Relationships and availability

Obviously you are in the business of relationships. That's why you have a CRM — to Manage your Constituent Relationships.

But your operation relies on other important relationships too:

• With your staff.

• With your board.

• With your vendors.

How you make yourself available to them — and they to you — has a big impact on the quality of those relationships.

I recently started a pilot program in my coaching practice, and I was surprised by what it did to the relationship I have with my clients.

The gist of it is this: unlimited advisory support.

No hourly billing. No limits on how often you can contact me. Just a straight monthly subscription, and as long as you're subscribed, I'll help you with strategic guidance, coaching, and training, on anything related to CiviCRM, as much as you like.

Once I started, I immediately saw a wonderful change in my relationships with participating clients:

• They ask questions. They never have to hesitate to reach out with a question. So they ask more questions, and better questions, and their learning process is rapidly accelerated.

• Our interests are easily aligned. I'm interested in helping organizations become the masters of their own data systems. Program participants want that for themselves, too.

• Our goals are aligned. Because the clock is never running on our conversations, we have time to drill down on the outcomes they care about most, and discuss freely the pros and cons of one approach or another. My goal is to help them achieve their goals. I want to hear that the work they're doing, with my help, is hitting one home run after another. Of course, they want that too.

Frankly, I was surprised by the difference. I've had happy clients for years, to the extent that I don't even bother to advertise my services, since happy customers are glad to hire me again, and to refer their colleagues.

But in hindsight, it's no surprise at all. I aim to help people I like get what they want. And I do like the people I work with. Why wouldn't it be better when I make it easier for us to work together?

Next Monday I'll be opening this unlimited advisory program to all of my clients. Some will want it, and some won't. Everybody's different. But since I only have a few spots available, that should work out just fine.

Here's the thing:

Relationships count. None of us does great things all on our own.

What steps might you take to level-up the way you relate to the people you rely on?

All the best,
A.

Why ask why

As a CiviCRM coach and trainer, I often have clients asking me how to do one thing or another in CiviCRM.

Naturally I want to help them, so I usually ask “why” before I start spouting off instructions.

I dig around a little so I can get a clear picture of what they're actually hoping to achieve:

If you knew how to do this, and you did it, what would that get you?

And that result you get, why is it valuable?

What problems would you have if you couldn't do this?

Sometimes, the answers make it clear that what they're asking about is actually going to get them what they want.

But more often, one of two things comes to light:

1. The thing they're asking about is possible, but it won't get them what they really want.

2. The thing they're asking about is possible, but there's a much easier way to get what they really want.

If I were just interested in selling them a training session, or in charging them for implementation and custom development, it would be easy enough to say, “Sure, that's possible. Here's how we'll do it.”

But I'm much more interested in helping them get measurable results in the areas that they really care about.

Here's the thing:

Nobody really cares about a checkbox or a button or a form.

They want happier staff who work more efficiently, well-served members who renew more often, reduced costs, increased income, or some other measure of bottom-line mission success.

Because I want to help them get there, I ask them why.

Only after that can we effectively work on the how.

All the best,
A.

“Why” is more valuable than “how”

A young driver asks his uncle how to change the oil in a car.

His uncle is an absolute gearhead who's always rebuilding one or two of something, and he's delighted that this young fellow is ready to start getting under the hood.

So he invites the kid over on a Saturday and takes him through the whole process.

The nephew takes copious notes, including all the steps and the tools he'll need.

The uncle bemoans the difficulty of getting rid of used motor oil but says he has a friend who will take it, and he agrees to pass on the nephew’s used oil as well.

After all this is done, he asks the boy what led to his interest in oil changes.

The boy says he wants to buy a car, and he's heard that you have to change the oil every 3 months. He couldn't find anybody else who knew how to do it, and he was, in fact, mystified how all these people have cars but can't change the oil.

The uncle explains that most people just go to the QuickLube and pay 40 bucks to have it done.

The nephew says, "You mean they'll just do it for you? That's even better!"

The kid never did change his own oil.

He had finally gotten an answer that was better than his question.

All he really wanted to know was: How can I handle oil changes if I’m not a mechanic?

Here's the thing:

When somebody asks how to do something, it helps an awful lot to know why they're asking.

And when you're asking someone how to do something, you’ll probably get a much better answer if you can explain what you really want to achieve by it.

If you don't tell them, and they ask anyway, there's a good chance they're really trying to help you get what you want.

All the best,
A.

Hacker defense: “strong” passwords

Based on responses to yesterday's email, I want to drill down a little on "strong passwords".

If you Google a little bit, you'll find lots of advice about what constitutes a strong password.

You'll see assertions like, "A strong password is at least 16 characters long and contains a random mix of upper and lower case, numbers, and punctuation."

Obviously, that is simplistic.

Strength is relative.

My coffee table is strong enough to hold a few books and a glass or two of iced tea. It probably would not hold up under seven dancing teenagers, however cool they think it might be to try.

So you could ask, how strong is "strong enough" for your staff website logins? You could get into a long and tedious debate about that with your security geek friends, if you wanted.

Fortunately, you don't have to do that. Consider:

• If it's easy to remember in your head, it's probably easy for the bad guys to guess it.

• So, admit that it should be complex enough that you can't remember it.

• So, it might as well be at least 16 characters long and contain a random mix of upper and lower case, numbers, and punctuation.

• Use a password safe to store it, and you get most of the convenience of an easily remembered password, without the liabilities of an easily guessed one.

If you need help generating those passwords, there are lots of tools to help you:

• Your password safe probably has a feature to do that.

• WordPress will always offer you such a password as a starting point when you attempt to change your password.

• There are many free tools online, like this one, that will generate random strings just like this.

Here's the thing:

The criminals who want to abuse your site have been refining their tools for decades.

You are surely far behind them, and weak passwords are very likely the weakest link in your defense.

Remember that security and convenience are trade-offs.

If you want to keep the bad guys from abusing your site —and your constituents’ personal information — the smart choice is to trade off a little bit of inconvenience for a significant increase in security.

All the best,
A.

Another hacked site

I spoke with someone today whose WordPress site had been hacked.

Nobody likes to talk about it. But I'm talking to you about it.

I see it, now and then. Almost every time, it could have been prevented by a few simple measures.

• Turn off unused accounts.

• Configure restricted roles for most of your users, so only one or two people have full administrative rights.

• Set up two-factor authentication for your CMS.

• Educate your staff users so they select strong passwords.

• Guard your email passwords as closely as your CMS passwords (because CMSs allow resetting the password through email).

• Never delay in applying security updates for your CMS, your CRM, and all plugins and extensions.

While you're at it, think now about what you will do if and when your site security is breached:

• Make a plan for notifying your constituents about possible data disclosure. What will you tell them? What are the criteria that will determine whether you tell them or not?

• Ensure you have a solid backup plan, because recovering from a breach often means reverting to a backup.

• Decide who you will call, whether it's to help you recover from a breach or to answer questions when you think there may have been a breach.

In today's case, we were able to act quickly. We immediately locked down the site and took it offline, determined the date and time of the breach, and reverted to the most recent backup before that happened.

They're back online, and they're taking steps both to prevent it happening again with some of the above measures, and to formulate a plan in case it should ever happen again.

It's not pretty.

You hope it will never happen to you.

But hope is not a strategy.

Take steps now so you can reduce the likelihood of it happening to you, and so you can be prepared to act quickly and decisively in case it does.

If you have questions about any of this, hit reply and let me know. I'll be happy to share more information about ways you can make progress in this area.

Whatever you do, don't gamble with inaction.

It's better to think about it now — when you don't have to — than to be forced to think about it later because you were unprepared.

All the best,
A.

You can't answer seven

You've got an idea that you might want to try something.

Maybe it's a new hire. Maybe it's a new use for your CRM. Maybe it's a change to your membership policies. Or a new alumni program.

Doesn't matter.

You have to decide whether you like this idea or not. Rate it on a scale of 1 to 10.

Here's the catch:

You can't give it a seven.

Why not?

Because of seven is cheating. It's safe. It says, “Yeah I kind of like it, but I'm not sure I want to do it.”

Get out of that middle ground. Call it a six, or call it an eight.

Six, well that's pretty close to a five, so it's not much better than a coin flip.

Eight, that's something you can take action on.

Here's the thing:

Decisions are hard. But they're valuable. Wasting time in the Undecided Zone is not going to get you what you want.

All the best,
A.

P.S. Credit where due: this is not my idea. I heard it from Tim Ferriss, who got it from Kyle Maynard, who got it from "a well-known CEO." See Ferriss talking about it here.

P.S.S. I know yesterday I promised to tell you yet another example of events that don’t fit in CiviEvents. But, yeah, it’s just one more example of the same thing. I hope you enjoy the above notion a little more.

Events that don’t fit CiviCRM

I had two clients ask me last week about how to set up CiviCRM Events (CiviEvent) for their events, and both times the answer was:

Don't use CiviEvent for that.

Here's the first one:

We have a regular schedule of drop-in events like karaoke night, trivia night, and open mic. We want to display these in a calendar format so they're easy for people to find. We don't need people to register; we just want them to know the event is there so they can come and go as they please.

So why is this not a good fit for CiviEvent?

Because you're not collecting any data about the participants.:

• They don't need to register with their name in advance.

• You won't track attendance as to who came and who didn't.

In short, this is similar to anonymous surveys: there's really nothing for a CRM to track here.

Instead, you could just list these on a page on your website. If you want a calendar format, your CMS almost certainly supports any number of plugins or modules to handle that kind of display.

Here's the thing:

If you're not tracking anything about a specific named human being, there's nothing for your CRM to do here.

Count yourself lucky that you have a simple situation, and use your extra time to work on your guitar licks for open mic.

Break a leg!

All the best,
A.

P.S. More tomorrow on that second don’t-use-CiviEvents client situation!

Anonymous surveys with CiviCRM?

One more type of intake form you might be thinking about: anonymous surveys.

Say you've got a list of 20 questions, you’d like to collect responses from your constituents, and you have good reasons not to identify the people who answer.

(Usually it's because the questions are of a sensitive nature, and you believe you'll get more honest answers if respondents can remain anonymous.)

If you’re looking for the best CRM tool to build such a form, think again.

Anonymous surveys are in the category of things that don't fit well in your CRM.

Think about it. You’ve decided to collect no personally identifying information. In a contact relationship management system, which contact are you going to attach these answers to?

None, of course.

You'll be better off using one of the CMS-driven form builders. You might even prefer to use an external service like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey.

Any of those solutions will let you create a set of questions, configure the possible answers — from multiple choice to long texts, to dates, to lots more — and send the link for that simple and beautiful form to your pool of anonymous respondents (say by email — which, by the way, is a great use of your CRM).

Then you can export that data to a spreadsheet and analyze it however you like.

That's all you really need to do here. No need for a CRM at all.

Here's the thing:

When you have a really nice hammer, it's tempting to see everything as a nail.

CiviCRM is a fantastic hammer. But not everything is a nail.

All the best,
A.

Intake forms for your staff

If your staff have tasks that involve predictable and repetitive data entry, you can save them a lot of time by creating custom forms in CiviCRM to handle the data entry.

You've basically got two options to do this. Just like I explained yesterday about intake forms for your constituents, the main difference between these two is in their flexibility and complexity:

• CiviCRM Profiles: Relatively easy to configure, and relatively limited in the types of data they can handle.

• CiviCRM FormBuilder: More flexible in what you can do with them, with a matching increase in complexity when creating them.

(You could in theory also use one of the CMS-based form builders like Webform or Caldera Forms, but since we're taking about staff users here, I don't see much advantage in going that route.)

My preference:

Once again, I'll usually suggest going with FormBuilder here.

The learning curve is a little steeper, but the extra features will, I believe, make it well with the effort.

All the best,
A.

Intake forms for your constituents

When you're collecting data from your constituents directly, you need to be sure of two things:

1. The data needs to land in the right place in your CRM.

This means you need to know what the right place is, and that probably means you'll have (or will need to create) the relevant custom data fields and other configuration to store the data.

Before you start creating the forms for your users, it's a good idea to manually enter a few sample responses through the back end; and then run a few reports or searches to examine that data.

This way you can be sure of where the data is supposed to be, and that you'll be able to use it effectively once it's entered.

2. The form should be as easy to use as possible

Now you need to think about how your constituents will actually provide that data.

What are you going to use to build the form that they'll be using?

You've got a few options:

CiviCRM profiles:

This method is the simplest to implement, and it works well for simple updates to information about a single contact.

But if you intend to store the data in multiple contact records, or in activities or other entities, profiles are probably not going to be able to handle that.

CiviCRM FormBuilder:

This relatively new feature in CiviCRM is growing rapidly and can already handle most anything you want to do in your data collection form, including the collection of data about multiple contacts, activities, and other entities.

It's a little more complex to configure than a profile, but it's a lot more flexible.

CMS-based form builders:

Under Drupal and WordPress, you may simply prefer to work with one of the popular form builders in those platforms.

In Drupal, Webform is the tool for building custom intake forms. With its CiviCRM integration, you can do all of the above.

As a bonus, it also supports taking payment via the form. Right now it's the only option in this list that will do that.

In WordPress, the most popular form builder is Gravity Forms. But it has no integration with CiviCRM.

Instead, you should look into Caldera Forms. This WordPress plugin, with its CiviCRM integration, supports collecting data on a fairly diverse set of entity types (contacts, activities, etc), and its forms also tend to “look pretty" with your WordPress theme.

My preference:

Where possible, I recommend starting with CiviCRM’s FormBuilder. The learning curve is a little steeper than with profiles, but once you’re past that the flexibility of this tool is pretty impressive.

There's not much that the other solutions can do that FormBuilder can't.

And once you get the hang of it, you might be surprised by what it will allow you to do.

All the best,
A.

Pick your poison: Intake forms

For contributions, event registrations, and membership sign ups, CiviCRM has dedicated forms that pretty much have you covered.

But what if you want to collect some other kind of data?

• Questionnaires or assessment tools for your service recipients

• Streamlined data entry for your staff

• Anonymous surveys

• etc.

There is, as they say, more than one way to skin a cat.

So depending on your situation and your needs, you could do all this a few different ways:

• CiviCRM profiles

• CiviCRM FormBuilder

• Caldera Forms (WordPress)

• Gravity Forms or Ninja Forms (WordPress)

• Webform (Drupal)

None of them is perfect for everything, but they can all be great for one thing or another. Sometimes you have to pick your poison.

In my next few emails I'll cover each of these and look at pros and cons.

With a little care, you can select the one that's best for you.

All the best,
A.

Cleaning the corners

In my office at home I have a habit of leaving things in the corner that I expect to deal with “later.”

You know, things I ought to put away in another room, but can't be bothered just now. Amazon purchases I keep meaning to return. Stuff that doesn't really have a place yet, and I'm not sure if I'll want to keep it or throw it away.

Now and then, when I'm not beset by urgent tasks, I'll make a little time to clean the corner.

It's a simple task. I just go through things and make some quick decisions. It's even refreshing in a way, and when I'm done, I have a nice clean office again.

Here's the thing:

Most systems have “corners.” Little places where we leave things to be dealt with later.

In CiviCRM that could be things like:

• Checking your system status messages for anything that might need attention.

• Reviewing your extensions and deciding which if any really should be upgraded.

• Scanning for duplicates and merging a few of them.

Sure, you can schedule time for things like this. And frankly, you shouldn't let those things go too long without attention.

But sometimes, when you have a minute, it's just nice to clean the corners.

All the best,
A.

Protecting open-source software in the EU

If you have an interest in the success of open-source software — whether you live in the EU or not — you might be interested in this open letter to the legislators of the European Union from the makers of WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and other popular open-source tools.

They're concerned that a newly proposed EU law could drastically hamper the work of open-source software developers, and the future of the software itself.

Maybe that’s not your thing, and that’s fine of course.

But perhaps it is nice to know that individuals and organizations — thousands of people around the world — are working together to maintain and improve the tools we use every day.

And, that those folks are also putting in the extra effort to navigate political and legal decisions that might limit their ability keep doing that great work.

Here’s a wish that they, along with you and me, can continue working to make the world a better place for people they care about.

All the best,
A.

There’s an extension for that

It seems like it happens at least once a week.

1. A client asks me how to do something that we both know is not easy in CiviCRM, or maybe not even possible out-of-the-box.

2. I imagine that's something that a lot of people would use, if it existed.

3. I check the extensions directory, and there it is. Somebody already built it, and we just have to install it.

Today it was:

Is there a way to automatically soft credit one spouse for the other spouse’s contributions?

Okay, that's actually a good idea. It seems like a lot of people would use that. That should probably exist.

Yeah, it does: Automatic Soft Credit (or check this link for a better description).

Sure, it's not always that easy.

If it's really unique to this organization's policies, and it's not the kind of thing that a lot of people would need, then the chances are slimmer.

But it's always worth checking.

All the best,
A.

Custom development for CiviCRM: Worth it?

What should you do when you want something that's not possible in CiviCRM out-of-the-box, and there's no available extension that would do it for you?

Would creating an extension (or even modifying CiviCRM itself) be worth the investment?

It’s a trick question, I guess. Because it’s not really about CiviCRM.

“Is it worth it?” is one of the first questions you should ask any time you’re considering custom software of any kind.

But the real question is:

How would you even know if it's worth it?

How would you measure that?

If you know how you would measure it, you probably already have a sense of whether it would be worth it or not.

But if you don't know how to measure that, how could it possibly ever be worth it?

Here's the thing:

If you care about value, you have to have a way to measure it.

All the best,
A.

Theme fixes

What if you're unhappy with the way CiviCRM forms look on the front-end of your website?

First of all, remember that you don't have to make everything look “just so.” There's no rule requiring it.

But say you have a sound business case for investing a little effort and changing the look of those front end CiviCRM forms.

Here are two ways to make that easier for your developer — or whoever is going to make these changes:

Custom template:

Sometimes a WordPress theme will do all kinds of unexpected things in the default template that goof up CiviCRM's content.

Usually, the symptoms are that CiviCRM's content doesn't display at all, or it displays in the wrong place on the page.

A common solution is to create a template that avoids all that fancy logic and just shows the CiviCRM stuff where it's supposed to be.

Remove conflicting styles:

By default, CiviCRM adds its own styles to the content it generates, but that can conflict with the styles of your site theme. As long as you have both styles fighting each other, it can be hard to formulate the style rules that will give you the formatting you want.

Under WordPress, you can do that pretty easily, using a setting in the WordPress plugin CiviCRM Admin Tools.

Under Drupal, there's no module that does this with a simple check box setting like that. But your Drupal theme developer should easily be able to prevent the stylesheet from being loaded, by using Drupal hooks in the theme.

All the best,
A.

Theme problems

Do CiviCRM forms look weird on your website?

Whether WordPress or Drupal, it's a challenge for some sites:

I've worked hard to make the whole site look just right, but anything that CiviCRM produces looks like it came from another planet.

Contribution pages, event registration forms, anything. Why can't I just have it look beautiful like the rest of my site?

Most CiviCRM sites don't have this kind of problem. Most themes work just fine with CiviCRM, and many organizations are so happy to have the functionality that they don't sweat the details when it comes to the visual design.

But if you're investing a lot of time and money into a beautiful comprehensive design, then "it works fine for most people" is no great comfort.

So what to do?

In my next email I'll offer a few tips and tricks that can make it easier.

But in more general terms: sometimes it's just hard.

CiviCRM is intended to run on wide variety of sites and CMSs. Its forms and pages have to look decent on any site, but it's almost impossible for them to look great, right out of the box, on every site.

There's just too much variety:

• Your custom site design;

• Your particular CMS theme;

• Plus all of the modules and plugins you may be running.

If you're one of the many for whom this isn't causing problems, that's wonderful.

But if you've already made a big investment in your site design and have a business case for making every bit of content look just so, it's probably worth budgeting a little extra to style the CiviCRM content to match.

Just how much extra effort will depend on your design requirements.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM contact dashboard extension

How do you keep your organization’s members informed on the status of their membership, outstanding payments, event history, and the like?

The CiviCRM Contact Dashboard is a handy way to do that.

The only problem I've seen is that it's so darn long. Members get a little lost scrolling through all that information.

A little while ago a client inspired me to clean it up a little, so we created a tabbed interface that looks like this:

It also lets you hide, re-order, or re-label the tabs, and — this is pretty useful — add additional sections based on Profiles.

That's available as an extension in the Extensions Directory; give it a try if you like: CiviCRM Contact Dashboard Tabs.

And of course, there's plenty of other cool stuff in the Extensions Directory.

Give that a look now and then too. You'll probably find something you like.

All the best,
A.

Smart habits for CiviCRM mastery

I've got a few clients who are rolling out CiviCRM for the first time.

The ones who are having the best time of it are doing a few smart things:

1. They've gotten very familiar with the online documentation.

2. They regularly check the Extensions Directory when they need a feature they don't have.

3. When they have a question, they ask somebody with experience (that's usually me, but not always).

Starting out with a complex system like CiviCRM is a pretty big task. It's a steep learning curve.

But a few good habits can not only make it possible, but put you on the path to long-term success.

All the best,
A.

Helping people you like get what they want

I've been having one of the funnest weeks of my life helping a small WordPress shop get their heads around CiviCRM.

They've been in the WordPress business for a long time, but this is their first experience implementing CiviCRM for one of their clients.

From where I stand, it looks like they were completely stuck. But with a few phone calls and screen sharing sessions, they're now very close to making their tight launch deadline.

Why am I so excited about it?

• I'm vain. They ask me a bunch of questions that I know the answers to, and then they tell me how smart I am.

• I like instant gratification. With a little bit of guidance, I can watch them eat up this project like movie theater popcorn.

• I'm stingy. Yes I seem to be giving them a lot of valuable information, but I still get to keep that information myself as well.

• I'm greedy. Every time they ask me a question that I don't immediately know the answer to, I have a reason to go figure it out. Then I've got more useful information than I had before.

Here's the thing:

I feel like I could do this forever. Helping people with stuff they need, and getting a lot for myself out of the experience.

That's often how it works when you're helping people you care about get what they want.

If you're in the business of helping people — and I think you are — I wish for you lots of similar experiences.

All the best,
A.