How happy are your supporters? Measuring the supporter experience

In a previous blog post, we explored the definition of supporter experience, why it’s important, and what makes a good supporter experience. It’s all about putting supporter needs at the centre of what a charity needs to do, and then ensuring that along all the touch points – and even more so along all the relevant supporter journeys – that the supporters have a flawless experience. But how do we know if we are actually delivering the kind of supporter experience that we want our supporters to have?

It can be tricky to imagine how you measure something as ephemeral as the magic your charity creates for supporters.

It can be tricky to imagine how you measure something as ephemeral as the magic your charity creates for supporters. But by trying to understand and regularly review supporter journeys and getting supporter feedback at every part of it, you can get a genuine ‘feel’ (and this word is important, as it isn’t just about the process or procedure – it’s very much about the experience) for what is running smoothly, and where you need to focus attention and investment to improve it.

In an ideal world, charities would have the resources to implement an integrated approach that encompasses a diverse array of metrics, including traditional customer service satisfaction measures, to understand how their supporter experience is measuring up. The members of THINK’s Supporter Services Forum have been sharing some of the different ways their organisations are currently measuring supporter experience, which include:

• Net promoter score (NPS): assessing the likelihood of supporters recommending the charity to others offers a quantitative measure of satisfaction and loyalty, which can be tracked over time to get an overall indication of how your supporters are feeling in the longer-term.
• Customer satisfaction score (CSAT): seeking feedback on specific interactions (eg an email or telephone call) or experiences enables charities to gauge supporter satisfaction levels and to quickly identify where processes or experiences are falling short.
• Mystery shopping: anonymous evaluations of supporter interactions provide first-hand insights into service quality and consistency; the qualitative feedback this can generate can be invaluable in bringing a supporter’s experience to life.
• Complaints data: analysing complaints and resolutions informs areas for improvement and corrective action, ensuring supporter concerns are promptly addressed.
• Supporter surveys: we’re seeing an increasing number of charities running supporter surveys to ask their supporters for feedback.
• At a basic level, monitoring the frequency and amount of donations can provide helpful insights into supporter engagement. Charities can analyse trends to understand which campaigns or initiatives resonate most with their donors. Tracking the number of recurring donations versus one-time contributions can give an indication of the level of commitment and loyalty among different groups of supporters.
• Social media metrics such as likes, shares, and comments can indicate the level of engagement and interest generated by the charity’s content. Some charities with more sophisticated technology available are beginning to monitor sentiment analysis, which can provide insights into how supporters perceive the charity’s brand and messaging.
• Event feedback: events can be great opportunities for charities to engage directly with supporters. Tracking event attendance, asking for feedback from participants, and post-event surveys can help charities assess the impact of their events and identify areas for improvement.
• And a word about volunteers: measuring volunteer satisfaction through surveys or feedback forms helps charities to gauge the effectiveness of their volunteer management strategies, such as the clarity of roles, training provided, and overall volunteer experience.

By leveraging a variety of metrics and feedback mechanisms to gather and understand supporter feedback, charities can gain invaluable insights into supporter preferences, behaviour and satisfaction levels and help identify areas for improvement. It doesn’t have to involve sophisticated or expensive systems and technology – by thinking carefully and creatively, there are so many different ways in which we can listen to what our supporters are telling us about their experiences.

And it shouldn’t be a one-off – measuring supporter experience should be an ongoing process.

And the most crucial part is that once we’ve got this feedback, we need to act on it! Using this information gives charities the opportunity to refine and tailor the supporter experiences, improve and enhance supporter journeys and grow supporter loyalty and commitment for the long term.

Want to know more?

How to measure (and improve) supporter experience is just one of the topics we cover regularly at THINK’s Supporter Services Forum. You can find all the details about THINK’s Supporter Services Forum and how to get involved here. If your organisation has a challenge or opportunity related to supporter experience that you’d like to discuss with one of our consultants, you can get in touch with us here – we’d love to hear from you.

Amanda Warhaftig, Senior Consultant
April 2024

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If you lead a supporter services operation and would benefit from being part of a facilitated peer-to-peer community, we’d love to talk to you about THINK’s Supporter Services Forum. You can get in touch with us here.

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