# Our 12 Tips of Christmas – part 2

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/12/12/our-12-tips-christmas-part-2/
- Published: 2012-12-12T17:15:45+00:00
- Author: Kevin Baughen

 

Put together by [Craig Linton, the Fundraising Detective](http://www.fundraisingdetective.com/fundraising-detective/all-about-me.html),
here are the next few tips in our 12 Tips of christmas feature (you can [read the first three tips here](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/blog/2012/12/10/12-tips-fundraisers-christmas),
in case you missed them):

** 4. Review your processes to make sure they are donor focussed**

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When was the last time you checked your processes from a donor perspective? It’s
something that’s been on my to do list all year and I’ve finally got round to doing
it in the last few weeks.

I wished I’d done it six months earlier, as it uncovered some interesting findings.
For example, I discovered that we only thank donors who give via CAF when the money
comes into our bank (which makes financial reconciliation easier), but this means
that donors end up waiting four to six weeks for a thank you letter.

As we pride ourselves on the speed of our thank you’s (we generally aim for 48 hours
max), then it is something we needed to address and improve from a donor perspective.

We also found areas for improvement with our communications with in-memoriam donors,
event supporters and people who stop their regular giving.

**5. Setting donor care standard benchmarks: how mystery shopping can help**

One of the best ways to check your donor care performance and processes is through
mystery shopping. This doesn’t have to expensive or difficult to do. Enlist some
friends. Get them to make a donation, send an e-mail enquiry or ring up for information.
It’s amazing what you can discover.

You’ll hopefully find some bright spots, but there are also likely to be areas for
improvement. For example, when I’ve done this in the past, I’ve found that we were
really good on the phone when you could get through to us, but that was trickier
than it sounded!

Our system was set up to go to voicemail quickly and you couldn’t pick up colleagues
calls without getting up and physically answering the phone.

Working with our IT team we were able to change the call settings and groupings 
and vastly increased the number of donor calls we were able to answer.

**6. First impressions count: make sure your front of house and donor care are welcoming**

One of the most annoying quotes we’ve heard from a senior manager from another department
was that answering calls, sending thank you’s etc was ‘just admin’ and not important.
To us this completely misses the point.

The welcome you receive at a reception. The thank you letter when you donate. Getting
donor’s names and addresses correct. These are the little big things that matter
and set the tone for the way a charity treats its supporters.

I recently had to visit the customer service desk in two branches of the same supermarket.
The experience between the two couldn’t have been more different.

At both I had to wait for a manager to come down from the offices to help resolve
my query. In the first branch I was asked if I wanted a seat, engaged in polite 
conversation and offered a drink. Ultimately they were unable to resolve my query,
but they apologised profusely and I was treated in a professional, friendly way.

In the second store it was the complete opposite. There was a customer in front 
of me, who was already looking fed up. I had to wait a couple of minutes before 
anyone asked if they could help, as the staff were too busy talking to each other.

I was then left standing by the main door for 15 minutes. No chair or drink was 
offered. The person I needed to speak to finally appeared and I explained the problem.
They rolled their eyes, sighed and trundled off to the office. At the same time,
the customer in front of me finally lost her temper with the in-difference shown
and demanded to see the manager.

I continued to wait (and ended up helping a shopper struggling with their shopping
as none of the staff helped) and after nearly half an hour in total the relevant
person appeared with the package I needed. It was an awful experience and a total
failure in customer service. I’ll definitely think twice before using the same service
again.

There’s no point having the greatest fundraising appeal or message if it is let 
down by poor customer service.

_Tips seven to twelve will appear next week._