CiviCRM vs Classy and DonorPerfect

One last thing from my recent conversation with a client on pros and cons of CiviCRM: how it compares to other CRM's.

When this client came to her organization several years ago, she was involved in the decision to move their data into CiviCRM from several other systems, including Little Green Light, WePay, and ConstantContact, plus an array of spreadsheets from various department heads.

On top of that, her organization has recently combined with two others, and I've helped them move their data from Classy and DonorPerfect into their existing CiviCRM system.

She had this bit of insight comparing CiviCRM to their experience in Classy and DonorPerfect (lightly paraphrased for readability):

DonorPerfect was easy enough for me to understand, becuase I work all day in a CRM and think in those terms. And it was possible for staff to get things done, but only by thinking very carefully about how all the data fit together. So it made sense from a technical perspective, but staff couldn't easily relate it to their own mental model of how things work.

As a result, they never pulled their own reports — they hired a contractor to pull out reports on a per-request basis. And it was clear that staff using DonorPerfect had been skipping data entry tasks out of frustration; it was just hard for them to see how it all fit together.

Staff who are now coming into CiviCRM from DonorPerfect are saying that CiviCRM is easier for them. That's because they've had a lot of hand-holding from me and from Allen to understand how it works, and because we've streamlined the workflows to fit the staff's understanding of the work.

Classy, on the other hand, was simple to the point of being simplistic. Staff were just using it as a contact repository, with no notes, no relationships. But because it was so simple, it was very easy to use, and offered beautiful dashboards on the data it did track. Because of this, staff coming to CiviCRM from Classy thought that CiviCRM was just impossibly complicated, and it's not as visually as beautiful, which has a subtle negative impact on their user experience.

But actually, those former Classy users are now not even using CiviCRM, because what we learned was that they weren't even using Classy as a CRM. They just used it to collect credit card payments. They never even needed reports from Classy, didn't use it to track actual contact information. So for the work they're doing now, they don't really need the CRM, so they're shielded from the complexity and I didn't have to train them on Civi at all.

I see here two bits of wisdom:

1. A complex system can be molded to fit the organizations needs, but without good training and careful streamlining of workflows, it can be frustrating and confusing for staff. With an open-source CRM, you can do that streamlining; but you still have to do it.

2. A simplistic CRM is easy to use, but it's almost not a "real" CRM at all. That is, it may allow you to collect contributions or survey responses, but don't expect to do meaningful segmentation in support of your engagement / moves-management strategy.

All the best,
A.

3 ways to shield staff from complexity in CiviCRM

Yesterday I talked about shielding staff users from some of the CiviCRM's complexity, and I mentioned a client of mine who made a point of doing that before even launching the CRM for her staff.

How did she do it? She used a collection of features in CivCRM and her CMS (WordPress):

• Limit access to features with CMS permissions and roles:
  If a user hasn't been trained on a certain feature or workflows, she just doesn't give them access to it.

• Limit access to data with CiviCRM ACLs:
  If there's sensitive data that only certain staff should see, of if there's a collection of data that would just be confusing to some staff, she shields them from it using ACLs.

• Simplify data entry with CiviCRM profiles:
  Users who just need to enter data (record contributions, register event participants, enter new contacts) don't always need full access to all of CiviCRM's back-office features. For these users she's created a few simple profiles (remember, in CivCRM a profile is just "a collection of fields") that serve as freestanding data entry forms. It's much easier to train staff on these streamlined forms than it is to train them on all of CiviCRM.

To paraphrase a comment from my conversation with my client:

Without this training and shielding, the system is so complicated that staff will either be unwilling to use it regularly, or they'll be overwhelmed by complexity and frustration, which then makes the whole thing an uphill battle.

Here's the thing:

CiviCRM is a powerful and complex system. You can do a lot with it — which unfortunately includes creating a lot of headaches for your staff. Data has to be recorded correctly. Complex relationships need to be created, between individuals, organizations, events, mailings, activities, payments, and other entities.

But it also provides great features to streamline that complexity into workflows that are manageable for your staff, based on your organization's unique needs.

The more you invest time — and careful goal-driven planning — to get that right, the easier your staff's lives can be, and the more value you’ll get from your system.

All the best,
A.

Shielding users from complexity in CiviCRM

A complex and powerful system like CiviCRM will give you a lot of rope — sometimes enough to tie yourself in knots.

I love my consultation work because it gives me time to talk with clients about valuable topics that probably wouldn't be justified if I were billing for every minute of a phone call.

Yesterday I had a great talk with one of my clients about the pros and cons of an open source CRM like CiviCRM, compared to other CRM-like systems she's worked with (and she's worked with several!)

Here's a paraphrase of something she said to me yesterday about managing complexity in a system like CiviCRM:

One of the reasons CiviCRM has worked so well for us is because I myself made sure that the system was set up and ready to go before I ever created a single user login. And then when I did start adding users, I made sure each of them was carefully trained on their specific tasks.

This matters, because first impressions count. If it's not very easy for new users to get started, or if there's the slightest hint of frustration at the beginning, users can lose confidence in the system early on, and that will linger.

It's like going out on a first date, but you're still getting dressed and fixing your hair for the first 20 minutes. Not a good look.

Here's the thing:

Simple systems are usually simplistic; powerful systems are usually complex.

Starting off right — when you're first launching the system, or when you're rolling out a new set of improvements — often means shielding your staff users from that complexity.

Simplify workflows where possible.

And if there are unavoidable complex workflows, make sure you understand what they are, why they're necessary, and that your staff are well trained on both how to complete them and why they work as they do.

This way you can use the complexity of your CRM as a benefit, instead of letting it become a liability by intimidating your staff users or wasting their time with a system that confuses them.

All the best,
A.

Why are CiviCRM upgrades hard?

If you’ve already got an expert professional (in-house or outsourced) handling upgrades for you, you can probably skip this email. But if you’re curious about the kinds of challenges that can come up, or you’re doing the upgrades yourself (totally do-able, by the way), this might interest you.

Running your own open-source CRM gives you a lot of flexibility and power. But it also gives you ownership of maintenance, and that includes upgrades.

In fact, upgrading your software may be the one maintenance task that comes up most frequently, that you can't get away from, and that can make you pull your hair out when something goes wrong.

So why are upgrades hard?

The short answer is: They're usually not.

But sometimes you can run into problems like these:

• You don't know how to backup your site before the upgrade (and if this is a problem, it's about more than your upgrades, because frequent backups are a minimum best practice for any site that you're running.)

• If someone has modified your CiviCRM code files (which is a bad idea but sometimes developers will do it), those customizations will be lost in the upgrade.

• If someone has created PHP or template file overrides, or made changes to the database schema (again, bad idea, but it can happen) those customizations can cause fatal errors during or after an upgrade.

• it can happen that one or more of your extensions is incompatible with the new CiviCRM version.

• CiviCRM upgrades sometimes require changes to your CiviCRM settings file, or to your customized message templates, or to your CMS theme.

• The new CiviCRM version may provide new warnings about issues that have long gone unnoticed on your site. The warning isn't caused by the upgrade, but it can be surprising to start getting new warnings.

• The new version may require an upgrade to some other component of your site: the CMS, PHP, MySQL, etc.

After you've handled a few upgrades, you'll see some of these, or others. And it can be frustrating.

But it's not CiviCRM's fault. Out of the box, a vanilla installation will almost never hit any of these issues.

The complexity comes from the fact that CiviCRM itself is meant to be highly configurable, extensible, and customizable. The more you shape it to your needs, the more valuable it becomes for your work — but the more attention you'll need to give in maintaining it.

Here's the thing:

As with everything, customization and complexity are trade-offs.

Before you decide to make significant customizations, it's good to think about the actual business benefit you'll get, and compare that to the increased cost of maintenance. Usually it's worth it — if you have clear business goals for the system.

All the best,
A.

Identifying your true fans

It was about 15 years ago that Wired Magazine's founding editor Kevin Kelly published an essay called "1000 True Fans". The idea has since gained a lot of traction with small-scale artists, musicians, and writers.

But it's not just for them.

Kelly's idea was simple: An individual creator can escape the starving-artist lifestyle and actually make a decent living to fund their art by having only 1,000 true fans — the people who love their work so much and are so deeply affected by it that, as Kelly says:

[They will] purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. ... They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work.

But Kelly alluded to something more, which is this:

Although the 1000 true fans will indeed make up a large part of the artist's income, they also have an incredible compounding effect on increasing the number of regular fans.

That's because they talk, and share, and wear the t-shirt, and get the tattoo. And they know people.

If you're trying to spread a message, if you have a mission in the world, your true fans are the ones who will help you spread it.

Do you know who they are? The people who click every link in your newsletter? The people who select the VIP package at your events? The people who donate for every appeal? The people who share your content on social media?

Could you find out? And if they don't exist, could you cultivate such a fan base?

Here's the thing:

Your CRM is a great source of information on all of your members, potential members, donors, and casual contacts.

But among that mass of 5,000 or 300,000 collective individuals, there are the people who will take your message to the world — or at least to their world — if you can get them excited about the value that you're providing.

All the best,
A.

Using your CRM to deliver value

Most people I know think of CRM as a way to capture value.

Of course that's true. Collecting data, signing up new members, managing volunteers and contributions —CRM is great for all of that.

But one of its most powerful uses is in delivering value.

I've hinted the last couple of days about the importance and meaning of delivering value. Here are some ideas to leverage your CRM in making that happen:

• Instead of sending one long monthly email newsletter to everybody on your list, use the information in your CRM to target specific content to people who are likely to care about it. Every second they spend reading your email is a cost; be sure the value they get is more than that cost.

• Streamline new-member onboarding with a series of email or snail mail communications that targets their sector, their interests, and their demographic.

• Offer a member dashboard for logged-in users, where they can not only see —and edit — their own information, but also see the content that will motivate them to increase their engagement.

• Make it easy for people to share information about the good work you're doing. A one-click “share this” integration with Twitter or other social media allows them to spend just a few seconds of their time while getting a sense of pride and belonging by participating in your work.

• Track, and make use of, behaviors that will tell you what their interests are: email links they clicked on, event breakout sessions they selected, campaigns they did or did not engage in, etc.

Here's the thing:

Yes, your CRM is a great tool for capturing information and engagement.

But more importantly, it’s a fantastic opportunity to make sure that your organization’s value is both well delivered and well received.

All the best,
A.

What it means to deliver value

Doing good work is a great thing, but by itself it's usually not enough.

I see this all the time in the open source software world. Somebody will create a wonderful piece of software and make it available for anyone to use. It's well written, bug-free, and well designed.

But nobody uses it, and eventually the project dies.

Why? Usually because something else was missing: Did anybody actually know about this software? Was there a good documentation that it would explain what it was for and how to get the most out of it? Was it easy for new users to get started, feel good about the experience, and continue on to master the more complex and powerful features?

Without all that, it doesn't matter how good the software was, not enough people were going to see its value.

Delivering value is a lot like delivering a package. Yes, the package has to have the correct content, but if it isn't delivered to the right person, or the right person doesn't recognize and open the package, then it wasn't really delivered. It was just sent.

Here's the thing:

Delivering value does not mean just doing good work. That good work has to be received and understood by people who can appreciate it.

For all the good work you're doing in your organization, how are you making sure that value is understood and received?

If you want members and potential members to value the good work you do, it's up to you to deliver that value in a way that will actually be received and appreciated.

Your CRM can help you do that.

All the best,
A.

CRM strategy: delivering value

How are you delivering value to your members?

As a member-driven organization, there's no question that you need members to be engaged in your work. Members support your work through dues, volunteering, and advocacy. And you serve them directly, as a core element of your mission.

But why would they want to give you their time, or their money?

It's because you're giving them something valuable in return.

Because you're also competing with a thousand other interests in your members' lives. Every second they spend engaging with you — reading your emails, attending events, volunteering, whatever — could be spent on other activities they value: time with their own business network, time with their family, entertainment, personal development, etc.

Here's the thing:

If you want more member engagement — more renewals, more volunteering, more mission advocacy, anything — the key lies in delivering more value.

Fortunately, that doesn't have to mean more work for you. But it probably does mean more strategic use of your limited resources.

And your CRM can help you make that happen. Let's talk about that tomorrow.

All the best,
A.

Why projects go over estimates

A couple of days ago I mentioned the story of a project (not mine) that went more than 6 times over estimate.

How is this even possible?

As with everything, there's not just one reason. But I'll tell you one reason that really matters:

In a competitive marketplace, where one provider looks pretty much like the next, providers are heavily incentivized —whether they know it or not — to present the lowest estimate they can.

And because it's “just an estimate,” there's very little risk to them when it turns out their estimate was too low. ”Sorry, we’re almost done, we promise.”

In other words: low estimates sound competitive, while putting very little risk on the provider.

But the risk is still there. The unknowns are still unknown.

And if the risk isn’t being carried by the provider, would you care to guess who carries it?

All the best,
A.

Why do they think you're awesome?

Do you know why people are joining your organization? Do you know which of them are joining for which reasons?

If you're asking them — or observing them closely — then you probably know. And if you're not, then you probably don't.

People join an association for lots of different reasons: professional development for themselves, business networking, a sense of belonging, giving back to their industry, building their reputation as industry leaders, making the world a better place.

Understanding their motivation is a critical component of tailoring your outreach. Of turning casual contacts into active members. Of raising one-time donors into committed financial partners. Of turning passive members into your biggest fans.

Here's the thing:

Providing basic services might allow you to keep enough members to stay afloat.

But knowing what motivates them, and stimulating that motivation, is what will turn them into true fans of your work.

All the best,
A.

The second rule of custom development

Yesterday I pronounced the first rule of custom development: “Do not write custom code for open source CRMs.”

After you live with that for a while you might decide to take the training wheels off anyway. Rules are kind of for kids, right?

So we have the second rule:

2. If you feel you must write custom code for your open source CRM, make sure you know exactly why you're doing it.

Knowing why doesn't just mean pointing to a feature you'd like to have.

It means naming a business goal, a real goal that has numbers and units, and references tangible benefits or business value that will be worth the effort and expense of what you're about to undertake.

Here's the thing:

You can do anything you want with CiviCRM. But just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

All the best,
A.

The first rule of custom development

When you're running an open source CRM, you can do pretty much anything you want with it. If it comes down to it, just find a developer, and change the code.

Before you go down that path it's good to know the first rule of writing custom code for open source CRMs:

1. Do not write custom code for open source CRMs.

This rule will save you much trouble and expense. Because once you’ve written that custom code, it’s yours to maintain, forever. For example:

• Does it break when you upgrade the CRM? You get to fix it.

• Does it show up with a bug somewhere down the road? You get to fix it.

• Does it interfere with some extension you install later? Yep, you get to fix it.

If you don’t like the First Rule, you might like the Second Rule a little better. More on that tomorrow.

All the best,
A.

Transformative changes

It's pretty easy to think about small incremental changes. But knowing which changes to make is no small matter.

A boxer on her way to the top does not get there just with a better pair of gloves. She doesn't even get there with more hard work.

She gets there by choosing the right coach, someone who can spot the holes in her game, and help her stay on track to make the most of her unique strengths and weaknesses.

If you’ve got specific business goals to achieve—say you want to cut your staff workload in half, or double membership renewal rates — don't get sucked into fiddling with incremental improvements to your tools. Get some strategic advisement so you can make a real plan to address your unique weaknesses, play to your strengths, and move substantially toward those goals.

All the best,
A.

Meeting planners and strategic consultation

Ever hire a meeting planner?

Even if you're used to being the meeting planner yourself, pulling in an outside expert can give you a world of insights that you can incorporate into your own work.

Once you have a good plan in place, you'd probably want to rely on staff and volunteers to make everything work according to plan. That gives you a cost-conscious solution for implementing the plan, with hands-on help from people who know and care about your mission, your people, and your organizational culture.

It's the same for managing your CRM system.

Here's the thing:

Hiring expert advisors for high-level planning is where the big wins happen. And putting your own people on the day-to-day implementation gives you both cost savings and fine-tuned control of the experience you're delivering to your members.

All the best,
A.

Predicting costs

Most purchases have a very predictable cost.

Whether you're buying an apple at the local grocer or a skyscraper in downtown Manhattan, you can expect to have a clear idea of the purchase price before you agree to the transaction.

This obviously offers some huge advantages over the alternative. Imagine committing to buying a new home for your family based only on an estimated final sales price: We estimate the cost of this home at $500,000, but that's only an estimate, and we won't know the real price until several months after you've signed the closing documents.

Yes, there are business arrangements that work like this. And a highly educated buyer might be willing to take on the risk. But it’s a substantial risk.

I'm not a real estate investor, so I can't tell you lots of stories from that angle.

But I can tell you that in the world of software-related business services, going far over the estimate is very, very common.

If you want an example, take a look at this blog post from a buyer who committed to a project on an estimate of $7,000, and ended up with a cost of $46,000, and a bunch of regrets.

Believe me, I understand how uncertainty and pricing competition puts pressure on providers to avoid fixed-fee pricing. Really unpacking this topic is more than I can do in a short email.

But here's the thing:

By offering only an estimate of cost, and anchoring the final price the number of hours they may spend on a project (and BTW, the “hour” is an incredibly arbitrary metric), the provider is simply shifting that risk onto you.

A price is a price. An estimate, sadly, is not.

All the best,
A.

Simplifying

As if on cue, the day I wrote to you that Simplicity is sophistication, a client reached out for advice on reducing complexity in their user permissioning model. Looking at it together, we saw pretty quickly that they could easily eliminate 14 user roles and over 22,000 inactive users from their system.

That’s over 3100 permission assignments they can now stop thinking about. And instead of managing over 22K users, they’ll have 12.

They’ve got that in the schedule for this week, and they're now on their way to a permissioning system that they can actually understand and manage.

So it’s worth asking:

What can you do to avoid excess complexity in your new projects? Or to streamline your existing systems so you can actually understand what's going on?

Whether da Vinci said it or not, simplicity really is the ultimate sophistication.

All the best,
A.

Tools vs. strategy

Imagine someone who's trying to get in shape, so they buy a new treadmill. But that doesn't do it, so they buy a Bowflex. But that’s not doing it, so they buy something else.

One gadget after another, and they don't feel any more fit than they did at the beginning.

Turns out, they weren't actually using any of that stuff more than once or twice a month.

Here’s the thing:

It's not always a question of whether you've got the right tools. Often it's a question of whether you have the right strategy, and whether you're implementing it consistently.

All the best,
A.

P.S. Hat-tip to list member Andrew A., who mentioned this analogy in a recent conversation. Thanks Andrew!

Segmentation?

Quick question for you:

How much are you making use of segmentation in reaching out to your people?

I get the feeling this is an opportunity that a lot of organizations are overlooking, so I'm curious how you might be making use of it.

If you could, please shoot me a quick reply with a short answer.

And, if you have questions about segmentation, please ask in a reply email, and I may be able to dig into this topic a little further on the list.

All the best,
A.

5 types of costs for your CRM project

When you’re considering a significant improvement to your CRM system, you may have more costs to consider than just the fee you’d pay to make it happen.

Here are five that I have encountered in my years as a consultant:

1. Time cost

The time that you and your employees will have to devote to managing and participating in the project.

For example: You believe that a highly customized member engagement workflow will get you a 30% increase in member acquisition and retention, but you find that the project requires your membership director and their staff to spend 2 days per week participating in the design process.

2. Technical switching cost

The technical effort of moving from one system to another, or to modify related systems to support the changes.

For example: You know that moving from an expensive SAAS CRM subscription to an open-source CRM could save you tens of thousands of dollars every year, but you find that making the switch will require you to set up or alter a number of related online services, such as outbound email providers, payment processors, and e-commerce integrations.

3. Human switching cost

The effort and mental stress of changing your staff’s (and possibly your members’) way of using the system.

For example: You want to design and implement more robust security and permissioning policies to accommodate the growing complexity of your organization, but you find that doing so will require significant re-training of staff, more time for member support to handle questions about the changes, and possibly dealing with frustrated staff members who can’t do things the way they used to.

4. Opportunity cost

The cost of doing one thing and leaving another for later. What other projects are you delaying or giving up in order to take on this new improvement? What other needs that you’re aware of are you assigning a lower priority than the project you’re undertaking?

For example: Instead of spending time and money on moving away from your expensive SAAS CRM provider, you could spend those resources on other aspects of your organizational mission. You have to choose something, and it’s important to acknowledge that you’re prioritizing one thing over another, and to understand why you’re making that decision.

5. Sunk cost

The time, money, and organizational good will that you’ve already spent on a failed solution to your problem. The value of that investment can create a strong desire to “stick it out” so your prior investment doesn’t feel “wasted”.

This is the classic “sunk cost fallacy”, and it should be regarded as a fallacy. But it’s a very human response that often creeps in anyway.

For example: The Development Director who’s already convinced their board to approve hiring an offshore team to build a custom donation management system – promised for delivery in 6 months, 2 years ago – may not find it easy to chuck that out and start over with someone new.

Here’s the thing:

Improving your systems is going to take some effort and expense, and it’s not always about the fee. As you’re planning to make these improvements happen, the more explicit you can be about naming the other costs, the more easily you can prioritize and execute to reach your goals.

(Speaking as a strategic consultant and CRM implementer myself, I also know that the more you can share about these other costs early on in the process, the more your consultant will be able to help you address them and still get a win for your organization.)

All the best,
A.

What are the costs?

When you’re looking to make improvements to your CRM systems, you’ll want to think about the actual business value you’ll get from those improvements, and you’ll want to think about what it will cost you.

We can assume you won’t undertake the project if the expected value is not greater than the expected cost.

But be aware — the “costs” here are not only the fees you’ll need to spend if you hire someone to help you.

It’s all of the time, effort, expense, and mental stress that go along with making changes. Things like:

• Time cost

• Technical switching cost

• Human switching cost

• Opportunity cost

• Sunk cost (a classic “fallacy”, but still a real consideration)

If you’ve considered all those, and still think the improvements are worth undertaking, plow ahead. But if you haven’t, you might want to give them some thought first.

All the best,
A.