Today we talk about how a chatbot can help with the fundraising efforts in a charity. From lead generation and prequalification of the type fundraising or donations that a person is interested in and helping with the final conversion into a loyal and engaged donor or supporter.
We deal with a human in the loop and how the chatbot can work alongside a member of the team and also how that warmed up lead is then ready to convert and help the charity.
Our latest series of podcasts, concentrates on voice and how that is going to impact the next few years with tips along the way. Find out more about voicebots here and if you have any subjects that you would like us to discuss then email info@disruptionworks.co.uk with the subject Podcast and we will see what we can do ;-)
Today we talk about how a chatbot can help with the fundraising efforts in a charity. From lead generation and prequalification of the type fundraising or donations that a person is interested in and helping with the final conversion into a loyal and engaged donor or supporter.
We deal with a human in the loop and how the chatbot can work alongside a member of the team and also how that warmed up lead is then ready to convert and help the charity.
Our latest series of podcasts, concentrates on voice and how that is going to impact the next few years with tips along the way. Find out more about voicebots here and if you have any subjects that you would like us to discuss then email info@disruptionworks.co.uk with the subject Podcast and we will see what we can do ;-)
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Steve Tomkinson
Hello and welcome to another exciting edition of disruption works chit chat with Sean and Steve. Hi, Sean. How are you doing today?
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Sean Bussell
Yes, so good. Thank you. And looking forward to the weekend.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, I if if.
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Steve Tomkinson
You had some drilling next door. I understand it's driving you insane.
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Sean Bussell
It's yeah, it on day seven of the drilling, but.
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Sean Bussell
My my name is Abdul that Windows replaced, so that's it's been fun to listen to.
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Steve Tomkinson
Did.
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Steve Tomkinson
The joys of working from home. I you know, that's the.
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Sean Bussell
Yeah, I I don't know. You get that you. I've been in the office and they've been doing Rd works and stuff so.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
Uh, you get you gonna get it? You're gonna get it.
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Steve Tomkinson
It's.
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Steve Tomkinson
Swings around about Bennett swings around about uh, well, as the astute amongst you might have realised, I've done the intro this week, which is a bit of an odd one because.
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Steve Tomkinson
And it's weird.
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Steve Tomkinson
Gonna talk this week about uh charity UM fundraising and how chatbots can help you with that. And Sean, you're you're kind of lead on these projects when we're talking to charities. So I thought it's probably the right way around to pick your brains on this because, you know, this is what you've been doing and you've been working quite hard with different charities on how this might work for them. So I suppose kicking off, how do we go about using a chat bot for a fundraising thing? Where do you start with that kind of thing?
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Sean Bussell
It's.
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Sean Bussell
Well, I I the the idea behind this is that if you've got a chatbot on your website or on your social spaces that can engage with people that have landed on your website or looking to find out a little bit more how they would get involved or they can fundraise, then the chat box is a nice frictionless way to start that conversation. So if someone was to go in and maybe ask more broadly how do I get involved, how do I help? The chatbot can still down that journey or even a few a bit more specific and say I'm interested in doing a skydive.
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Sean Bussell
It's again the chat box and give some intro text and information around that, but I think the idea is that you very quickly hand that person off to to a human. That can, let's say, convert that individual or get them signed up to do the fundraiser. So that can happen in many ways. So the chatbot can give you some information. Steve, about skydiving. Yeah, we've got a skydiving thing. This is the club that run it for us that we recommend, blah, blah. Would you like to speak to?
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
Jane, about, you know about the skydiving fundraising that we do, and you're in the moment. You're right there. It could be anymore of a good time to try. And then can you know, whip you over to a human. And that can be done via live chat. It could be that there's a Click to dial phone number that's presented to the art. Give us a bell. We'd love to talk to you about this or even.
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Sean Bussell
Even the another option would be that you get out. Would you like to have a chat with us about it? It's 8:00 o'clock at night. We'll we'll give you a call in the morning if you like. When's a good time to bring? And you say? Oh yeah. Give me a call tomorrow afternoon, then. And you know, obviously it's a nice lead Gen tool from that perspective.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Now.
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Steve Tomkinson
Well, it's interesting you say it's like a legion because it's like a commercial legion outside of just the charity space, isn't it? It's the same principles. You know what your.
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Sean Bussell
Ohh yeah exactly if if you yeah, if you if you were running Steve's, you know, spar and leisure. And I came on and I was asking about membership did exactly the same process that oh we've got some membership available at the moment actually running a special offer. Would you like to speak to one of our team about it.
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Steve Tomkinson
You know where your time mate.
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Sean Bussell
Yeah. So would actually that be OK? How would you like to get in touch, you know, live chat? And then it would present the again the options around how you're gonna navigate through that journey so that we can get you through to someone to convert you. So yeah, exactly the same situation in a commercial setting as it was as it would be in a charity. I think the thing for the charities is, yeah, sometimes they got lots of different campaigns on could be one. Animal rights, once human rights over here. This is talking about fundraising and then dependent on.
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Sean Bussell
The the route that you take could be the you know, the different team that you get put put through to to do that stuff.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, because we can. Uh, specifically hand over to the the right live chat team or person, you know, depending on beg your charity is, you know some charities are are quite small and they they lean on few people and I suppose that's the reason we're trying to do as much automation for those people as possible so that they can do as much of the charity work as possible but they'll have fundraising teams that they want to be able to do as well.
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Steve Tomkinson
You know, and that the, I suppose what we're trying to do a bit like the commercial model is so warm transfer over to that fundraiser that's gonna convert. And so it's that kind of scenario you're looking looking at supporting really.
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Sean Bussell
Yeah, and I say the chatbot can can warm them up a little bit and give them some intro into the subject matter, but then you wanna get them over to the humans, talk about the house and wives and and you know, I say convert that person. And the important thing I can said was that doesn't matter if that was done on the website or whether they saw something on Facebook and they started a conversation with you.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
Whether they went on your website, it's a chat to us and it was a WhatsApp number that you text that you you chat box can always be that I don't wanna use the term first line of defense but also the you know the opener for that conversation to either qualify in or qualify out that individual and get them to a place where the chatbot can send them over.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, I suppose there's then a lot of the opportunity to sign posting it around, so if they're volunteers or they want to do a volunteer kind of Virginia because that's another important part for the charities as well, isn't it? You know, then you can lead them to the right content and how you can volunteer for us and all that type of stuff equally with the handoff, if that's important, you know? But. But yeah, you could have that.
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Sean Bussell
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
That, that same kind of journey for those individuals as well.
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Sean Bussell
Exactly. And then that can go through to the right human to deal with that. So if you know, volunteering and fundraising are two separate elements, most likely in, in, in all charities.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
So if you'll if you're looking for volunteering opportunities, you can find out or are looking for people to do telephone befriending because it's an older person's charity. Ohh, great. You know, we're desperate for people. We'd love. You know, you can commit as much or as little time as you like. Would you like to speak to Michael about volunteering and how you can get involved? And again, the same all the same idea, just about warming people up to a point where it's nice to hand them off, but it's not the same barrier.
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Sean Bussell
As just plonking a live chat when your website and going up.
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Sean Bussell
Speak to us now and you go. I don't really know anything about it yet. And you kind of I don't wanna commit my name and email address to this live chat. Before you know I've I've found out a little bit of stuff for myself. And then I'm a little bit more comfortable to go. Ohh yeah. OK, let's speak to Michael then about volunteering and.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
And that's a true warming up. So I suppose at that point then the conversion rate to the live chat person to the human that's actually got the conversations going to be quite significant because they've already done some of qualifying questions or they've they've seen some of the information like we're saying about this complicated lead Gen journey where people go around and there's something there they need to know. You know, how much money goes to at admin in your organization, how much gets to the end.
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Steve Tomkinson
And kind of recipients of the of the charity has help. You know that is, you know, questions like that, things that you you need to get done before people are willing to donate you know.
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Sean Bussell
They removed it? Yeah. They removed the barriers because it's frictionless way to go in and just also chat about how you funded or, you know, all those sorts of questions where you trustees and, you know, those sorts of questions that could be barriers to you getting involved. And it could even be carbon neutral, for example, if you all those sorts of questions that might be. I'm not sure if this is the right charity for me, but I've got some questions and that might be a little bit awkward to ask a human about that I don't want to start talking about money and stuff. Now it's just as.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
That's all put so that could be the situation, but the the other thing that I was gonna mention here is when you do get handed over to a human that that agent can see all the history of the conversation anyway, so they can see that you were looking at skydive and over here then you have the swimming around in the volunteering section. So it just means that that employee, if you like, is far more informed about what this individual is interested in. And the other important part of that.
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Sean Bussell
Is that for each of these subject matters that we could drop and attribute on that individual. So even if it took, if even if it took Steve Tomkinson two months of just dipping in and finding out a little bit more about the charity before you got to that point where I actually I am kind of ready to speak to someone about this, then we'll know enough about you in the background to go Steve is looking at skydiving. Previously Steve is looking at you know fundraising previously Steve is looking at donating previously. So again we've got a little bit of a story about you.
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Sean Bussell
That that helps inform the conversation and then just removes a lot of the the, the human. Then going, I'll Steve, what are you interested in, you know and you have to tell that whole thing all over again. You can't have put on my details in again really about this.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah. And. And the suppose also from that perspective, the agent then can you know, they'll know that they're interested in events not in just maybe a direct debit kind of donation journey, because that's not what they've looked at at all. It's, you know, they're an active individual, this kind of shape. So you go, do you want to talk to us about some events we've got coming up you would you like to, you know, go down that journey? And that's the probably gonna convert really well. So it's proper proper warm transfer.
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Sean Bussell
So just.
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Steve Tomkinson
Even though they've come back, like at a later date, because we still know who they are and that we've got an idea of what they are, their journey was when they can visit us last time.
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Sean Bussell
And from the member of public point of view, that again, they're not having the start that conversation from scratch within the bot that, you know. Ohh yeah, I was looking at skydiving when I was last on this website three weeks ago. Ohh yeah. I should find out a little bit more about that. I'm still interested. I've just got tied up something else and got busy. So yeah, those are all the important points, but something that we haven't mentioned as yet as interjecting in the conversation. So everything that we've mentioned so far is about the user initiating the.
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Steve Tomkinson
The.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Alright.
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Sean Bussell
The live channel pressing the Click to dial or whatever, but also what you can do is you can have as a charity or or a business is have your people watching the live chat. Sorry the the conversation as it unfolds in the background and if you see that you know this this Steve Chaps looking a bit keen he's looking at skydiving. He's looked at running, he's looked at The Walking events. I might just jump in here and just see if I can capture more you know in the moment and again it doesn't have to be used and shared.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
Just type in. Hey, Steve, it's Sean from the office is you know something we can talk about because you see looking at the skydiving and you'll go. Yeah. Actually, I was kind of thinking about doing this with some friends, like, how much, what's the minimum I have to raise and then we're straight into it, you know, so you can interject in the conversations. Then again, from the organizations perspective, it doesn't matter if she's talking to us on the website. Doesn't matter. She's talking to us on Facebook, WhatsApp, whatever. For me, it's all the same because I'm just in the chat box.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, yeah.
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Sean Bussell
Back end platform. Looking at these conversations going in and I could just ping out my messages to people which kind of leads us onto the next point which is around broadcasted messages. So not so easy to do on the web, but you can sign people up for emails, that's fine. Emails are a bit old hat now and they just deluge of emails that everyone gets.
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Steve Tomkinson
Right.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
But if you can do this on the social channels like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, get people to opt in to a message then or opt into a newsletter, then that gives you the capability to send hyper targeted campaigns out to these people through those channels which have the most amazing open rates. So just give you some figures, Steve, across all industries. We know that if you can broadcast to someone on Facebook Messenger.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
Then your open rates are between 80 and 85%.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, right.
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Sean Bussell
And the click through rates are 50 to 55% so.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, blows everything else out of the water, isn't it?
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Sean Bussell
Yeah, I mean, it's just another world from sending emails where you go. Ohh, you know, blah blah blah. And it's this whole big spam of stuff. But what I say you can send hyper targeted campaigns to these people so you know, I know that Steve signed up for a newsletter, but I also know from this conversation now, but the chat bot that Steve interested skydiving and walking so I can send you some super hyper targeted stuff going. Hey, our skydiving club is open for a next round of fundraising.
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Sean Bussell
At blah blah airfield. Uh, you know.
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Sean Bussell
But the 26th of May, you you interested in getting involved?
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Steve Tomkinson
The uh the There's also another feature that is in the the Facebook broadcast, which is responding directly from a comment made on a post as well as an so you can actually respond with Messenger if somebody puts in a particular response. So targeted responses based on like keyword matching and stuff like that that then goes and responds to somebody. So somebody goes to that sounds great. You can go back.
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Steve Tomkinson
Ohh if you sounded if you thought it was great then we can always help you sign up if you wanna get involved. It's it's easier than you think type of thing so you can respond quite quickly without it being down to the social media managerial individual again as we keep saying, you know, these teams aren't as big as you think.
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Steve Tomkinson
Umm, there has to respond to everything that's commented, so especially like that, you know, we keep talking about skydiving. You fixated on skydive and you and.
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Sean Bussell
This is good. It's a good example.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, but, you know, he put a post up about this is, you know, our next big event that's going to be a major post. It's gonna link through to the right content. It's gonna be quite a major social post that might be pinned at the top of the feed or something like that. That one would then, you know, any comments, any stuff that's that's made on that. Then the chat bot can actually respond to those people, you know, which is massively powerful to warm them up and get them in the loop, get them interested.
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Sean Bussell
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
So yeah, so most people refer to this as community management, where you do a social media post and then obviously someone's got pick through the the comments.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
To you know, to to, you know, say how you know, thanks for your comment, Jane. We'd love to see you on our next skydiving event, you know, but like, you're alluding to that, it's that you could automate that. So you set up the chatbot to go, right. You pick through that chat bot and if you see the word great love to interesting, you know, come up with a list of words, you know, a flame emoji, whatever. Then you could broadcast back to that person.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
To say hey, thanks for your thanks for your comment. We'd love to find out more about your, you know what you'd like to do skydiving wise. So again.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, just DM them. Yeah. So your DM in them on that straight from that post and just going, you know, here's a here's a message personal to you could get you in the loop of going, you know, get involved start to get involved journey on the chat bot and they can go and find a bit more out do all the things that we've just talked about but they haven't left their social media yet they're still in Facebook.
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Sean Bussell
Yeah. So, I mean, there are some Facebook rules from a user experience perspective that you have to adhere to. But essentially if someone communicates with your chat bot then that sort of gives you 24 hours to to ping them a message outside of, you know, the usual chat if they. If they spoke to yesterday, you could ping them a message the following day that says, hey, you know, did you did you find out everything you were looking to find out yesterday? Ohe. Yes. No, sorry. I I was interested, but.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
00:16:47.540 --> 00:16:47.740
Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
00:16:59.850 --> 00:17:00.110
Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Sean Bussell
You know, then someone rang me and I got distracted. And you know this, this is what happens in life. And so there's a nice way to bring people back online before you before you lose them. And then it's, you know, weeks or weeks or months before they, you know, get a chance to pick it back up again because that is that is just what what happens in life.
00:17:07.120 --> 00:17:07.380
Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, yeah, I know. It's really well. That sounds really good. UM, I think that's probably covered quite a lot of that stuff. I mean there's loads of personalization within that for every charity. They're all, everybody has their different approaches and charities. Some are event driven like we've been talking about. Some are more donation journeys. But you know, I suppose that's the point is that this is all a bespoke space to respond and be really personal to your audience. You know, even if you've got multiple audiences within your your own.
00:17:45.420 --> 00:17:45.640
Sean Bussell
The.
00:17:53.370 --> 00:17:59.480
Steve Tomkinson
You know, donation journeys, you know that people have more than one route to to get people to.
00:18:00.660 --> 00:18:02.030
Steve Tomkinson
Help them fundraise and stuff.
00:18:02.690 --> 00:18:05.060
Sean Bussell
It all comes back to some baseline facts.
00:18:05.820 --> 00:18:26.010
Sean Bussell
Realistically, and that is that browsing habits have changed so people can't be bothered to go pages and pages deep into your website to find out the information those search files on websites are absolutely a waste of time. There's stuff that comes back just mostly not relevant. So spending more effort the.
00:18:09.550 --> 00:18:09.810
Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
00:18:15.700 --> 00:18:16.000
Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
00:18:19.580 --> 00:18:19.810
Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
00:18:26.840 --> 00:18:42.800
Sean Bussell
Chatbots provide immediate responses to inbound enquiries. So again, from a user experience, it's really positive because you've asked a question and you've immediately been drilled down to the information that you were after from the author had a question answered that you were concerned about.
00:18:29.640 --> 00:18:29.890
Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
00:18:43.300 --> 00:19:11.210
Sean Bussell
And and this can happen 24/7, so it doesn't matter if I'm interested in finding out about skydiving at 11:00 o'clock at night, I can go in and get that information, get my response, and if I if I wanna take it further, then I can still just leave my details and then from my from my user experience perspective, I'm thinking great. I've done my bit it's over to them now, they're gonna come back to me with the info that I was the additional info that I needed that maybe was over and above what the chat box told me.
00:18:46.830 --> 00:18:47.130
Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:07.330
Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
00:19:11.930 --> 00:19:39.200
Steve Tomkinson
Absolutely. Well, thanks very much for that, Sean and our our chat chatbot for charities expert in the business. So thank you very much and I hope everybody found that really interesting and you know as always, if you've got a subject that you want us to discuss or you've got some sort of particular challenge that you're trying to achieve within your business that they're automation or conversation automation might be of interest.
00:19:14.770 --> 00:19:15.350
Sean Bussell
No worries.
00:19:39.400 --> 00:19:44.390
Steve Tomkinson
Then you know, just get in touch and and let us know what you think. But thanks very much.
00:19:44.560 --> 00:19:46.490
Sean Bussell
There's stuff. Thank you. Bye bye.
00:19:45.570 --> 00:19:47.330
Steve Tomkinson
Alright, cheerio. Bye now.