Making Membership Entry Easier in Altru

As a former museum Visitor Services Manager and current trainer in Altru, I work with a lot of staff members in charge of membership data entry. As this is one of the most difficult processes to learn, I’m here to discuss some tips for making this process as error- and pain-free as possible.

Why do we enter all this stuff?

One of the main questions I get from front desk staff unfamiliar with the process is: Why do we have to enter all this stuff in the system? This is especially prevalent for those coming from an older system or those asked to enter data for the first time.

Basically, your ticketing system is designed to collect all the information possible about the relationship between your supporters and your organization. As some of your best supporters are members, it is imperative that we correctly track everything we can. This starts by correctly capturing their contact information so that they can receive cards, member event invites, and renewal notices. Once entered in the system, many organizations track any visits or interactions made by your members, which is why we associate member ticket sales with their records. By tracking all of this information, other departments such as marketing and development can make more informed decisions that will affect your organization’s long-term strategy.

This also means that the data you enter is extremely important. Your organization should focus on entering your data correctly: using correct spelling and capitalization, filling in all the fields required by your organization, and following correct procedures for address, phone and email types.

Information vs. Speed

Now we know a little bit more about why we have to do this data entry, but that won’t make the process any faster. I’ve worked busy days at the front desk of museums when the line snakes around the corner, and the thought of having to enter a bunch of data into the system for every new member can seem overwhelming. This is why your organization can decide on a couple of different approaches to streamline your operation. Here are the three approaches operations I most often see:

1). Front desk staff enter all information for the membership.

2). Front desk staff enter only a limited amount of info (first name, last name, address or phone), while the member fills out a form. Membership staff then enters the remaining information at a later point.

3). A combination of the two: when quiet, staff enters all fields. On busy days, staff members enter only a limited amount of information, asking the member to step a little off to the side to fill in their membership form.

This can help manage crowd flow while still maintaining a high level of customer service.

When you do start with the data entry, I always recommend that staff members search at least two or three different ways before creating a new constituent record. This is the single best way to prevent the addition of duplicate records into your system. And while you’re at it, consider quickly searching for the name of the spouse or other family member as well. This will save having to search again when you go to enter the spouse’s information.

Set clear expectations on exactly which entries are used in which circumstances. Should phone numbers go in under Home or a Primary phone type? When do we decide an email is personal, home or cell phone? With no ambiguity in the selection process, data entry becomes much easier for your staff.

During data entry, there are ways to speed up the process. First, I like to use the tab button on my keyboard to go field by field by field. This saves the time of having to move the mouse between fields each time. Altru includes a handy zip code search utility when entering address data. Without entering info in the City and State fields, click the magnifying glass next to Zip Code and search for zip. This will not only verify the zip code is correct, but also automatically fill in the selected city and state.

If you are an administrator, I would recommend changing the sort order of entries in Title, Address, Phone and Email Type. In Altru, go to Administration->Code Tables. From this area, locate the code table you wish to change, usually using the Category filter at the top of the screen. Once you have clicked the appropriate Code Table, click Edit Sort Method and change the drop down to User-Defined. Finally, click Show Lookup on the left side of the screen. This will allow you to manually reorder the entries in a more efficient manner, for example, instead of the home phone type buried halfway down the list, move it to the very top of the list for ease of use.

When entering data in these drop down lists, rather than having to manually scroll down the list, use the keyboard to type only the first letter. For example, when entering spouse information, simply hitting the S key after in the relationship type field will jump right down to those entries beginning with S.

Repetition

The best way to speed up the efficiency of your data entry is familiarity and feedback. I always recommended that my staff practice data entry as much as possible. When there are slow times, I’d run through mock transactions to get everyone used to the exact steps required for a membership, and also as a refresher of our more difficult policies and procedures. If you’re training in your live database, end users can take a transaction all the way to the final Complete button, and then hit Cancel instead, so no actual transactions will save. With repetition, users dramatically increase in speed, as they no longer need to think through every step, allowing more time to focus on the visitor. I also expected staff to know the main talking points and rules for membership programs off the top of their head, knowing they have the brochure for any additional questions that may arise.

I would make it a focus to sit with my staff and see if I could provide advice on ways to make the process faster. It may seem a little ridiculous to worry about shaving a few seconds off here and there, but when you’re doing 10 or 20 or more memberships, this time can really add up on busy days. I would also provide constructive feedback when mistakes occurred, to ensure that all of my staff members know exactly how we wanted our data to appear.

Your members are some of your most important constituents, and correctly tracking your interactions is vital to your organization’s overall strategy. By setting clear expectations for data entry, ample time for practice and familiarity, and clear feedback on results, you and your staff can make membership entry dramatically easier.