On your mark, get set, go!
Do you find yourself having to run from department to department just to pull together information about your constituents? Many refer to this action as “sneaker net.” To find out if your organization is on the sneaker net, ask your staff to provide you with a report reflecting the organization-wide participation (i.e., registrations, volunteering, purchases, and social media interaction) of a constituent. Watch to see if they throw on their proverbial sneakers and run through the organization. If the answer is yes, you have some work to do.
Here are the top 3 things you can do to help eliminate your sneaker net syndrome:
- Demand the AMS be the record of choice and the single location for all information about your constituents.
- Dig out those external lists people keep at their desks and get that good information into the AMS.
- Require all third-party vendors gathering information (e.g., registrations, purchases, social media activity) on your constituents to provide a data file for importing into the AMS.
Data is everything to an organization.
Implementing these basic recommendations will bring the organization closer to being able to report the total value of membership for its constituents, provide insights into new strategic directions, make day-to-day decisions, and personalize an organization’s interaction with its constituents.
