When you run a nonprofit, the quality of customer service your supporters get from your call center and personal representatives is just as important as it would be if you were a business. In fact, it may be even more important. To members of the public looking to become volunteers, supporters, and donors, how they feel about a nonprofit’s representatives are the first impression they will have of it.
Why Nonprofits Need Good Customer Service
Nonprofits need to be able to provide good customer service because:
- Trust is their biggest asset – When consumers donate to or volunteer for nonprofits, they are putting their trust in those organizations. There are many nonprofits that individuals can choose to support, especially when it comes to nonprofits working for popular causes. An organization’s customer service is its public face; when people find a nonprofit’s customer representatives to be hard to deal with, inattentive, or disorganized, they look the same way at those organizations.
- Nonprofits rely on word of mouth – When a volunteer or a donor has a bad experience with representatives of a nonprofit, they tend not to keep it to themselves. Many nonprofits rely on their reputation to be their biggest marketing tool, and bad word of mouth from displeased consumers can do serious damage to that reputation.
Providing the Best Customer Service Possible
What can nonprofits do to provide the best in customer service?
- Exceed expectations – Don’t settle for providing customers, donors, volunteers, etc. with “just enough” attention. Aim to exceed all their expectations for what customer service is.
- Make a personal connection – Instead of encouraging call center operators and customer service representatives to move customers along as fast as possible, encourage them to spend as much time as necessary speaking with people. That way, supporters will feel like their concerns matter, and that they are being taken care of.
To learn more about how your nonprofit can excel at customer service, contact us at 800-606-9898 today.
