Human systems first

I was happy to hear from one of my clients last week that they've done something really smart.

It's something I often recommend, because it saves a ton of effort and expense, and applies resources only where needed.

In short, it's this:

Seeing an opportunity to improve their workflow, they did not begin with software. Instead, they simply implemented a change in their human processes.

Here's the background:

A big part of their mission is connecting people to services. They get dozens of new inquiries per month, from people who may need any number of the services they offer.

Previously they would offer separate intake forms on their website, one for each program.

A new contact would sign up for a particular program and the program coordinator would take it from there: make sure they're a good fit for the program, and then get them enrolled.

It wasn't a bad system, but they realized that people were often missing out on services in other programs.

They needed a way to centralize the enrollment process so that service recipients could be fully aware of all the options available to them and get connected to the services that would really help.

So they designated an Intake Coordinator.

This person is responsible for all new inquiries: for making sure they get connected to the right programs, that each program coordinator is doing the right follow-up, and that the service recipient is being connected to new services as needed.

And here's the smart thing that they did:

They started with the human process.

They made sure everyone was clear about the process, designated and trained (and actually hired) the Intake Coordinator, and set up very simple communications: ad-hoc email notifications and a shared spreadsheet.

That was enough. They got to work.

They did not insist on having a customized set of software features to manage this information. They just started with the human process.

6 months later, it's time for the software:

Their president reached out to me about it this week.

They've been using this system in the real world for 6 months now. They know what works and what doesn't. They know where the choke points are.

With that knowledge, we’ll be setting them up with CiviCRM’s case management features to streamline communications and tracking. And we can use their 6 months of experience to be sure we're building the features that are needed, not just what someone imagines might be needed.

From this they get two big benefits:

1. They were able to start their new intake management process quickly, without waiting on a software development project.

2. The software project itself is focused, meaningful, and well informed.

Here's the thing:

Yes, you’ll hear me grouse now and then about the inefficiency of ad-hoc emails and shared spreadsheets as a data management tool set.

But there's a greater inefficiency to be had.

It's the one you get when you hurry off to build the “perfect” software system for a human process that you don't fully understand yet.

Build a human process first. Then you'll know where the software can provide real value.

All the best,
A.

Design the sidewalks last

You can't always predict how people will use your systems.

Do you remember your college campus, or the last big office campus you visited?

If it was like most such places, it had dozens of buildings connected by concrete sidewalks — where the planners wanted people to walk — criss-crossed with trails worn through the grass — where people actually walk.

This system has two problems:

1. Somebody spent a lot of money building sidewalks that nobody uses.

2. The dirt paths are hard to maintain. Muddy in the rain, neglected under heavy snow.

Campus personnel may try to force people onto the “correct” paths by erecting barriers. But the people just make slightly longer shortcuts by wearing a new trail around the barriers.

Probably not the result they were hoping for.

There's a better way:

In recent decades some landscape designers have caught on and decided to stop fighting the inevitable.

How?

They design the sidewalks last.

It's a simple concept:

You first build the buildings, and put in few or no paved pathways.

Then, in the second year when the lines of desire and convenience and efficiency have worn themselves into the grass, you pave them.

Sure, the campus is actually less convenient in the first year: it has no paved pathways at all.

But after the second year, the pathways are both convenient and maintainable. And you haven't wasted your resources building sidewalks that no one uses.

Here's the thing:

In any software system, including your open-source CRM, you have the same opportunity.

You can do it by implementing the human system first, with whatever ad-hoc data sharing methods are easiest. Shared spreadsheets, ad-hoc emails, whatever.

Work out the policies that fit your mission, and let this human system run its course for a few months.

By that time you'll see what shortcuts people have begun to take. You'll know where the big inefficiencies are, and where a well-designed CRM feature set can really help you.

No system will ever be “perfect.” You can save yourself some heartache by starting with what matters most — the human system — and investing in the software later.

All the best,
A.

The best resource for mastering CiviCRM: CiviCamp

CiviCRM has a fantastic online community. MatterMost for chat, StackExchange for getting questions answered, the official blog for news, even Twitter and GitLab (nice if you're a developer).

But if you ask me, in-person meetups are where the real magic happens.

When it comes to learning, contributing, and inspiring each other, nothing beats hanging out in real life with a bunch of other people who are working with the same tools to meet similar challenges achieve some of the goals.

Of course in-person gatherings for CiviCRM, as for everything else, took a big hit in the gloomy COVID lockdown days.

But they've been slowly making a comeback. CiviCamps, trainings, and developer sprints are coming up in 2023:

• CiviCamp in Brussels, Belgium: June 2

• CiviCamp in London, UK: June 20

• CiviCamp and sprint in Leipzig, Germany: Sept. 11-14

• CiviCamp, sprint, and training in Manchester, UK: Nov. 29 - Dec. 8

And great news for us here in North America: discussion is under way now for a CiviCamp in Ontario, Canada (currently looking at Toronto or Ottowa) in the Fall.

Here’s the thing:

I’m so impressed with the benefits of attending that I sponsor 50% of the event fee for my most active coaching clients. If they're that committed to mastering CiviCRM to further their mission, I want them to be at these events

If you can make it to one of these, you probably should.

It’s one of the best time investments you can make in leveraging CiviCRM to support your mission.

All the best,
A.

You don’t have to know why it works

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the Monty Hall problem, and how intiution and common sense can be misleading.

When I encountered this exercise, I became rather obsessed with trying to understand it. After all, it had pitted dozens of academic mathematicians against the "World's Highest IQ" Guiness Record holder.

I puzzled over it throughout the day, and later I sat with a mathematically inclined friend to work through a series of trials to test it out.

Those trials showed the surprising "correct" pattern: by switching, I won about 2/3 of the time.

I then sat for another hour trying to understand why it worked that way.

And that's how life is. When measurements tell you that something is happening, it's not always easy to understand why it's happening.

But here's the thing:

If you observe cause-and-effect, you don't necessarily have to know why it exists. You just have to figure out how to use it.

And this is why testing really matters: your email subject lines, your link text, your membership sign-up form complexity, all of it.

There are rules of thumb, and best practices, and game theory, and marketing truisms.

But when you reliably measure and observe a pattern — even if you don't have time to dissect and understand it — the odds are in your favor if you make use of what it's telling you.

All the best,
A.

P.S. The above “pitted dozens” link contains the original article from Parade magazine, and many entertaining reader comments, including this one:

In a recent column, you called on math classes around the country to perform an experiment that would confirm your response to a game show problem. My eighth grade classes tried it, and I don’t really understand how to set up an equation for your theory, but it definitely does work! …

My thoughts exactly.

Google analytics conversion tracking for CiviCRM

Are you using Google Analytics 4 to measure traffic on your site? (You are measuring traffic somehow, right?)

Wouldn't it be nice to use the conversion tracking features to track your contribution and membership conversions?

Now you can.

There’s a new extension for CiviCRM that will let you do just that. It's called Google Tag Manager for CiviCRM, and you can get it here, or read the announcement here.

This brand new extension was just announced a couple of days ago, so I can't yet point out any progress and cons per se.

But I will be trying it on my own sites, and I recommend you at least give it a try.

It's one more tool in your kit as you aim for measurable improvements.

All the best,
A.

Measuring is hard. Guessing right is harder.

Intuition and common sense can be surprisingly misleading.

Here’s a simple exercise in probabilities that confounds even professional mathematicians. It’s known as “the Monty Hall problem”:

A game show host offers three doors, behind one of which is the big prize. He allows you, the contestant, to choose one door.

He then opens one of the losing doors, so there are now only two unopened doors. Then he asks you if you want to change your selection.

Would switching help you win?

Almost everyone, intuitively and very strongly, believes that it doesn't matter if you switch.

But that's incorrect.

Believe it or not, switching will double your chance of winning.

I didn't believe it either, until I actually tried dozens of trials and measured the results. Then I could at least believe it — and understanding it took even more effort.

Here's the thing:

Cause and effect are not always easy to understand. The obvious answer is not always the right one.

When you're trying to increase constituent engagement, maximize membership retention, increase contributions, or achieve any other business goal, a quick glance at your CRM reports might seem like it would tell you what you need to know.

But does it really?

Intuition and common sense are great tools when you're pressed for time.

But when you want to really understand what's going on, and make reliable plans that have a good chance of achieving desired outcomes, there's no substitute for careful measurement of real-world cause and effect.

All the best,
A.

P.S. If you’re really curious, here’s a short video that explains the Monty Hall Problem.

Expect lots of questions from a good coach

Self-diagnosis is a routine part of taking care of your own systems. But it's not always the best starting point when pulling in outside help.

Imagine you're a doctor, and a patient comes to see you.

The patient begins by saying, “Doctor, I just need you to prescribe some malaria pills. Can you do that?”

Sure, as a doctor you certainly could prescribe malaria pills. But are you ready to do that?

Probably not. You'll need to ask questions, maybe a lot of them, just to come to a diagnosis of the problem, let alone prescribing a remedy.

Here's the thing:

When it's time to talk with your coach or another specialist you trust, consider that the best value you can get from them is their professional opinion based on a full understanding of your situation.

Be ready to share about your underlying goals and your specific challenges. Be ready to answer their questions.

Be ready to tell what you've already tried.

And be ready for them to suggest something completely different.

After all, they're not just there to prescribe a solution. You have them on your team so they can help to identify the real problem in the first place, and point you to solutions that will work for your situation.

All the best,
A.

Is self-diagnosis holding you back?

Keeping your CRM healthy is a lot like keeping yourself healthy.

And most of us do our own self-diagnosis quite often, usually to good effect.

Heartburn after three big bowls of spicy Texas chili? Yeah, probably indigestion. Maybe take some Tums, maybe go a little easier on the chili next time.

But sometimes that's not good enough.

If the heartburn persists for days or months, you would probably want to ask whether your self-diagnosis is holding you back. Could there be a more serious underlying cause? Or could a different solution be more effective?

It might be worth visiting with a trusted professional, and being ready to answer whatever questions they may have.

Here's the thing:

I want all of my clients to be as self-sufficient as possible: confident in analyzing their situation, identifying their goals, and setting a path to get from where they are to where they want to be.

But sometimes you can feel that you're not making progress. Or you wonder if you could be making progress faster or better.

That's a good time to call your coach or another specialist.

Recognizing when you need help is an important part of healthy self-sufficiency.

You've taken a good swing at it yourself. Getting a second opinion can't hurt.

All the best,
A.

Why you should be testing your forms: Let's Make a Deal

Let's say I offer you two envelopes, "A" and "B", and a choice.

• Each envelope contains some amount of money for your organization's mission.

• There's a good chance that one envelope contains a lot more than the other.

• I promise you that you'll receive the amount in one of these envelopes every day for the next year.

Before you make your choice, one more thing:

I will start by giving you envelope A, and I'll give you that amount every day for the first month.

Then you have a choice:

Would you like to switch to envelope B for the second month? After the second month it will always be up to you to choose which envelope you receive each day.

The risk:

The risk in the second month is significant. Envelope B might contain much less than envelope A. If you switch to envelope B for a month, you could be losing a lot.

The reward:

What you gain from switching for one month is information: you will know the amount in each envelope, and you can then make a fully informed decision, and choose the better envelope every day for the rest of the year.

Here's the thing:

Testing your contribution forms carries a risk: you might test a change that reduces your total contributions.

But it also carries a potential reward: you might test a change that shows you how to increase your contributions.

Even better, the choices you have are not as opaque and absolute as envelopes A and B.

• You can use what you already know to design changes that actually have a good chance of working.

• It's not all or nothing. You can test on a small subset of donations and still get a lot of valuable information.

All the best,
A.

Shorter forms, more contributions

If you're looking for an easy way to increase your online contributions, take a closer look at your contribution forms.

A few studies, like this one, indicate that the more fields you have on a form, the more likely your donor is to give up before completing it.

So if you're looking for a quick fix, try making your forms shorter.

• Do you really have to collect a full billing address for every contribution? That can add five or more fields to your form. And most credit card processors don't require it.

• Are you offering donors the option to cover an additional percentage for the processing fee? Ask yourself if that extra consideration, and the impact it may be having on form abandonment, is really worth the extra 1.5%.

• Questions about their interests, how they heard about you, and mailings they'd like to receive, all add to the mental load of completing the form. If these people are just trying to give you money, is it worth it to slow them down with these questions?

Here's the thing:

Just like anything else, it's not always "that simple."

I'm always going to encourage you to find a way to test your improvements and measure their impact.

And if you'd like some more insight into cases where a longer forms actually increase conversion rates (and some of them are pretty surprising) you'll probably enjoy this article from digital marketing firm Venture Harbor.

But if you’re really just looking for a quick fix based on a good rule of thumb, just make your forms shorter.

While you're at it, make a note somewhere of the date that you made this change. Later when you're more interested in the value of good measurements, you can at least go back and compare your online contribution results before and after the change.

All the best,
A.

Your own documentation

Online documentation is a wonderful thing, not least because it's free and easily accessible.

But it's no substitute for the documentation that you can keep for yourself and your team regarding your own way of doing things.

Here are a few signs you might benefit from a little more attention to your internal systems documentation:

• You find yourself explaining the same workflow separately to multiple team members.

• You or another team member knows roughly that "we've done this kind of thing before" but can't remember just how it's done - or can't understand why it's not working the same way this time as it did last time.

• You need another call with your coach or training expert to walk you through it "one more time."

Sound familiar?

Developing a full-blown documentation system from the start can be a daunting task, though it's possible. There are some pretty cool wiki-like systems that you can install and host on your website and make them private to your team.

But it can also be as simple as starting right now, with a single Google doc. Share that with your team, and update it from time to time. You may start to see a structure emerging, at which point you can divide that into separate documents, organized into folders, however you like.

As your documentation grows, you'll need to put some more thought into how to organize it and keep it up to date.

But starting now with something simple will get you on your way.

Here's the thing:

Yes, you should read the online docs for your systems, and consult them as needed so you can master the features.

But those online guides are not streamlined for you.

They don't have a memory for how you've configured your system, or how you've decided to use its features.

Creating your own docs for your team -- even if that team is only yourself - is a valuable step in improving efficiency, effectiveness, user confidence, and consistency.

And isn’t that part of the reason you wanted a well organized CRM system in the first place?

All the best,
A.

Getting bulk data into CiviCRM

CiviCRM’s features for manual data entry are obvious: direct entry through the back office area, standard data collection on contribution pages and event registrations, and custom configured forms using profiles or Form Builder.

But bulk data is different. A recent client inquiry reminds me that there's more than one way to get large amounts of data into CiviCRM.

When we talk about getting large amounts of data into CiviCRM, we’re usually talking about one of three things: imports, integrations, and migrations.

1. Imports

Now and then you might get some data in a spreadsheet that you'd like to import into your existing system. CiviCRM offers some standard features for CSV imports of contacts, contributions, and memberships, and with a little patience you can make it work.

But you have to think carefully about what you're importing, the process can be a little tedious. And you may run into server timeout issues with larger data sets; depending on your site and server configuration, those issues might show up with 100 rows or with 5,000 rows.

Still, the documentation is pretty good, and it's a good place to start.

If you're looking to solve some of the problems mentioned above, you can have developer work on a more streamlined process. The newly approved extension Advanced Import offers a pretty good framework for making that development work a lot easier.

The CiviCRM Extensions Directory also lists some other great extensions that can, in the right hands, make frequent imports much easier.

2. Integrations

You might instead be looking to synchronize data from some external system into CiviCRM, on a daily basis, or in real time.

Some good integrations already exist for certain systems, including MailChimp and QuickBooks.

For other external systems, there might already be an integration that does exactly what you need. Check the CiviCRM Extensions Directory to find out.

Or talk to a developer about building a custom integration that suits your needs. This can make for a huge time saver for your staff.

3. Migrations

If you're moving to CiviCRM from some other CRM system, you'll want to bring in all the relevant data from your legacy system. This is undoubtedly the most complex and difficult of the three topics mentioned here.

You'll almost certainly want to hire a specialist for this. Specialized data manipulation tools such as Pentaho will make the whole thing much easier, assuming you're familiar with the tool itself.

Jon Goldberg of Megaphone Tech has done a great job sharing his insights on migrations from Raiser's Edge. If you're moving from another CRM, you may find some information online from folks who have managed such a migration.

Either way, this is a large project that involves extracting the data from the legacy system, and significant work cleaning that data and mapping it to the appropriate data entities in CiviCRM.

I recommend hiring an experienced pro to do the heavy lifting on this one. And of course, that experienced pro will be relying on your frequent input, because this is not a one-size-fits-all operation.

Here's the thing:

Getting bulk data into CiviCRM could mean a lot of different things, some of them fairly easy, others very complicated.

For more frequent tasks, the big win is usually in making it as easy as possible.

For one time operations like a migration, the win lies in good planning, and careful testing to make sure everything is done right the first time.

All the best,
A.

New CiviCRM extensions worth trying

CiviCRM is great right out of the box, and it keeps improving with every release.

Something else that keeps improving: the long and growing list of community provided extensions.

Here's a quick selection of three cool new extensions that have been reviewed and approved by the community in the past couple of months:

Membership Renewal Link:

Makes it easy to provide a link to the appropriate membership renewal form for any contact.

• Member calls you asking about where to renew? You can get the link easily from the CiviCRM membership record and then deliver that link by email, text, chat, etc.

• Sending out membership reminders en masse? You can Include a token in the mailing that will automatically embed the correct link in each recipient's email message.

Better Message Templates:

CiviCRM makes it pretty easy to edit the Message Tempolates that are used for delivering donation receipts, membership reminders, event registrations, etc.

What's sometimes not-so-easy is navigating the complex if/then logic in the template code, previewing your changes, and keeping track of how your changes differ from the original template provided in CiviCRM.

This extension aims to make all of that easier. It provides an advanced template editor that helps to simplify the template code; template previews; and a "view differences" mode to quickly highlight changes.

Advanced Import:

Importing contacts, contributions, and other types of data, has been a standard feature in CiviCRM for a long time. Though this feature is well used and well tested, it can sometimes be tedious, especially if you're in a position to repeat a similar import on a regular basis — e.g. weekly or monthly.

This extension provides a large number of features to streamline that process, including:

• Pre-configuration of various import workflows;

• Scheduling imports that retrieve data from a specified remote or on-disk location; and

• Importing from sources other than the classic CSV format, such as Microsoft Excel and others.

It comes out of the box with several useful pre-set import schemes, and provides a framework upon which a developer can create customized import schemes that work specifically for your needs (and save a lot of effort in the process.)

There's always more to find:

The CiviCRM community is continually creating and sharing new and innovative extensions to make life easier by providing specific features for your site that maybe not everyone needs.

Keeping up with what's out there is to your advantage.

It's worth checking the CiviCRM Extensions Directory now and then to see what might be there waiting for you.

All the best,
A.

Painting the Golden Gate

How often do you think they paint the Golden Gate Bridge?

The answer is: They're always painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Because something on the bridge always needs painting.

Somewhere along the way, the agency that manages the bridge decided to make the repainting an ongoing continuous process.

It's probably not the only way to do it. I'm sure there are some other large bridges with a different plan.

But I see advantages here, which I think also apply to your open-source CRM:

• Thinking of maintenance as a continual process means you always have staff who are responsible for ensuring it happens.

• A continual process isn't likely to be overlooked, put off, or forced to compete with other budget priorities.

Here’s the thing:

One of the realities of owning an open-source system is that it must be maintained. Putting off maintenance is a recipe for disaster.

Smart organizations make a point of budgetting the time and/or finances for regular and routine maintenance.

Do it yourself, or hire outside help, but make system maintenance a regular concern.

You don’t want your systems collapsing into the abyss.

All the best,
A.

Better measurement for improved membership renewals

Your membership renewal campaigns are a major component of your membership growth strategy.

What steps can you take to make membership renewal easier?

I read a nice little article today about an organization that's seen measurable improvements with a few simple changes to their renewal process.

The full story is here, but I want to highlight a few points:

1. Members can forget renewal.

In a recent survey, 34 percent of associations reported that members did not renew because they forgot.

It's not that these members didn't want to renew — they just let it slide.

How effective are your reminders? Are members reading them? How many reminders do they need before they renew? How many reminders is to many? Are you measuring any of this, or just going by feel?

2. Measuring for easier of renewal

This organization put in some careful effort, including testing, to find ways to make renewals easier. Seems like it worked:

“Since implementation, we’ve gotten fewer members calling the member services team with questions about where to find certain items on the forms,” Rayner said. “If they’re finding it easier, then we’ve definitely made some good improvements.”

Measuring the number and type of member support requests is one way to gauge such things.

What are you measuring now? What could you measure fairly easily that would tell you more about where to improve?

3. Reminders need to stand out, and be received well

This organization makes a point of asking members how they like to receive timely information. As renewal time approaches, they send reminders by the member's preferred channel (direct mail or email), but then switch to sending on both channels.

They've also measured member feedback to get a sense of how many reminders is too many. So they send fewer, and remembers are more likely to be acted upon.

Here's the thing:

You probably know already that membership renewal is critical. But it can take a lot of effort to get it right.

Knowing where to place your effort allows you to get better results with fewer headaches.

That knowledge can be hard to come by, but there are surely measurements you can put in place to help make smart decisions.

All the best,
A.

Flight plan

If you're piloting an airplane and a bird strike knocks out both of your engines, you don't have a lot of time to think and plan.

You do the best you can, and you hope for a good outcome. You might even have to put her down in the Hudson.

But the possibility of an emergency situation does not obviate the need for good flight plan.

You think carefully about the equipment you have available, your team, the people who are counting on you, flight regulations, headwinds, tailwinds, weather forecasts, fuel consumption — and most of all, where you're going and how you're going to get there.

Surprises will happen along the way. Most plans require some alteration once the journey has begun.

But the possibility of surprises is not a reason to avoid planning. On the contrary, it's a darn good reason to plan even more carefully.

All the best,
A.

Cargo cults, and connecting tools to outcomes

Have you heard the term cargo cult?

The story, usually quite oversimplified, goes like this:

Certain indigenous people in the South Pacific islands, having once experienced the sudden arrival of thousands of World War II combatants and their seemingly endless supplies of food and manufactured goods — followed by their sudden departure at the end of the war — seemed very interested in regaining access to that wealth.

Not fully understanding who these visitors were, where their wealth came from, or why they had left, some began doing what they could to mimic the visitors’ actions, apparently hoping that such actions would cause the the cargo deliveries to resume:

Building mock radios from coconuts and straw, lighting torches along the abandoned airstrips, marching in drill formation with mock wooden rifles.

From their limited experience, it seemed reasonable that doing all these things should once again cause large quantities of luxurious goods and supplies to be brought to their island.

It had worked for the soldiers and sailors, why shouldn't it work for them?

Not entirely unreasonable:

The disconnect here may be obvious to you and me, but we've probably all done something similar.

You may know someone who's seen others play the stock market successfully and decided that they too should start making investments. It doesn't always turn out like they hoped.

I've had clients and prospective clients try the same approach with CRM systems:

If we're going to be a real organization, don't we need a real professional CRM package? Big successful organization X uses fancy CRM system Y — shouldn't we use that too?

Two things might be connected, but not necessarily in the way you think. Correlation does not equal causation.

Here's the thing:

Yes, if you're going to run a successful organization, you do need some system for managing relationships with your people.

But the system itself will not be the cause of your success.

It will be the people, and the relationships, and your ability to use whatever tools and resources you have available to mobilize those people toward specific goals that further your mission.

Tools matter. But what matters more is understanding how those tools will actually support your measurable business and mission goals.

What goals are you aiming for?

All the best,
A.

Satisficing

Everyone would love to have a perfect plan — to know exactly what's going to happen, and to have the steps in place to deal with it.

Many people would be quite happy to put off decisive action until all the uncertainty can be removed.

In the context of a hobby, this kind of delay might be acceptable. Want to restore your grandpa's 1946 Cadillac? Take all the time you need to make a plan.

But when it's time to take action for your organization, you don't have that luxury.

In a 1985 study of how firefighter commanders manage high-stakes decisions under pressure, author Gary Klein expected that the commander would think of two or more possibilities, weigh the pros and cons of each, and then pick the best option.

What he found instead was that they instinctively, and invariably, relied on experience to go with the first reasonable plan that came to mind.

This is “satisficing:” The plan must satisfy minimum set of requirements, and it must suffice. It need not be perfect or even the best. But it must be executed soon.

Here's the thing:

Your decisions are probably somewhere in between. They’re rarely as high-stakes and urgent as a house fire, and almost never as relaxed as a hobby.

Time is always a limited resource. Endlessly debating the perfect plan is not really an option.

But satisficing is. Knowing that no plan can ever be perfect, you can devise a strategy that has a reasonable expectation of success.

Yes, you should expect to learn something and make adjustments along the way. But at some point, even before all the uncertainty is removed, it will be time to act.

All the best,
A.

Owning vs. renting

Terms like “the American Dream” get tossed around a lot when it comes to owning one's own home.

But not everybody wants to own a home. Or a car. Or business equipment. Or software.

Plenty of people rent. There's nothing wrong with that.

Obviously, overall cost is a factor in making this decision.

But a more important consideration can be flexibility — the control you have over these assets.

Do you want to paint your kitchen bright orange, or install heated flooring in your master bath?

Do you want to have the freedom to host as many guests as you like, or own unusual pets, or install beautiful landscaping features?

Do you want the flexibility to decide these things for yourself later, as and when the need arises?

If you want that, then you probably want to own.

Yes, ownership comes with more responsibility. But it also comes with a lot more freedom.

When you're selecting a CRM system, consider your priorities. Do you need flexibility and freedom? Then you probably want to own your system.

Open-source tools let you do that.

All the best,
A.

The cost of doing business

For any community-driven organization, maintaining a CRM system is a minimum requirement.

It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive, and you can decide how you want to do it.

You can do it in Excel. You can build your own customized in-house system. You can even do it on sticky notes if you really believe that will meet your needs.

But the time and effort you spend managing this system is a required budget item, one way or another.

In a community-driven organization, your people are your primary resource. It’s the relationships that matter.

And like anything, relationships that are not well maintained will not last for very long.

All the best,
A.