Customer service in non-profits? – It sounds like an oxymoron, right? After all, customer service a term used in the for-profit sector where the main party to please is the customers. In non-profit, things are not so straightforward. Here you have to work on meeting the needs of your constituents and at the same time build a strong relationship with your donors, who fund the entire operation. Failing to do so would result in donor attrition and a lack of funds.
In the non-profit sector, the donors fund the missions, just like it’s the customers who pay the wages in the for-profit sector. However, unlike the customers, donors do not directly experience the service they are paying for. Therefore, it is even more important for non-profits to fill the satisfaction void of donors with effective communication.
Whether it’s for-profit or non-profit sector, effective communication helps you engage with your audience and boost loyalty. For this reason, organizations use tools like storytelling, e-mail marketing, social media outreach, and other creative methods to keep their audience engaged. In the non-profit sector, the inspiring stories, stories of need, and how their donation is helping you make a significant change, makes your donors engage with the missions they fund, improve donor satisfaction level and deepen the level of engagement.
Filling The Void: Ensuring Donor Satisfaction With Customer Donor Service
There are numerous non-profit organizations advocating for similar causes like yours. So how can you grab donors’ attention and get them to commit to your cause or organization?
In the for-profit sector, the answer to the above question is quite simple. To get a customer to commit to an organization, a company has to offer outstanding customer service that boosts customer experience and their level of satisfaction.
Why can’t the same rule be applied to the non-profit sector?
A non-profit organization can stand out by providing excellent donor service. Effective communication, positive reinforcement, and joy can help you exceed donor’s expectation, build a rapport and trust that compels them to stay involved. It also drives your supporters to spread words about your cause, amassing more patrons.
Here are a few ways you can improve donor experience by borrowing a few leaves out of a customer service rulebook.
Let Happiness Boost Loyalty
People love surprises. So, work on creating moments where you can exceed the donor’s expectations. Think of unconventional and innovative ways to inspire your donors. Apart from asking donations and sharing stories about people in need, you can also use your messages to surprise or delight your donors. You can use humor as a tool, or share an original video, or even send a personalized tweet thanking your donors – your donors will love these.
Adding a little fun into the communication helps you engage your donors better and boost their desire to stay involved with your organization.
Empower Your Staff
In the for-profit sector, customer service champions always empower their employees in customer-facing roles to go above and beyond to make their customers happy. The team gets rewarded for pulling all stops to help a customer out.
Learning from that, a non-profit too can make the donor experience a part of its core values. Please make sure that the team knows that they are empowered to deliver donor delight through effective, personalized communication. Allow them to use their creativity in every aspect, from e-mail marketing to fundraising strategies.
While working with non-profits, Fusion CX has always paid keen attention to improving donor experience through effective and personalized communication. Giving donor experience as much importance as customer experience has helped us minimize donor attrition for our clients.
Be Accountable
Your donors might want to know where their donations are going. You can provide them access to your internal process by stressing on transparency. Transparency plays a significant role in retention in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors.
Be clear about how the donors’ contributions are helping you move towards your goal. Use blogs, newsletters, or e-mails to communicate this to your donors. As for telefundraising, give your agents a breakdown of how each donation will be used so that they can answer the queries appropriately. Such actions open up the curtains and bring donors close to the internal processes of your organization, boosting their sense of involvement. It makes the donors feel valued and strengthens their trust in your organization, which helps you turn a one-time donor into a sustainer giver.
Be Data-Driven
Like for-profit organizations, being data-driven can also be a virtue for non-profits. It can help you effectively manage your donor relationship, track trends and interactions, and personalize communication. By analyzing data, you can know when to approach significant donors, and even what post on which social media platform will help you grab the donor’s attention. It will help you create a targeted communication and engagement strategy that shows your audience that you understand them and the way they want to engage with your cause.
Donor Happiness Matters!
After all, donors are humans too. They like to feel valued. It can be achieved through effective communication that emphasizes on delivering outstanding “donor service.” Making donors feel valued and acknowledged can ensure higher donor retention and increased involvement with the organization and its causes.
Failing to retain your donors for long? Having trouble with turning one-time donors into sustainer donors? Fusion CX can help. With extensive experience in the non-profit sector and multichannel approach can help you engage your audience and boost donor retention.
