Wes’s Wednesday Wisdom

Process before technology In a conversation with a client recently, I was reminded (yet again) of how important people and process are when it comes to managing data. As we discussed their technology options, the client said, “You know, even if this technology is free, it won’t do us any good if we haven’t established […]

Opting out and communication preferences Last week’s newsletter discussed the need for associations to collect mobile phone numbers for use in communications. Several readers noted that I didn’t address opt-outs. Opting out should be implicit in all our data management, but I’ll address it explicitly here. As a rule, we need to provide our members, customers,

Are you collecting mobile phone numbers? You should be. Are you collecting (and using) the mobile phone numbers of your members? If you aren’t, it might be time to consider doing it. Here’s the thing about mobile phone numbers: For a certain demographic (e.g., ME), the mobile number is sacred. Only the most important people

Spend less time on data management and more on higher value activities Data management is very often tedious work. It’s important, but it’s tedious, and can also be time-consuming. And any time staff spends on managing data is time they are not spending on higher value activities like interacting directly with members, creating new programs and

Change anything you want, except your name! This is an oldy but a goody, but since it came up with a client recently, I’ll share it again. As a rule, you should allow your members and customers to update any of their primary contact information (e.g., address, phone, etc.) online, EXCEPT for their name. Why?

If you don’t trust your vendor… When I start an AMS selection project with a client, one of the first questions I ask is: “Would you be willing to stay with your current provider if they can do what you need them to do?” In most cases, the client says “no,” because they’ve already decided

Your RFP should go to no more than five vendors! As a rule, when I send an RFP to vendors on behalf of my clients (for a new AMS, LMS, or other software product), the RFP goes out to no more than five vendors. Why only five and not 10, or 20? There are several reasons,

Be concise! I started a monthly newsletter almost 25 years ago (which I recently discontinued). And almost six years ago I started writing these “Wednesday Wisdom” missives. I’ve received more compliments about my Wednesday Wisdom in six years than I have for my monthly newsletter in nearly 25 years ago. Why? Because these missives are

A great example of a data integrity report! A couple months back I discussed the importance of data integrity reports. One of my past clients and a longtime reader, David Churchill at Grantmakers in Health, offered up this idea, which I think is fantastic and should be added to any association’s list of data integrity reports.

“If you keep doin’ what you’re doin’, you’ll keep gettin’ what you’re gettin’.” I saw this line recently (“If you keep doin’ what you’re doin’, you’ll keep gettin’ what you’re gettin’.”) and I chuckled because of how often I experience this with my clients. I’ll hear things from my clients like “Our data is really