The retention challenge
Charitable organisations need to do more to secure donor loyalty, explains Adrian Sargeant...
It costs five times as much to recruit a new customer as it does to conduct business with an existing one. In the for-profit world statistics like this are well known and have generated a good deal of interest of late. Building customer loyalty has become the holy grail for commercial marketers and salary progression and managerial bonuses are now focused on rewarding those who deliver it. Smart companies can tell you exactly what difference a 1 per cent, a 2 per cent, or a 5 per cent improvement in customer attrition can make to the bottom line and the really smart companies make sure that this information is communicated to every customer facing member of staff, so that the next time they are tempted to be a bit short with a customer, or not do their best to help, they know the difference that this will make to the organisation.
Author: Adrian Sargeant
Adrian Sargeant is the Robert F Hartsook Professor of Fundraising at Indiana University. He is also Professor of Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising at Bristol Business School in the U.K and a Visiting Professor of Philanthropy at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
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