An intriguing question, eh? It came to mind after reading, Putting a Face to a Name: The Art of Motivating Employees.
The article discusses a study involving paid employees at a call center for a public university; their duties included phoning potential donors to the school. As the authors note, "Employees...suffer frequent rejections from people unhappy about getting calls during dinner. Turnover is high and morale is often low. So how do you motivate workers to stay on the phone and bring in the donations? One relatively easy answer: Introduce them to someone who is aided by those dollars."
The study arranged for a five-minute session, where the employees could meet and interact with scholarship students who were the recipients of the school's fundraising efforts. The results were impressive: employees who had interacted with the scholarship students brought in vastly more money: a weekly average of $503.22, up from $185.94.
And this raises the question: should associations use a similar tactic? What if your association arranged, on a regular basis, for every employee to have a five-minute interaction, in-person or by phone, with a member who has benefited in a significant way from their membership (i.e., a member who has a positive and powerful story to tell)?
What might be the pay-off in terms of morale and productivity?
What might be the pay-off in terms of morale and productivity?
My former Association had an outreach program to new members -- the most likely to not renew. After two months of membership, personal phone calls were made by staff, reminding the new member about benefits they might not be taking advantage of (Message Board, Mentor directory, listservs, etc.). They were also asked if there were any questions they had about their membership. The response was positive, when a member was actually reached via the phone and not voicemail. For the member, the personal contact reinforced that the decision to join was a good/productive one.
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