Constituent Experience: Progress vs Perfection

Customer experience (CX) is nothing new to marketers – it’s the interaction between an organization and customer over the duration of their relationship.  A good (and ideally great!) customer experience means that the individual’s experience during all points of contact matches their expectations.

And as our own CMA Customer Experience Council highlighted in a recent report “Creating great customer experience doesn't have to be a hassle. Delivering a unique, personalized experience by identifying consumer need is a winning formula.” (The Business of Disruption, September 2016).

Not-for-profit organizations sometimes lag the private sector in marketing initiatives, often due to resource constraints.  Customer experience, more often referred to constituent or donor experience, is gaining traction in the sector.  And in fact, many not-for-profits are already doing a lot of great work in this area – especially in the area of high value/major constituents and donors.

The CMA Not-for-profit council would like to provide a simple framework for organizations to consider as they move into the area of constituent experience.  It doesn’t have to be complicated, require an enormous amount of resources or a business case to implement.  You may already being doing some of the work already.  Our intent is to highlight three key aspects of constituent experience and some suggestions of how you and your organization could get started, modify, enhance or even reinforce work you’re already doing!

Customer Experience Framework

The Council will dive into the three areas noted above:  Segmentation, Journey Mapping and Content.  And the focus will be on tangible ideas and initiatives you can use – and remember, it’s not about waiting for it to be 100% perfect but about taking steps in the right direction and making progress.

Stay tuned – content will be coming to the CMA blog throughout the year!