Customer vs. staff

Customer vs. staff

In a properly designed AMS, when the customer goes online to your website to do business with you (e.g., join, renew, register for an event, buy a product), the website is interacting directly with the AMS. In other words, any data changes being made by the customer are going directly to the database with no staff intervention required. All modern AMSes work this way.

Because the database is being used by both staff and customers, there is an inherent tension for system design. On the one hand, the customer needs a very simple interface that allows her to quickly and easily take care of the business at hand. On the other hand, staff needs to have complete and total access to all data to manage any type of scenario that arises.

One trap that many associations fall into is trying to design the customer interface to manage as many scenarios (exceptions) as possible. This is a mistake. The customer interface should manage the most common interactions that occur and should make that process as efficient and simple ("idiot-proof") as possible. Anything that is exceptional should be managed by staff.

This is a great place to apply the 80/20 rule. Your customer interface should be able to manage 80% of the interactions and the remaining 20% is managed with staff assistance.

So look at your customer interface and ask yourself: Is it fast and easy to use? Have we tried to accommodate too many exceptions? Make the process for the customer as easy as possible and let staff manage all the hard stuff!

Wes's Wednesday Wisdom Archives

Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

May 31, 2023

Do the benefits outweigh the risks? As the economist Thomas Sowell points out, there are …

Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Read More »

Painting the Bridge

May 24, 2023

Painting the Bridge According to this article, the Golden Gate Bridge is painted continuously year-round. …

Painting the Bridge Read More »

Maintenance isn’t sexy

May 17, 2023

Maintenance isn’t sexy I remember reading once long ago that one of the reasons our …

Maintenance isn’t sexy Read More »

“Will I still have a job when this is done?”

May 10, 2023

“Will I still have a job when this is done? While working with a client …

“Will I still have a job when this is done?” Read More »

Evolution, not revolution

May 3, 2023

Evolution, not revolution I don’t recall where I first heard it many decades ago, but …

Evolution, not revolution Read More »

The power of the users’ group

April 26, 2023

The power of the users’ group Recently in an online users group forum for an …

The power of the users’ group Read More »

Who is your data evangelist?

April 19, 2023

Who is your data evangelist? I was recently talking with a client of mine about …

Who is your data evangelist? Read More »

Who is your data evangelist?

April 19, 2023

Who is your data evangelist? I was recently talking with a client of mine about …

Who is your data evangelist? Read More »

Ratio of Data to Errors

April 12, 2023

Ratio of Data to Errors One of the elements of a good data governance plan …

Ratio of Data to Errors Read More »

Back to basics

April 5, 2023

Back to basics Over the past couple of years I’ve noticed that some AMS vendors …

Back to basics Read More »

Scroll to Top