Data Science in the water sector – How to create behavioural change

Data Science in the water sector – How to create behavioural change

Engaging customers in an industry without direct competition can be a difficult conundrum – how do you effectively engage your customers in your services, and drive behaviour change to meet water efficiency goals?

Recently, CACI held a roundtable for the water sector to dive into the approaches that have been taken to understand customers, personalise communications and ultimately drive the behaviour change needed to keep down demand.

CACI Data and the Benefit for Customer Insight – Penny Walton, United Utilities

United Utilities has been on a journey to better understand its customers and to ensure that when interacting with them, this communication is through the right channels with the right messages.

In order to achieve this, CACI has created a bespoke segmentation that uses CACI’s household level demographic data in combination with United Utilities’ transactional data to segment the United Utilities customers into one of eight segments. The primary focus of this was to meet customer requirements, improve communications, and focus resources through considering ‘how do we want customers to feel and behave when we interact with them’.

The segmentation has been used throughout the business to drive improvements in communication with customers, ensuring that these are delivered through the channels that the customers prefer, and creating a better quality of communication. This has been used effectively across billing, priority services, metering, switching to digital, and water efficiency.

Having this approach in place during Covid has been vital as it’s ensured targeted communications to reach the right customers through the right channels and fundamentally it has given United Utilities the ability to reach out to customers with lower affordability with bespoke messaging that is designed to resonate with the different segments.

The customer segmentation now frames every aspect that is looked at when considering communicating with customers.

Driving behavioural change with actionable insight – Ed Sewell, Data Strategy Partner at CACI

When considering an example outside of the water sector, Change4Life is an excellent example of creating behavioural change through actionable insight. It has been incredibly successful at driving behaviour change in hard to reach groups and has now been running for 11 years.

Through creating highly engaging and personalised messages, the government was able to reach high risk groups and, all-importantly, to keep them engaged overtime to really reach the key goals of the programme.

There were a number of different campaigns that came out of the programme, some of which have been highly memorable such as ‘Couch to 5k’, and all of which were based from segmentation and underlying data that drove the personalisation and engagement.

Whilst this is an example of a highly effective government led behaviour change strategy, these techniques and approach can be applied to the water sector to increase customer engagement and drive behaviour change around water efficiency and responsibility.

Key Takeaways

The most resounding point shared during the discussion was the power of adding data and data science to customer insights and understanding, as it supports creating more effective communication, drives down costs, and creates better outcomes.

Here are some of the key insights and takeaways that were shared:

  • Significant uptakes have been seen in affordability programmes due to reaching the right customers
  • Blending customer transactional data, complaints data, and demographic data is key to creating actionable insights
  • Being able to focus on those that are interested in engaging with water efficiency and being able to amend messaging for the different types of customers (whether they are more interested in environment, cost, savings, etc.) makes a big difference in driving change
  • It’s about getting the right messages to the right people
  • This approach supports driving down operational costs as majority of customers move digital
  • Ultimately, more personalised content drives better outcomes
  • Interest in the environment and concern around climate change is at the highest yet so now is a key time to increase focus on water efficiency
  • Ensuring that there are no ethical issues in the build of the segmentation or the resulting communications

What’s Next

Look out for our next roundtable in the series which will be focussed on the power of population projections for the water sector.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch should you want to hear more!

Is your digital marketing team structured for success?

Is your digital marketing team structured for success?

To create real marketing magic, you need an extraordinary alchemy of people, process and technology

Agility, flexibility, responsiveness… you’re building them all into your digital marketing strategy right now. Everyone knows how important it is to be ready to react to coming trends and sudden consumer and competitor movements in this unpredictable, digital-first marketplace.

Devising the strategy and maintaining continuous oversight of performance metrics so you know when you need to change, is one thing. Delivering real-time optimisation of your campaigns to fulfil the strategy and respond to trends is quite another.

Your resources aren’t as fickle as your consumers

To get the job done, you depend on your talented people and capable systems. These resources are substantial, not ephemeral. You can’t just ditch and switch them in an instant. Unless you have unlimited budget, you can’t keep adding more people to your team with the exact digital or creative skills you need for a campaign moment. You can’t retrain your people in a snap to meet a sudden spike in demand for certain tasks.

There’s less of an ethical issue with hiring and firing your inanimate technology solutions, but it still costs money to make changes and there’s risk inherent in messing with established connections and procedures. You need to keep your campaigns and customer intelligence current and scaling with demand, but you don’t want to break anything, nor find your campaign delivery capability is compromised during upgrades or development projects.

Outsourcing is not such a dirty word these days

This is why outsourcing has come back into favour as a means of powering the digital marketing function in leading consumer organisations. Before, it was seen as a strength to have all your resources in-house, from IT and systems hardware to expert staff. That way you could be sure of guarding talented people and technology know-how for competitive advantage. But now, the pace of innovation in marketing technology and the accelerated digital-first consumer market together make using on-demand, specialist resources a very attractive solution.

It’s the same argument that’s driving the mass adoption of cloud technology and digital services, as opposed to on-premises hardware and wholly-owned software solutions. By paying for what you need when you need it and dispensing with the burden of long-term ownership, you create freedom to adapt and focus on what you can uniquely deliver for your customers.

But let’s get back to digital customer engagement. Structuring your marketing team, processes, data and technology to meet demand is now the biggest differentiator for digital consumer marketeers. Agility comes from having the specialist expertise you need on tap. Maintain a talented team in-house, with strong core delivery, management and strategic skills. Then supplement them with third party digital marketing experts who have experience and best practice knowledge from across the market. Then you have that magical combination of stability and agility you need to support your campaign delivery.

The dream team and the dream tech are what we call co-managed services

If you choose the right partner, you’ll get to exploit learning from their cross-sector experience. You’ll get leading-edge technology advice and the ability to implant project teams to develop, augment, connect and replace crucial elements of your data and insight ecosystem and martech stack. You’ll get insights into the latest smart approaches to customer insight, customer experience optimisation and creative execution.

You can pull in account managers, marketing and database specialists, SCV optimisers, data planners and campaign managers to step in and deliver whatever you need… and step out when they’re done, with no ongoing overhead. They can upweight your core resources to handle essential management and operations or tackle a specific requirement or project that’s outside the day-to-day.

What’s the downside? You might create a management headache in trying to co-ordinate a myriad of individual or niche contributors to deliver all this specialist input. That’s why we advocate choosing a single, trusted, expert partner with a strong and proven talent bench of experts right across the board, and an obsession with the latest developments in global digital marketing. With a range of clients on board, such a partner can afford to nurture specialist talent in every area and make them immediately available as needed.

Co-managed services for digital customer engagement could be the alchemy you need to deliver exceptional, powerful, customer marketing magic. In a very fast changing environment, it’s a model that works, if you can find the perfect partner.

Of course, you can see where we’re going with this. We’re big believers in co-managed services for digital marketing. And we’ve set ourselves up to offer a unique breadth of vendor-agnostic expertise, from a talented team of leading digital marketers. If you’d like to explore how the CACI team could augment your people, process and digital resource in one or more areas through managed services, please get in touch.

Your moment of digital marketing truth

Your moment of digital marketing truth

It’s time to cast a critical eye over your activities in four key strategy areas, to make sure you’re set up for sustainable success.

Hands up if you’ve heard the phrase “the world has changed” too many times lately for it to mean anything any more. Yep, same. The world is always changing. It’s not the change itself that’s remarkable, it’s the speed of change lately that’s shaken everything up. Consumers have formed and moved on from one preference to another, acquiring skills and forming opinions super-rapidly in challenging times. Innovative technology, apps and platforms have been hurled into the uncharted waters of this urgent demand. As marketers, we’ve all acted and reacted to deliver the best digital experiences we could lay our hands on.

But with the best will in the world, not every decision has been a good or sustainable one. Chances are, your digital marketing has taken some big leaps forward to meet short-term opportunities, but there will have been some misses as well as hits. As consumers begin to resume more recognisably normal lives, now’s the time to regroup.

We’re now working with many clients to take stock of current reality and to help them sense-check and develop their marketing and customer experience strategy for what lies ahead. If you’re ready to do the same, here are the four key strategy areas we recommend you focus on, to maintain and grow your market share by providing valued customer experiences that capture the zeitgeist.

KPIs

Take a good look at your KPIs and consider how you’re identifying success in your channels and marketing mix. Is everything connected or are people creating campaigns in silos, to meet conflicting or separate targets? You need a coherent strategy that embraces all your channels and customer requirements.

Messaging

How much is your messaging driven by a direct understanding of customer needs, as revealed by behavioural, demographic and research data? If you’ve been heavy on batch and push messaging to cover all the bases in a volatile market, it’s time to make a change to a more targeted, responsive and segmented approach.

Customer journeys

From acquisition and engagement to lapsed customers and off-boarding, you need journeys that address every life stage for your brand. We recommend developing a roadmap for each customer journey, working from identified customer requirements to define the technology, data structures and skills you need to create and deliver the right experiences.

Contact strategy

Take a look at how you’re using channels and your range of content. Make sure you’re engaging with customers at each stage of their journeys on key dates and at key points, providing relevant, personalised experiences, across all channels they engage with, when they engage with them.

Resetting your strategy now is vital: just look around at what competitors are doing. Everyone’s sharpening up their act, but budgets are tighter for most brands and businesses. Taking risks is not high on the boardroom agenda in a period of economic uncertainty. But ROI and growth are still top of the agenda, as markets emerge from survival mode and leaders adopt a competitive approach to recovery.

Digital marketers need to use assets and resources as effectively as they can. There’s a great opportunity in a more digital-first consumer market, but everyone is chasing their share of it. Trying to get back on track by resuming your pre-2020 plans won’t work. That’s why a strategy review is key – to make sure your next tranche of digital marketing campaigns and tactics are well-conceived and executed, to meet current customer needs in these interesting times.

If you’d like to move quickly and decisively with a strategy review and update, our customer engagement strategy and consulting team is here to help. We have 25+ years’ experience working with leading consumer marketing brands. We know the markets, the data, the tools and the tech – we can help you recalibrate with confidence and make changes rapidly and effectively to level up your customer experiences.

 

5 lessons from the pandemic about the value of Housing Association data

WHAT HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS HAVE LEARNED THAT’S ALREADY CHANGING THE FUTURE FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES

The extreme situation created by the Covid pandemic brought the value of data into the spotlight for Housing Associations, as they strove to support tenants and identify priority needs under lockdown conditions, at a time when face to face interaction was difficult or impossible.

As lockdown conditions ease, Housing Associations are considering what they’ve learned in these extremely challenging times and how it will influence their future strategy and operations.

The Covid-19 situation surfaced urgent needs and opportunities for many Housing Associations. Teams worked tirelessly to identify and support vulnerable residents and to maintain services while adhering to infection control guidelines. Planning and delivery would have been easier with clear and accessible information about the particular characteristics of properties and the needs of their inhabitants.

Working with Housing Associations throughout and beyond the pandemic, our sector experts have summarised five key factors that will influence the coming demand for housing and related services. Now’s the time to review your data strategy, to make sure your organisation has the information it needs in order to assess, monitor, and meet residents’ current needs and to model, predict and plan for ongoing and future needs in the post-pandemic landscape.

Digitalisation of services

Face-to-face and direct contact has traditionally been a core route to delivering services and providing information and engagement with Housing Association residents. In lockdown, this became very difficult. Many residents are both willing and able to engage through online media: some Housing Associations were able to offer online or mobile communication and services to replace in-person support at least temporarily. For example, holding consultations over mobile phone video-calling services like WhatsApp or Zoom, or allowing fault reporting via email or text-based services.

Building a robust and permanent digital service platform has emerged as a priority for many Housing Associations. It may have been a potential future project before: the pandemic has proved the demand and need. To offer a full range of tenant information and services online in the most efficient way, Housing Associations need complete and accurate data about the people they serve and the properties they live in. With this, they can make sure they offer the right digital support to the people who need it, providing a tailored experience for their household.

Self-help

Offering a digital service platform can improve resident experiences beyond basic fault reporting, bill paying and account information checking. If your Housing Association has accurate information about the systems and appliances installed in every property, you can go further, giving people online advice and trouble-shooting guides for common problems, for example re-igniting a boiler’s pilot light. This can be empowering and reassuring for residents who are able and willing to help themselves, removing the frustration of a long wait for support or not being able to report a problem by phone out of hours.

You can offer up-to-date online resources with advice on relevant topics like money management, community support networks and even job opportunities. In the pandemic, FAQs about coronavirus restrictions helped residents adapt to different ways of operating and understand how to access support and services.

Digital exclusion

Digital service delivery is empowering and meets expectations for many housing association residents who are digitally capable. But it cannot meet everyone’s needs. Some residents are digitally excluded, because they don’t have smartphones or other connected technology, or because they aren’t able to use it with confidence.

Knowing who cannot access digital services is crucial for a modern Housing Association. By collecting and recording this information accurately, you can make evidence-based decisions about the value and likely uptake of digital services. Most importantly, you can ensure that those who can’t use them have alternative channels of support. Face to face and paper-based communication are essential for some residents: if you know who they are, you can focus your time and resources on the people who need traditional support.

Vulnerability

With many residents confined to their homes during the lockdown, Housing Associations sought to make sure that everyone had the information and assistance they needed. With a complete data record for every household, it’s easier to identify residents who may have particular health or accessibility needs.

Beyond lockdown, this kind of information is very valuable for prioritising repairs and services to vulnerable residents. It also helps housing associations to ensure that they continue to provide accommodation with all the facilities that may be needed by a person with disabilities or particular needs.

This is sensitive data: it’s important that residents understand why you’re asking them to provide it. If you can explain clearly the benefits to them of sharing personal and health information, they are more likely to provide it accurately.

Economic hardship

In your Housing Association’s catchment, major employers can have a big impact on prosperity and hardship amongst residents. The post-pandemic economy is volatile and is likely to influence changes in employment and income for your householders. If you hold employment and financial data about your residents, you can be proactive in making sure their rents are affordable and anticipating issues that may arise from redundancy or reduced pay.

Third-party income and lifestyle data can help you identify trends in your area that may affect current and future tenants. This can also influence your recommendations to developers and housebuilders about the type and affordability of the housing stock that’s being built for the future.

All these types of data can help Housing Associations deliver better services for residents, responding more quickly and efficiently and planning for the future based on reliable evidence. The challenge is making sure you collect consistent and accurate data and that it’s shared securely within the organisation, so everyone has a clear and consistent picture for decision-making and prioritisation.

If you’d like to know more about developing a data strategy that supports your Housing Association objectives and improves residents’ experiences, download our free white paper “Insight for building flourishing communities”.

5 practical tips to get the best value from your campaign migration project

5 practical tips to get the best value from your campaign migration project

Minimise risks and maximise ROI with our best practice round-up

Campaign delivery is critical to your organisation’s competitiveness and growth. In challenging and volatile market conditions, being able to monitor and adapt campaigns in real time to meet changing customer wants and needs is a core skill for successful marketing.

It’s no surprise that many businesses are looking to invest in improved campaign management platforms. Technology has evolved rapidly in the past few years: exploiting new and sophisticated multi-channel, high volume solutions for customer retention, development and acquisition is a priority for marketing and customer experience leaders.

Choosing a campaigning platform with the features and headroom your organisation needs is just the start. The ROI and competitive advantage you stand to gain will only be as good as the migration process.

Many organisations find campaign migration more challenging than they expect. Our expert team has five top tips to help you avoid common pitfalls and tackle your platform migration project with the same rigour as your platform selection business case:

  1. Include the migration project in your business case to ensure that you can afford to deploy effectively and rapidly. A great campaign platform can make all the difference to customer experience, engagement and ultimately the sales bottom line. It’s a big investment and you’ll have looked carefully to find the best fit for your needs and to calculate ROI. But migrating to a new platform is not just as simple as turning off campaigns in one platform and turning them on in the new one.
  2. You’ll need strong methodology and project management to define the order of campaigns that need to be migrated and prioritise those that are business critical before moving on to the others. You’re dealing with high volumes of campaigns and data, and you need to build in IP warming and parallel running of old and new platforms during this phase. Planning ahead is crucial.
  3. Review existing campaigns being sent out and evaluate whether they could be improved and optimised. It clearly makes sense to do this as part of the migration, rather than doing a direct lift and shift. Many organisations struggle to do it in practice because of resource constraints. Your team needs to maintain business as usual during the migration. If you can access additional resources or third-party support, your team can provide focused input to campaign improvement work through workshops, while the migration project team manages and delivers the actions.
  4. Training is key to ensure a smooth transition and quick adoption of a new platform. Your team may need to adopt new processes and learn new skills. It’s important that they are confident using all the features and capabilities of the new solution if you’re to achieve maximum impact and hit your ROI goals. Build user confidence and avoid stress by providing formal training and making responsive, expert support available to answer questions and resolve issues once the platform is live.
  5. Access specialist and dedicated resource to make it happen as quickly as possible and without interruption. In most organisations, everyone’s working to capacity, so finding extra time and resource to manage a major migration project is difficult. It’s not realistic to expect your team to handle it on top of business as usual. Exploit the experience of platform migration specialists: their proven methodology and expertise is worth paying for to avoid the risk of delays or campaign interruptions undermining the value and impact of your campaign platform investment.

If you’d like to keep your campaigns flowing and hit the ground running with your new campaign platform, get your free copy of The CACI three-step guide to successful campaign migration. In it, our specialist Campaign Operations team shares insights from our proven process, to help you plan an effective transition.

With long experience supporting leading organisations through efficient and low-risk campaign migration projects, we can shoulder the burden of planning and managing an optimised transition to your new platform, to achieve rapid value from your investment. Talk to us if you’d like to find out how we can help.

What can the water sector learn from other sectors to improve customer experience?

What can the water sector learn from other sectors to improve customer experience?

Identity Resolution, customer segmentation, and real-time multi-channel communication tools have the ability to surprise and delight water customers in the UK. What can be learnt from the success of other sectors?

The dreaded “Beast from the East” of February and March 2018 left over 200,000 consumers in England and Wales with little or no water and resulted in OFWAT releasing their “Out in the Cold” report – measures and requirements to prevent something like this from ever happening again.

Then, Covid hit. When whispers of a distant virus first circulated in the UK, I don’t think anyone truly anticipated just how serious it would be. Over a year into it, everyone is still trying to make sense of the changing consumer habits and how household and non-household consumption will change moving forward. Regardless of anyone’s opinions on how the future might look, one thing is clear – demand is high.

If you’re not familiar with the nuances of demand forecasting or operations for the water sector, you may be thinking “well of course demand is high, everyone is at home”. However, the consequences of this are much more far reaching – from consumers completely changing peak usage as a result of later waking times due to mass non-commuting, to children not being at school during an unseasonably hot Spring in 2020, causing paddling pools to be filled across the nation. This caused a big headache for many departments within the water sector – such as diverting water supplies to meet demand for those at the extremes of reservoir distance, adjusting pressure times for household consumption, and massive concerns about the size of pipes being too small to deliver the demand of water at peak times.

One thing was clear, water companies needed to ask consumers to consider how much water they were using. Nothing as extreme as a hose pipe ban was required (yet)…but considering not filling up your paddling pool every day, not having a bath every evening because you’re in lockdown or reconsidering whether the car needs to be washed every. single. day.

CACI is in the fortuitous position where we work across multiple sectors with the sole focus of enabling organisations to “do amazing things with data”. So, what can the water sector learn from other sectors to enhance their communication with their own customers – not only improving engagement, but ensuring consumers are contacted in channels that appeal to them.

If I was the Director of Customer Engagement at a water company, what would I do?

By following the four below points you’ll be enabling your organisation to trust that you’re speaking to the right customer, with messages that resonate with them, via the right channel.

MAKE SURE MY CUSTOMER DATA IS IN ORDER

If I look at myself, I have multiple email addresses, my surname is frequently misspelt (thanks Rob Brydon), I have two mobile phones with different numbers, even my postal address frequently appears incorrect on certain address look-up providers, which means I’m sometimes on edge as to which of the three incorrect addresses my parcel will be sent to (thank god I live in a little village with a local postie)! Data can get messy. With customer data stored in disparate databases, customer engagement/customer services are often the teams that get the brunt of customer frustration.

Typically, you’ll find a customer who’s disgruntled needing to phone a call centre to complain, to then be asked for their non-sensical account number (which often needs to be found on a letter or via an online account – a whole other kettle of fish trying to log in there), to then be directed to a different team, to then be put on hold. It’s a sure way to reduce C-SAT scores and irritate your customers – probably escalating that complaint and making it harder to resolve.

Now, imagine a world where you can link all customer data and ensure that it’s correct. So, if a customer phones into a call centre with a complaint you’re able to quickly and effectively go to one customer record, with all their contact history. That would improve their experience immediately!

The ability to connect online and offline data in real-time already exists. So, this problem could be a distant memory. Read all about it here.

BE PREPARED IN AN EMERGENCY

If the past has shown anything, having the ability to communicate to customers in real-time across channels is vitally important. The great news? There is already tonnes of technology out there to enable you to do this. Imagine the water supply is being cut off in an area due to a burst main. Well how about if you could:

  • Immediately send out a text or email to all residents affected
  • Provide them an update once the issue has been resolved and direct them to an information hub if they need any further details
  • Send them a letter/email 7 days later apologising for the disruption and informing them of customer service information should there be any further problems.

That’s just in an emergency, imagine if you could set up customer journeys for all sorts of other reasons, e.g planned engineering works, hose pipe bans etc – rather than the typical letter consumers receive.

All this technology exists in the market already and is used very successfully for marketing campaigns. The utilities sector is pretty unique in the requirement to contact customers in these situations – why not take advantage of this powerful technology?

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE TOOLS TO COMMUNICATE THROUGH CHANNELS THAT APPEAL TO THEM

Emergency communication is one thing, but consumers are expecting you to provide them with interesting content. We’re already working with lots of water companies to understand financially vulnerable customers and providing the tools to inform them of social eligibility tariffs, for example, but a key area is understanding what channels a consumer is going to respond to, and having the campaign tools in house to deliver this content.

Customer journeys are used widely within sectors such as auto, retail and leisure – there is no reason why the water sector shouldn’t also embrace this to drive engagement (and increase the C-MEX and C-SAT scores).

David Sealey from CACI, interviewed Gareth Ballard from Braze in April last year, and it’s definitely worth a watch if you’re looking to form human connections with your customers.

MAKE SURE I REALLY UNDERSTAND MY CUSTOMERS AND THEIR NEEDS

We talk about this all the time at CACI – segmentation is our bread and butter. I can’t re-iterate enough – understanding your customers is so important. How would you feel if you received a letter asking you to stop watering your garden so much in a lockdown when you’re in the top floor flat in 30 degrees with no access to outside space? Not great.

Trying to encourage behavioural change can be supported further when we add attitudinal information to a rich demographic segmentation. Lessons can be learnt from EDF’s Smart Meter Roll Out programme, where CACI built out attitudes to understand the drivers for people to get a smart meter, and then built an integrated communication journey to encourage change.

How could this work for the water sector? Well, perhaps something like the below:

  • Creative One (Environmental Families): Content around family activities to encourage water saving.
  • Creative Two (Frugal Flat Owners): Content around the money individuals can save around the home by engaging with their water provider, e.g free toilet flushing water savers + a water meter
  • Creative Three (Nosey Neighbours): Use demand metrics to say how much water a neighbourhood is using vs another within the area – or simply provide a number of free water saving equipment delivered within the area to encourage uptake.

Does any of this resonate? I’m very happy to talk you through any of the above as part of an Art of the Possible session and bring in Subject Matter Experts to really drive forward your customer experience. Just get in touch and I can set up a 45-minute session with you today.

The future of betting and gaming

The future of betting and gaming

As online betting and gaming grows in popularity, so does the exposure.

Exposure from customer safety (or exploitation), exposure from regulators and exposure from competition. Which leads to the fundamental question

How can operators continue to grow player value whilst navigating the consistent challenges around safer gambling, fierce market competition and regulatory compliance?

We have taken on these factors and explored the challenges (both existing and future) and opportunities they present, along with providing suggestions on how they can be most effectively anticipated and managed.

To address these challenges requires a combined approach based on strategy, data and technology – incorporating cutting edge technologies including central decisioning engines, marketing attribution models, data modelling, machine learning and AI-driven recommendations.

Within our whitepaper, CACI make 4 key predictions that will have big impacts on the future of betting and gaming, and how operators can ensure they anticipate the changes to turn these into big opportunities.

Find out how Covid-19 could change the marketing landscape, what extra factors to consider in the future of responsible gambling and how central decisioning might be the answer to a progressively more complex environment.

Download ‘The Future of Betting and Gaming’ CACI whitepaper today

Understanding new supporter behaviours

Understanding new supporter behaviours

Covid has brought unprecedented changes to our day to day lives and our behaviour. This in turn is having a huge impact on the charity sector and their ability to fundraise, a vital part of their operations. Some of these key challenges that charities are facing currently are:

  • Not being able to host fundraising events
  • Loss of income from mass participation events
  • Charity shops being closed
  • Lower footfall on high streets and transport hubs
  • Economic impacts on income

At CACI we have been exploring the impact of Covid on people’s behaviour and we took a look at what this meant for charities and how they can overcome these challenges.

CHANGED PRIORITIES

One of the more unusual impacts in people’s changed behaviour is the up-turn in their priorities when engaging with brands. Whilst Covid-19 safety measures have risen to be the number one priority, regardless of demographics, this was not the only change to the ranking. With a reduction in spending resulting from lockdown, two key aspects have risen to the fore in people’s priorities:

  • Ethics of Brands
  • Sustainability/Green

This is a key factor for charities as it shows that despite the hardships that many of the population is currently facing, there is a general desire to ensure money spent is done so with ethical and sustainable brands. This is particularly key for charities that have online stores as there is clearly an appetite for this kind of spending, so it is imperative to be reaching out to supporters with this message.

FINANCIAL SITUATIONS

Consideration of changes in income and financial status is imperative, but whilst Covid is having an impact on all, the effect of this is not the same across the board.

Using CACI’s Fresco segmentation, we have been able to look at survey respondents changed financial situations. The groups that are seeing an increased disposable income tend to be some of the younger segments that are early in their careers and have been able to successfully work from home. This is a key group to look at, as they aren’t the typical audience for charities to target as they usually have low levels of disposable income.

DIGITAL ADOPTERS

With face to face fundraising coming to an abrupt stop back in March, digital channels messaging for brand awareness and fundraising initiatives became a key strategy overnight. Since lockdown was imposed, we have seen that 53% of people are now expecting to engage more online. Breaking this down further, we can see that 23% will look to make online a priority going forwards, whereas 35% will only use online over physical when absolutely essential.

What is most important to consider in these statistics, is that it is older generations, typically adverse to using digital channels, that have now become more digitally savvy and more comfortable making payments online. As a key demographic for many charities, this is a key consideration in future fundraising strategy.

THE FUTURE OF FACE TO FACE FUNDRAISING

As restrictions have been eased and the tier system has been implemented, we have seen a rise in movement in the local community – whilst people are not moving in the same way that they were before lockdown, we can see that people are moving about and interacting more in their local community. This is key to consider when planning face to face fundraising strategies as the local high street is a more powerful location than before.

DISCUSSION

One of the key themes that was discussed is the importance in using data to understand what is changing in charity audiences. Whilst there have been some obvious changes with the loss of face to face fundraising and community events being cancelled or postponed, some of the changes in supporter behaviour are more subtle and being able to understand and react to these is crucial.

Some of the other key discussion points were:

  • Many charities are seeing an increase in digital donations – it’s key to understand who these donors are an ensure their retention and more importantly to continue to engage them.
  • Older donors are getting help from younger family members to donate online.
  • Direct mail and DRTV are proving successful – people are responding to the needs of charities, but data is needed to understand who and why.
  • Using value exchange and digital campaigns to attract a younger base of new supporters.
  • At this point in the year, looking forwards is essential – what does a fundraising strategy look like in 2021 with the lingering effects of lockdown and the tier system in place?
  • Improve online retail to recoup losses from retail spaces.
  • Retention of donors will be key for stability moving forwards.
  • Some charities have already started looking at younger demographics that have more disposable income than previously and engagement strategies here.
  • An unexpected bonus is that Covid has given space for internal transformative changes to come about quickly – for example, removing the reliance on particular channels such as face to face.

WHAT’S NEXT?

If any of these points resonate, and if you’d like to understand more about how CACI can support your charity to overcome this challenging time through data, marketing technology and insight please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Look out for our next blog on how charities can find and support the new vulnerable.