GMO Manage Your GMO’s Essential Functions? There’s an App for That What can a customer-relationship management (CRM) system do for your club? A lot!
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SDF group-member organization (GMO) board members put in a lot of hours. They need a simple way to keep up with their regular “housekeeping” chores, such as tracking membership status, volunteer hours, and year-end awards standings. For many GMOs, a simple spreadsheet just doesn’t cut it any more. Fortunately, there is a better way to
than a basic spreadsheet. Platforms offer dozens of features, from event management and website hosting to e-mail marketing and even e-commerce capability. What a CRM system doesn’t do is run itself. Once purchased, it needs to be set up. Most companies offer extensive documentation and customer service to get you started, but you still need to put in the time.
TECHNOLOGY WORKS: Customer-relationship management (CRM) software can streamline many of a GMO’s membership and management tasks
manage your club’s data: by using a customer-relationship management (CRM) platform.
What CRM Does (and Doesn’t Do) A CRM system is a type of cloudbased software service, also known as an SaaS (Software as a Service) platform. A CRM system has a much higher level of functionality
Once you’ve set up the system, then the automated actions will begin to streamline the workflow, but getting from purchasing the system to having it up and optimized for your GMO can be a long process.
Begin with the End in Mind If it’s time for your GMO to look into CRM, your first consideration should be the needs of your club.
16 September/October 2021 | USDF CONNECTION
“It’s really important to identify the problem you’re trying to solve in the first place,” says Dawn MacKenzie, membership coordinator for the New England Dressage Association (NEDA). NEDA, USDF’s largest single-chapter GMO, has been using YourMembership (yourmembership.com) for years to track the organization’s thousands of data points—but before your GMO runs out to purchase its own subscription, MacKenzie cautions, know that CRMs are not one-size-fits-all. Consider: “What data are you going to be trying to get out of it (and into it) to serve these stakeholders?” MacKenzie says. “What are your constraints in terms of both financial and human (work hours) capacity? Who are your most important stakeholders, and what information will they need from you? For example, we have to coordinate our data with what the USDF needs from us, so there’s a need for matching and searchable data fields—our member numbers and the USDF’s, as well. We also take data in from show secretaries for year-end awards, so making sure those inputs flow smoothly without a lot of manual tweaking is vital for an organization that’s volunteer-run.” Other CRM criteria for NEDA included easy mailing-address updates for its “snowbird” members, automatic event attendance tracking, and giving members the ability to print certificates for attendance or for volunteer hours worked, the latter of which is “popular and very low-levels of work on our end, as well,” MacKenzie says.
SHUTTERSTOCK
By Penny Hawes
