department) with monthly attrition numbers and donor feedback comments.

Few organizations can claim “we don’t have a donor service department because we are a donor service organization.  Our entire operation is focused on donor service.”  The key to holding on to donors or winning back defecting donors to get on top of problems before it’s too late— and that means making sure different departments are aware of donor attitudes and talking to each other to solve any problems and seize any opportunities.

Bring random amazement into normal situations.

Peter Shankman in his book Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans offers lots of great advice on customer service, but one piece of advice remains ingrained in my brain years after I read the book:  “Bring random amazement into normal situations.”

Peter describes what he means: “Reach out to your customers and say hi with something of value to them without selling to them. Give them something that they can’t get anywhere else— an experience that only they can have, and yes, can brag about if they so desire. (And chances are, they will desire.) Check in on them, not in a creepy/ stalky way, but in a way that makes them recognize that you understand how important they are to you.”

In short,  “bring random amazement into normal situations”

Angel Aloma, the executive director at Food for the Poor, has created a true “donor service organization.”

I know from first-hand experience.

• When I was doing some ‘mystery shopping’ for an Agitator post on planned giving I called seven large organizations after 7 pm to determine how well they followed up. Food for the Poor not only called me first thing the next morning, but followed up regularly with friendly “can we provide any additional information” notes. I have yet to hear from the other six.
• During Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria last year I received regular reports on what the organization was doing to help in relief efforts –even though these regions are not the main focus of their mission.
• Then, the week before Christmas last year I received a phone call from a member of the staff inviting me to “come on up” and join with the staff in a dinner that was being cooked by Angel himself.

No, I didn’t get special treatment because of the Agitator or the size of my gift; I give under a pseudonym.

But what really impressed me was a story relayed by my friend and copywriter Tom Gaffny.  Tom and his wife are donors to Food for the Poor.  They live in Boston.   In the days immediately following the Boston Marathon bombing they received a phone call from Food for the Poor, which is based in Florida.

Purpose of the call?  To find out if they were safe!   No request for funds.   Just a heartfelt act of kindness and concern.  An injection of “random amazement.”

You know that whenever Tom and his wife or I receive a communication from Food for the Poor we will remember.  And we share these memories with friends who hopefully will become supporters as well.

In my book Retention Fundraising: the art and science of keeping your donors for life, I cite several examples of organizations that inject “random amazement.  Sometimes, it’s a simple as going out of your way to answer a donor’s question…or practicing delight and surprise…or simply giving a free membership to a lapsed donor who’s supported you for years.   

This week Nick will describe the neuroscience behind donor service…why speed in providing excellent service is so important…and how you should be thinking about segmenting your donor service efforts.

Don’t Be Bored. Be Kind.

We all get into ruts. And it’s so easy to just keep following the same old routine where our donors are concerned; year after year, after year.

Well, donors get bored too. When that happens they look for something, some organization, that’s new.

What steps are you taking to try new things, to offer kindness and surprises that will delight your donors?

Roger