For all those reading this – and it will be quite a few – for whom 2020 Planning is all about just surviving, finding enough funding to continue what you do, I wish you the very (very) best in all your endeavours.

 

Its just under three months until 'The New Year' and all the (joy?) it will bring. For those of you with six months to go to end of financial years (March 2020), you are half way to balancing the books – I hope you are meeting targets (if you've been set them …).

 

Whatever your financial position, the latest and brightest shiny new thing could be the solution to all your problems – at least that's what you may have read or have been told (sorry 'suggested you take a look at …').

 

No 1 on this list may be having a bot.

 

 

Big organisations already have them. Have you had a chat with a bot owner yet, the one where you learn how they (the bots) are there 24/7, do so much and that they save SO much money and really improve Customer Satisfaction …?

 

You can though build yourself your own bot, for free (or just about no cost), through a variety of 'start-up' services. At the other end of the price range is several 000s of £s and, from a chat I had with a bot company last week, the need for a minimum of 20 000 'customer' interactions a week, for it to be 'price effective' (their words, not mine).

 

So, before you think about your DIY solution, or finding a donor who might fund a special project, do watch this webinar - Create an Authentic Chatbot Experience: The Fundamentals of AI-Driven Conversation

 

Its presented by a senior member of the development team at IBM Watson, a product which is a leader in this sort of use of AI. It is well worth 45 minutes of your time and the slide deck will be a really useful resource as you move forward.

 

In six or 12 months time, you could be showing a grant giver how you have broadened a service delivery through such a use of technology You could impress them further by mentioning 'Agile' in your grant application, or the page(s) on your web site you've specially designed to help find you funding.

 

'Agile' is THE buzz word in the Commercial Sector, and may be an anathema in the Public Sector 'world', as it it there to remove waterfalls, but it is coming to our sector and it is unstoppable.

 

Having used such divisive descriptions (blocking the natural flow etc), I might have upset some, but the stage by stage process - of waterfall - that has been the foundation of project planning and then delivery has its problems. Its not responsive or flexible enough. It gives too much ownership to management, not to the people who will actually end up using the product or service.

 

According to this brilliant business jargon description page on the BBC web site, Agile means this -

 

 

If you are going to impress, then you need to be able to write policies and procedures to show that you really are embracing the techniques. This is about the best guide (I've seen) showing you've followed the process to becoming an Agile Organisation (it should pass muster for anyone you really need to impress).

 

Or of course you can just be more flexible in the way you think, work and develop new ideas, in the teams you have …

 

On the subject of Writing Standard Operating Procedures, this guide is some really (really) good advice. No longer should it be a daunting prospect!

 

Finally, what about how you can make people feel about your charity.

 

This post is all about how Empathetic Marketing actually works – how you can make people really feel something with the way you start a conversation with them.

 

If you use retail to help raise funds, then this bit of editorial will give you ideas about how say becoming a destination (and a charity shop can do this – and an online marketplace) is part of the emotional side of the retailing of the future.

 

Or take a look at this piece about Sustainability in Retail, 'being good for business and good for humanity'. There are now many more options for recycled products that really are beneficial to how we move forward.

 

All of this can be put into practice by making Customers (in the commercial world – supporters in our sector) become the best promotion possible. This is a YouTube video of a presentation by a man called Jay Baer, about what he has branded 'Talk Triggers'.

 

Its well worth an hour of your time – lots (and lots) of inspiration – but for a shorter version, and some basics of what Mr Baer advocates, this is his web site and the specific (landing page) about 'Talk Triggers'.

 

As a promotional page, showing you something, how effective do you think it is? These are two Charity specific (free) bits of advice about the generics of web site design and making your web site perform as best it can. I would say, and perhaps be a bit unpopular, that there is advice (more advanced) from the commercial sector that we can use.

 

It does take a bit of crossing out (replacing) of 'commercial' references from some of these other sources, but when you go on the web, your web site is in direct competition with all the commercial activity you browse. There is no pre visit message to a charity web site saying 'this web site is all about doing good, helping others, supporting a cause – so it may not be designed in the way that other web sites are'.

 

You can jump from Amazon (and all that it is designed to do) to your local Animal Rescue Centre and see something that yes, doesn't sell product, but yes does try to sell a site visitor the message of what your support can do. If it does that say 75% as effectively as it could, then you would be getting say £25 less (in donations) that with a site the converted interest as best as it could. It would mean three potential volunteers instead of four, three phone calls about a service, instead of four.

 

This doesn't have to cost lots of money. It can be virtually free, if you can find volunteers who can work through an abundance of quality free advice, but that would be doing a disservice to that time given.

 

It does though mean being more 'agile', so here's that link again!

 

Hope this is of use. Please comment if you want to discuss anything I've included, or want more information. I hope all of your 2020 planning goes well!