Collaboration is the Key to Success
Case Study: Museum of Science, Boston
THE CLIENT:
For over 180 years the Museum of Science (MOS) has evolved to meet the needs of society and has become one of Boston’s most attended cultural institutions in the process. Nearly 1.4 million people annually enjoy its vibrant programs and 700 interactive exhibits. MOS is committed to deepening the public’s relationship with science and technology by leading efforts throughout the US and abroad to redefine the roles that science centers can play. Through an amazing array of education and outreach initiatives, nearly 160,000 school children participate in field trips annually, along with another 100,000 individuals who enroll in a variety of other programs offered by MOS.
THE SCENARIO:
When Artsmarketing Services (AMS) initially approached MOS to talk about telemarketing programs back in 2005, MOS was working with another firm that handled their membership renewals and MOS was quite pleased with the relationship and the results. As the years went on MOS began to notice a decline in both member response rates and overall membership averages achieved from the telemarketing program. By late 2008, MOS’ telemarketing program was seeing sharp, downward trajectories in several areas and their vendor was not bringing forth strategies or innovations to amend the situation.
MOS determined that they needed a partner that was proactive vs. reactive. As a result the MOS sought a proposal from AMS where, aside from wanting to see growth in number of members, membership average and overall revenue, they wanted a more strategic partnership with their vendor. AMS was selected as MOS’ new telemarketing partner for the 2009-10 campaign and continues to provide telemarketing services for both membership and annual fund.
THE STRATEGY:
In order to put new life into the campaign and deliver an increase in retention rates of current members, reactive lapsed members and upgrade current members into higher levels of engagement and correct the course that MOS’ telemarketing campaigns had taken, AMS designed an approach that was more focused on the museum’s education and outreach initiatives and its impact in the community, rather than the benefits or perks associated with membership. By implementing story-based scripting to create a closer unity between the patron and organization, MOS would see a rise in both the membership average and the number of loyalty-based members through telemarketing.
In addition, AMS needed to ensure we drew upon our knowledge and experience of the membership world and presented innovative ideas to MOS in order to maximize outcomes, which included working to upgrade members in the Basic levels to the Premier levels.
Furthermore, it was key for MOS that the reporting and KPI metrics from the campaign highlighted not only cumulative results, but also much more detailed analytics so that trends within the campaign could be spotted in advance of them becoming an issue and dealt with accordingly. AMS responded by deploying our lead management system, ALCHEMY, on the campaign. In addition to reporting capabilities, ALCHEMY provided the campaign with preview dialing technology with the ability to orchestrate the leads efficiently and effectively based on caller strengths to enhance membership engagement.
“AMS reporting enables us to compare the results of the telemarketing campaign internally year after year, as well as how various segments are performing when compared to other direct marketing initiatives.”
THE RESULTS:
When the 2009-10 campaign concluded AMS generated over $395,000 for more than 3,500 members! The next year we generated more than $405,000 for over 3,600 members. By the third year of partnership, MOS realized an average membership of nearly $125 – the entry point for the Premier level membership! Over the next several years AMS continued to take a proactive approach to enrich members’ support through telemarketing by refining the script, segmenting the list to manage the conversation based on the type of membership and longevity of the member and offered various tips and advice on how to optimize the telemarketing program while complimenting MOS’ other membership initiatives. With our ninth consecutive year of partnership well underway, the cumulative results of AMS’ telemarketing program for MOS total nearly $2.5 million in revenue for 20,000 members with an overall average membership of $127!
ABOUT MOS:
MOS believes that everyone has a role to play in the world of science and technology – as learners, as future scientists or engineers, as citizens of our nation, community leaders and members of the workforce, consumers, and as stewards of our planet. As one of the world’s largest science centers MOS is ideally positioned to lead the nationwide effort to promote engineering education awareness, bringing science, technology, and mathematics alive through its exhibits, programs, and community, and national outreach. www.mos.org