The communication challenges troubling charity leaders
Earlier this month, we attended the Charity Technology and Fundraising Conference in London alongside 250 charity leaders from IT, Digital, Fundraising and Marketing. We all listened as organisations, including Action Aid, British Heart Foundation and Macmillan Cancer Support, talked us through topics such as the use of digital channels and improving service through technology.
While we were there, we asked the delegates about their communications set up and the challenges and impact this was having on their cause. While your business may not be within the same sector, there are a lot of interesting similarities that will resonate with most businesses.
Budget restrictions cited as the biggest challenge
Around a third of charities said that their biggest communications challenge was budget restrictions, with a further 25% saying that it was causing difficulties with managing availability of staff. Flexibility for busy periods, supporting remote workers, legacy phone systems and omnichannel were all also cited.
The impact of these was significant. Not only did they say that it was slowing their growth, but also having a negative impact on their staff and volunteer productivity, creating staff retention issues and causing missed or abandoned calls – all issues that affect most customer-facing businesses.
Finding the right communication solution
While it’s easy to say, “We need to find more budget,” or “We need to find the right people,” to make a change and move forward, it’s often not that easy. It’s about looking for a solution that will work for you and your budget.
Cloud phone systems and contact centres can help enable anywhere, any device working alongside real-time in-depth insight into call volumes, both allowing charities to better manage helplines and shift patterns. From working with charity customers like National Coastwatch, Cruse Bereavement and Retina UK, we know that missing or wrongly routing a call can be catastrophic and finding a cloud communication solution should definitely be on the agenda.
Moving to a cloud communication solution will also help you attract a wider talent pool, as they’ll be able to work remotely, plus most are flexible enough to fully adapt to your budget and requirements.
Finding the right partner
Finally, a whopping 40% of charity leaders stated that relationship was the most important aspect of any supplier partnership, with a further 20% each citing reliability and ease-of use. With Windsor Telecom’s focus being on making technology easy and enjoyable, it’s great to know we echo the same priorities as they do.
If you’d like a conversation about any of these challenges, then please do get in touch to talk through how we can help find solutions to your biggest communications challenges.
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