Late Payer Engagement
Background
We have been working with a significant professional membership organisation for some time and have been involved with their renewal engagement for the past two years. Although their annual renewal date has remained the same during this period, the renewal payment deadline was extended in 2020 due to the uncertainties around Covid-19. The period of grace was only available during that time and was not continued for the 2021 renewal round; something they wanted to ensure their members were aware of.
The annual renewal date was 1st January 2021. Renewal notices were sent by the organisation to all current members by post and by email prior to the 1st, and were followed up with postal and email reminders at the start of the year. However, by the beginning of March 2021 a large number of members who were due to renew had not done so and their payments were outstanding.
Project
We were tasked to carry out a late payer recovery and engagement campaign with the objective of initiating personalised, telephone-based contact with the late payers.
The main purpose of the calls was to:
uncover any problems or barriers to renewal
ensure members were aware of the renewal deadline
secure payment for 2021
obtain feedback from those wishing to resign
The project commenced in March 2021 and took 10 weeks to complete. Although some traditional “call centres” may deliver a campaign like this in a shorter period, we believe it is important to allow arrangements for follow up contact, and to take the time to engage with members fully and appropriately.
In addition to the telephone calls, we also sent reminder emails to those we were unable to speak with after several attempts.
Outcome
The project delivered excellent results with renewal payments from 79% of the total contact population.
Meaningful two-way dialogue was achieved with 90%, of which:
87% paid their membership fee
2% “promised” to pay shortly (mainly online or via direct debit)
2% showed a possible interest in renewing or had a query to be addressed first
9% confirmed they wished to cancel their membership
Voicemail and email messages were left with the remainder.
In addition to the payments we practiced good housekeeping, updating contact details and confirming those (19 members) who were not contactable with the details on record.
Of those we spoke to, a large number were based outside of the UK. Although this may have been seen as a challenge due to differing time zones, our team are very experienced in making these calls and received a very positive result, with 70% renewing their membership. In fact, many were impressed they were contacted in this way.
To put these results into context, our late payer campaigns would typically achieve a 70% hit rate of two-way dialogue with the target population. Of those we speak to, around 50% will renew their membership within the project timeframes, and a further 20% will be referred to the organisation for specific queries and/or further payments.
The outcome of this particular exercise exceeded the client’s, and our, expectations especially in light of the difficulties with Covid-19. We found that members were actually more inclined to respond and derived real value from the personal contact; a trend we are continuing to see on a regular basis.