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 had better be deadly serious about the quality of donor services it provides.

Sadly, this essential ingredient in the retention 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.

Take some time to study this insightful customer service infographic from Kissmetrics, the analytics firm. Better yet, download it here and paste it prominently in the office. [Click image to enlarge.]

Effects of Bad Customer Service

Distilled from a number of research studies, here are some key takeaways from Kissmetrics:

• Bad customer service costs US companies an estimated $83 billion a year. $338 billion worldwide.

• 89% of customers report they’ve stopped doing business because of bad customer service.

• 70% of US consumers are willing to spend 13% more with companies providing excellent customer service. 12% more for Canadians; 12% more for Australians; 10% more for Brits and 7% more for Nederlanders.

• 79% of consumers who complained about poor customer service had their complaints ignored.

• 51% of the 21% of consumers who had their complaints answered had positive reactions to the brand they originally complained about, and 22% of those who received a response posted a positive comment about the company.

What Does Good Customer Service Look Like?

When asked specifically how companies can better engage with consumers to get them to spend more, respondents said the following:

• 54% – Improve the overall customer experience.

• 52% – Make it easy to ask questions and access information before making a purchase.

• 36% – Improve search functionality and overall website usability.

What Makes For a Memorable Customer Experience?

• 73% – Friendly employees or customer service representative.

• 55% – The ability to easily find information or the help needed.

• 36% – Personalized experiences.

These Kissmetric findings closely parallel the 2012 findings from the DonorVoice 2012 National Commitment Survey of donors to 50 US nonprofits. The value of customer service as a portion of Lifetime Value is illustrated here.

The key donor service dimensions as identified by DonorVoice:

• Providing convenient options for reaching customer service agents (e.g. email, website, live chat, phone).

• Providing convenient hours of operation to reach a live customer service agent.

• Providing helpful customer service support.

• Providing knowledgeable customer service support.

Avoid the Most Annoying Support Phrases

Here, according to Kissmetrics, are the support phrases customers find most annoying. If anything resembling these is currently on your phone system, you should get busy with the ‘delete’ button.

• 34% find this most annoying:  “We’re sorry but we’re experiencing unusually heavy call volumes. You can hold or try calling back at another time.”

• 32% find this most annoying: “We’re unable to answer your question. Please call xxx-xxx-xxxx to speak to a representative from the xxxx team.”

• 29% find this most annoying: “Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold.”

While you’re on hold, please let us know what steps are you taking to improve donor services in your organization!

Roger

P.S. Enter the Magic Kingdom

There’s nothing mysterious about great donor or customer service. Lots of hard work, possibly some changes in your organization’s culture to put top focus on the donor, and then, execution, execution, execution.

There is however, some ‘magic’ available from the Magic Kingdom people. For 25 years The Disney Institute has offered courses on outstanding customer service. Few companies in the world do customer service better. Whether it’s one member of your staff or the whole crew you might want to check out their course offerings.

If you can’t afford the Disney courses then pick up the Disney book Be Our Guest, with its terrific approach to developing an organizational framework that supports the consistent delivery of high quality customer service.