Customer Experience: Following Up

After my post earlier this week, I received the following email.

Ms. Brandt,

I want to sincerely thank you for praising our direct mail piece at the Grant Professionals Association Conference and in your video online
(http://customerexperience101.blogspot.com/2010/12/great-example-of-outstanding-nonprofit.html).

Our Creative Department puts a lot of care and thought into these pieces, and it’s
great to know they are appreciated.

Thank you so much for your support!

Happy Holidays!

-Megan Winslow
Web Content
Specialist

Food For The Poor
http://www.foodforthepoor.com/

WOW! This organization is really doing it right. They do amazing work, promote it appropriately, have great marketing, and they follow-up. Obviously, this is pretty impressive, and the great thing about it is that you too can replicate this wonderful experience.

Take-away: Get on Google Alerts or some other tracking technology so that you know when people are talking about your organization. Then you can take advantage of becoming a part of that conversation, thus enhancing your experience.

A Great Example of Outstanding Nonprofit Direct Mail

I love to speak on Donor Loyalty because loyalty is impacted by so many touch points. One of those touch points near and dear to my heart is direct mail. I believe in this time of reduced mailings, direct mail is a secret weapon if done right. According to a survey in the October issue of Fundraising Success, I am right. Sixty-one percent of donors give by mail. Now I do believe a multi-channel approach is best, but for the sake of this blog post I am going to stick with direct mail.

During a recent talk, I spoke of a great direct mail piece I received from Food for the Poor. I decided to share that piece in all of its glory with you here.



I really enjoy this piece because it:
· is unique.
· has a clear call to action.
· shares a compelling story of how your donation will help.
· stands out in your mailbox.

Take-away:
Try something different. If you have been sending the same direct mail to your loyal donors for years, it is probably time for a change. Experiment with some new ideas to see if you can increase your response rates. I bet you can!

Customer Experience Leaders

Today I stumbled upon a great blog http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/. Almost every entry has something of value. I especially enjoyed reading the http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/quick-6-with-jerry-adriano-sprint/ article. In that article Jerry Adriano, Sprints VP of Customer Experience discusses what it takes to lead with customer experience. He states:

Start with the understanding that it’s a journey, so develop a multi-year plan that allows you to prioritize and register some early wins, gain executive support, evangelize at all levels, identify a way to engage all employees in the customer experience improvement and don’t be shy about being the voice of the customer.

Speaking from experience, I can tell you that representing the "right thing" to do for customers/donors is not always as easy as it should be. Most organizations embrace the idea of experience right up until it means more money. I am delighted to work for and with many organization that truly embrace customers, but I also appreciate the work it takes to get there.

Take-Away: As you start or even continue your journey down the customer experience road, remember that it is a journey and each decision you make today will impact tomorrow.