Three ways to reduce membership attrition rates
The 2008 PFRA Attrition Survey was the first survey of not-for-profit organisations engaged in recruiting supporters and members via street, venue, door-to-door or face-to-face fundraising. The analysis was based on the giving patterns of over 377,000 regular members and shows trends that will impact on subsequent levels of donor loyalty. The survey results could be of interest to any not-for-profit organisation that has a supporter\donoe base and is concerned with churn, attrition and loyalty rates.
The research findings
Whilst charities used a variety of methods to communicate with donors a number of strategies were identified to reduce lapse rates. They were:
1. The use of personalised elements of supporter communications will reduce attrition and cancellation rates.
2. Consistent communications (between three and eight a year) has a positive effect on retention rates.
3. Setting supporter expectations early on in the relationship.
The research was devised and set up by Morag Fleming, Head of Fundraising at the charity Quarriers, suggested “Our findings have demonstrated in the clearest possible manner that how charities communicate with their donors can dictate the amount of money they raise across the short, medium and long-term.”
The key insight from the research is that the view that regular giving supporters should be left alone, for fear of prompting them to cancel, has been exploded once and for all.
Applying the research findings
Whilst all those charities surveyed used a mixture of contact strategies including welcome calls, texts, e-mails, newsletters, e-newsletters and surveys to engage with their audience, what is most surprising is that the least used method of communication is often the one that is most effective.
That’s because, the least favoured method was to contact supporters via a welcome call. Most charities sited complexity and the cost as the major stumbling blocks. Yet if your desire is to reduce attrition rates and prompt supporter loyalty, it is the most effective option.
Welcome calls often contribute a positive Roi
Recruiting a new donor can be expensive, as the up-front cost of recruiting a supporter via face-to-face can be as much as ?100, which means that typically each supporter only becomes profitable after year one or more. Often an early welcome call will to identify potential cancellations before the up-front fee is paid. The saving from this alone is often sufficient make the welcome call a positive return on investment.
The easy way to increase retention rates by up to 22%
It’s not surprising that if a supporter was recruited by a personal interaction then another personal interaction would connect with the supporter with the cause. Additional research supports this argument and shows that this one act, if conducted at the start of the relationship can increase retention rates by between 13% and 22%.
So for any charity that is serious about reducing attrition rates the question should not be if to do welcome calls but what’s the best way to do them? There are only three options: In-house may seem to be the most personal and cost effective, but the downside is often recruiting and managing the staff, quality issues and consistency; Call centres avoid the downsides of doing it in-house yet the ‘reading from a script’ approach often fails to provide the important ‘personal’ aspect of interaction; Perhaps that’s why many charities opt for a middle way – a tele-research company who specialise in unscripted welcome calls. Whatever route you choose all the evidence points to the fact that a friendly, personal welcome call will dramatically reduce attrition rates.
A free booklet on advertising research with charity case-studies is available to all marketing professionals who wish to improve their response rates from espconsultancy.com the research for marketing specialists.
Processing your request, Please wait....
