The Akron Area YMCA launched Daxko Engage in mid-2015. Like other Daxko Engage customers, they are excited to have data that predicts how likely a member is to terminate their membership as well as the ability to segment their membership based on interest or activity and communicate to those groups appropriately. But it doesn’t stop there. The Akron Y is also using Daxko Engage to motivate their staff to create good engagement habits.
I recently caught up with Ken Hoyt, the Technology Director at the Akron Y, to talk about how his Y is motivating staff to keep member engagement top of mind. Ken shared with me that the front-line staff had always done a good job of communicating with and engaging members, but there was no process to record notes and follow-up tasks. He knew that this was a missed opportunity, and set out to bridge the gap.
Months after launching Daxko Engage, notes recorded averaged 75 per month across 6 branches. The Akron Y set up an internal competition and offered prizes to the individual and the branch with the largest quantity of quality notes. Hoyt shares, “The quality of notes is just as important, if not more important, than the quantity. We want to create a habit of entering notes, but not at the expense of notes that include short, generic comments.”The results of the competition were greater than anyone could have expected. Hoyt shared that during the one-month competition, staff entered 2,300+ notes in Daxko Engage. Hoyt explains, “We have great front-line support that have a competitive spirit. We’re still auditing the notes to review the quality, and will ensure that the branch membership directors are prepared to coach anyone that may need help in that area. All-in-all, we think that the competition was the nudge they needed to try something new.
When asked how they will continue to motivate staff now that the competition is over, Hoyt said that is yet to be finalized, but he does envision a recognition system at each branch. Next steps also include training staff to be deliberate when choosing which conversations to have; to choose critical members that are at highest risk of terminating their memberships and need to feel that connection.
We look forward to seeing what 2016 brings for the Akron Y. Keep up the great work!