The 10 Principles of a Great Supporter Experience

Over the holidays, I took time to re-visit one of my favourite books on customer experience – Matt Watkinson’s The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences. I highly recommend it. It is packed full of ideas and inspiration.

In the introduction, Matt explains why so many companies get the experience wrong. It is strong stuff. It struck me that most of it applies to charities too. I’ve taken the liberty of re-phrasing a couple of sentences to make it relevant to supporter experience. What do you think?

“The supporter experience is the qualitative aspect of any interaction that an individual has with a charity, its products or services, at any point in time.

“If you focus on delighting your supporters, assuming you’ve got your sums right, fundraising income becomes a well earned by-product of a charity that is successful in a much broader sense.

“You get the pleasure of knowing that you are making a positive contribution to people’s lives, and supporters are not going to resent you for your success. In fact, far from it, they will reward you with their loyalty and do your marketing and fundraising for you.

“If, however, you focus solely in maximising your income, your decisions will bring you into direct conflict with the interests of your supporters. You’ll start cutting corners and compromising on quality for a quick buck; you’ll start over-promising and under-delivering.

“You’ll need to do something to combat the negative feedback from donors, and replace the ones who’ll never come back again.

“Addiction to fundraising profit for profit’s sake is a downward spiral, and like most forms of addiction it ends with behaviour that most ordinary people would find morally and ethically abhorrent becoming the norm. How did we end up in this situation?”

Sound familiar? It certainly reflects some of the organisations I’ve worked at, where short term success has been prioritised over long term investment and thinking.

So, what are the ten principles behind great customer experiences

1.       Reflect identity

2.       Satisfy our higher objectives

3.       Leave nothing to chance

4.       Set and then meet (or exceed) expectations

5.       Effortless

6.       Stress free

7.       Indulge the senses

8.       Be socially engaging

9.       Put the supporter in control

10.   Consider the emotions

You can read a summary of each principle in this useful post.

I’ve summed this up in the following four points:

1. You need a plan.

2. You need to understand why people support your cause (and bake this into your communications and experiences).

3. You need to identify and rectify supporter problems and frustrations and reduce friction.

4. You need to create memorable experiences.

The collective has been working on new models and ideas to reflect the ten principles and to help you improve your supporter experience. We’ll be sharing them in the coming weeks.

Fancy chatting through any ideas or discussing any supporter experience challenges? Why not join us (in conjunction with the Institute of Fundraising Supporter Experience Special Interest Group) for a drink and a chat in London on Wednesday 22 January. Get your ticket here.

Finally, if improving the supporter experience is a priority for you and your organisation in 2020, then get in touch.