In a previous blog, Are You Supporting Your Event Participants, we offered the who, what, where, when and why of participant support. In this blog, we’ve got some numbers to back up the importance of support services!
Charity Dynamics undertook a review of our clients who are utilizing our phone, email and chat support services for their participants and donors that are engaged with a peer-to-peer event program. Below are some key findings that can help guide your support plans.
Chat and Email are the most efficient support channels
When comparing similarly sized event programs, programs that utilized chat and email support required less than half the support time per participant than programs that utilized phone support in addition to email and chat channels.
This finding makes sense considering that the Charity Dynamics support team can manage up to three simultaneous chat cases per support analyst while the same representative can only manage one phone call at a time.
However, this does not mean that phone support should not be considered as part of your overall support plan. These callers may require a personal touch to get them over the hump of online technology to make a donation or register for your event.
Website Issues Matter
The quality of a website’s user experience (UX) matters to constituents and problems on the website translate into questions and concerns from event participants and donors. Sites with few known site issues had three times fewer cases opened than programs with known but unresolved site issues.
Supporting your event website should be seen as an iterative process. Once launched, constituent feedback should be tracked, prioritized and address in a timely manner. Support cases serve as valuable feedback that can enhance your website, and help reduce support cost over the life of your event. Charity Dynamics helps clients complete this process through its combination of support and retained services
Live Support Scales Well
The smallest event programs we serve require two support minutes more per registrant than larger event programs. That means that on a per registrant basis, support becomes less expensive the larger the event program.
That doesn’t mean small programs don’t benefit from live support – they do. And as an event program grows each year, support becomes more efficient for its registrants. For the largest event programs, this means live support offers a strong value on a per registrant basis.
Organizations should also consider centralizing all their support if they support multiple event programs to take advantage of this economy of scale. This could include DIY event fundraising programs in addition to traditional walk or run events.
Add Chat and Reduce Cost
Charity Dynamics had one excellent and accidental A/B test in our data. One event program utilized our support services two years in a row – one year the client utilized phone, email AND chat support and in the other year the program utilized phone and email service only. The event website stayed largely similar year-over-year and there was not a significant change in fundraising or event participation from one year to the next, though we did equalize our data for the change in registrations that did occur.
What stood out to us was that the year with chat support services required 27% less total support hours than the year without chat support. That means the client spent less to provide more service to its constituents.
Most organizations who provide support services themselves only provide phone and email support to their constituents. Chat support combines the immediacy of phone support with the efficiency and ease of email support.
To learn how Charity Dynamics can aid with your support needs, contact us today!