RSMUS.comAs we continue to acclimate to the new normal of decentralized work, many find themselves running into the same familiar problem: decentralized data. Normally, having multiple people manage different data points in separate Excel sheets can be risky, but not necessarily a total deal-breaker. However, these are not normal times and this disconnect is starting to become a major problem.
Maintain customer relationships with CRM
One of the key benefits of using a CRM system is having one place to store all of your data. This includes constituents’ giving history, membership status, committee participation, and volunteering preferences, among other data points – and all of this data should drive further connections. If your goal is to maintain a relationship while increasing the frequency and depth of interactions with your constituents, a disjointed connection to your colleagues and their files is not going to help you reach it. We can no longer simply walk three offices over to get an update from our development director or membership coordinator. This disconnect proves to be especially detrimental as organizations are seeking to secure continued cash flow at a time when we are not able to host events in the ways that we used to.
When we design these CRM systems, we use the constituent’s record to keep everything in perspective, using a format we call Person-Centered. The Membership, Donor, Volunteer, and Committee modules all revolve around the singular Constituent. For example, if we look at Zach G.’s record, we can see that Zach is a voting member on the Finance Committee, he has donated $3,000 monthly since 1/1/2020, he volunteers on Fridays, and that he is due for a Gold Level renewal on May 1st. All of this information and more is readily available right inside Zach’s record.
Why does person-centered information work?
Our goal is to use that Person-Centered information captured above as the foundation for our system, making it easier to achieve our goal of deepening relationships with constituents. The power and usefulness of this data can then be strengthened through additional tools in the system. For example, marketing automation is one of the most powerful tools in a CRM’s arsenal, but without Person-Centered Data, it’s impossible to get full value out of that investment. Join us next week for Part 2 of this three-part series, where we will discuss multi-channel communications, and how a Person-Centered approach sets organizations up for success.
At RSM, we have a robust Not for Profit Accelerator built on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. Visit our site for more information on MemberCast, or to set up a demo to see not only how this person-centered platform works, but how it can work for you.
Zach Greenbaum
Zach has 11 years of experience as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM System Administrator. He is experienced in planning, directing, and executing projects, software design, development and testing, and data conversion and validation. During his career, Mr. Greenbaum has primarily focused on small- to mid-size non-profits and private equity groups, with an additional focus on Field Service and Insurance and Healthcare over the last few years. Before coming to RSM, Mr. Greenbaum was responsible for managing new CRM implementations, additional customizations for existing implementations, and client support, including project goal definition, prioritization of requirements, and conflict resolution while adhering to budget and project scope constraints. *PROJECT EXPERIENCE State of Indiana FSSA (Family and Social Services Administration) – Zach’s role in this project began during the discovery phase. His responsibilities included leading requirements-gathering sessions with Indiana’s team leads. Once those requirements were gathered, Zach transitioned to the building and Project Management team and finally to Quality Assurance Team Lead. Interamerican Medical Centers – Zach served as lead consultant on this project, helping to automate several manual processes and increasing efficiency and data visibility while redesigning the legacy CRM system for an upgrade. Additional functionality included integration with an EMR system, integration with Medicare capitation files, and Business Intelligence. Universal Insurance Holdings – Working with the VP of Corporate Applications, Zach designed a system with complex integrations into their legacy Policy database, routing and navigation tools for their field team, and high-level automation for keeping in touch with their authorized Agencies. Southern Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning – Working with the team, Zach configured the D365 Field Service application to meet Southern’s specific needs. Then, Zach spent several months traveling to each location under the Southern umbrella and training the field team and the administrators at headquarters and in the purchasing departments. Foundation Partners Group, LLC – Zach worked closely with the Director of IT and the PMO Group at FPG to implement a CRM system that included portal integration, ClickDimensions for Marketing Automation, and Geolocation based on Zip Code for automatic assignment. This project is now in a second phase, where Power BI and Power Apps for data are being implemented.