COVID-19: How can associations keep in touch with their Members, Contacts and Volunteers during lockdown?

Business & Management - Connected solution - Digital - Marketing & Communication - Strategy

Sarah Cotton By Sarah Cotton

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Keep in touch with members

If you and your employees are not subject to furlough during this period of lockdown, it is essential to show your contacts (members, volunteers, donors) that your organisation continues to operate. This period may not be the most conducive to strong email marketing so you may be need to change the tone of the messages that you are sending. But is the software you are using optimal for maintaining your relationship with your contacts?

Find the data of your members and contacts anywhere, anytime

The primary benefit of CRM solutions is the centralisation of data and the management of your contact base: members, event attendees, volunteers, prospects, suppliers. By using an online CRM tool, your staff are able to access all of your contact data wherever they are, as long as they have an internet connection. This essential point allows you to maintain the link with your contacts in almost all circumstances, and in particular in the case of remote work. You are then able to find your advanced filters in a few seconds, to segment your contacts according to your own criteria (KPI scores for example) in order to target them in your communications.

Maintain collaboration between your members of staff

One of the major advantages of a CRM is the optimisation of collaboration between your staff. With a shared tool, any information update is done in real time, allowing all your employees to have the right information at the right time. This is as true for the personal data of each contact as for any element linked to it: notes, emails sent, evolution of the status, etc.
As we know, not being in the same office can sometimes make communication between team members more difficult. During the homeworking period, notifications will be of particularly valuable use in alerting colleagues of possible updates to the database or the completion of a task.
And, the icing on the cake, as CRM solutions are most often connected solutions, it will also be possible to update the data from mobile devices when we are all back on the move again.

The importance of continuity of interactions

The advantage of this centralisation and access to your data as we have described is the ability to be able to follow and continue the exchanges with the contacts in all situations. Being able to continue sending emails is essential, and can be as important as having a internet line or simply use of a mobile phone.
That said, the exceptional circumstances we know today require a certain calibration of these exchanges. Take advantage of this period to promote benevolent and soothing approaches with your contacts: make sure of their well-being, reassure them about the health of your teams, take the time to update them on the achievement of your operations.
Do not hesitate to utilise multi channels to communicate with your contacts. For example, interview them by creating an online survey that you can distribute, depending on the targets, via your social networks, by email or via you website.
These dedicated non-aggressive campaigns will undoubtedly play an important role in retaining your members. Similarly, if you speak to your volunteers, your concerns will allow you to strengthen you relationships which can continue after these unprecedented times.

The need for SaaS

If CRM software works seamlessly, even during lockdown, it is because they are always connected. What we mean here is that they are integrated in SaaS (Software As A Service) mode. This means that the solutions are deployed on outsourced servers and that no software is integrated directly into your own servers. Thus, a simple internet connection is enough to access it.
You can find your work tool everywhere, even at home. You access all your contacts, all your exchanges, all your dashboards, all your performance indicators, etc. You can continue to work calmly and effectively thanks to your flagship features available on the Cloud: processing memberships, editing receipts, monitoring sponsorship agreements, measuring performance using indicators, etc. Nothing changes except your work environment.
And that’s not all ! As the CRM is hosted outside of your information system, you do not have to perform any maintenance and the updates are done automatically. The flexibility of such a tool allows you to make it evolve according to your activity.
We all understand that we do not know how the coming months will evolve but this difficult period (re) highlights the fact that the accessibility of our work tools, but also and above all of our data, is essential for the maintenance of our activities.
Do you want to know more about CRM hosted in SAAS mode?
Eudonet UK is the developer and integrator of its own CRM solution, Eudonet CRM. Hosted in SaaS mode, 100% secure, the Eudonet CRM software offers a solution dedicated to Professional Associations and Not-for-Profits. To find out more complete our Contact an Expert form and one of our CRM experts will be in touch to discuss how Eudonet CRM could meet you needs.