Wintouch CRM Encourages Contact with Members
An interview with Rachel Hockert on how Wintouch CRM improves services to members
Reprinted with permission from VIKING Magazine, January 2004
By Jolene Johnson
Snowbirds who summer in Wisconsin and winter in Florida are just some of the members who will appreciate the new IBM iSeries software technology at Sons of Norway. With it, the Headquarters will be able to keep better track of members' most current addresses, even if members move every six months. IT Director Rachele Hockert, a 12-year Sons of Norway employee, talks to Viking about the latest and greatest software program.
Q: You graduated from San Diego State with a degree in computer science. How long have you worked in the IT world?
A: As of January, I will have been in IT for 20 years. Before I moved here from Newport Beach in California some 13 years ago, I worked for the companies Island Pacific Systems Corp, Toko's Medical Corp, and QuestComp Corp.
Q: How excited are you about the new software at Headquarters?
A: It's great! In October, we launched a new CRM solution called Wintouch Member Management. The software will allow us to better serve our members. It'll help us to more easily communicate with all our members in North America and Norway by tracking member involvement and member interest.
Q: What is the benefit of keeping track of what members are doing in the organization?
A: For example, let's say we are having a seminar about rosemaling, and we want to tell members about it. Instead of SPAM e-mailing everybody, we can send a message just to the members who are interest in rosemaling, such as someone who took a class on this subject. Plus, we have upcoming online surveys of members' interests and online registration for events that will allow people to choose additional times when they want to be notified by the organization.
In this system, we're also able to enter other contacts – not just members – we meet at various events, such as Norsk Hostfest. This provides us an opportunity to grow our membership. We meet people interested in the event, and then we want to continue the relationship and, hopefully, get them to join.
Q: For members, what are some of the direct effects of this new program?
A: We have something called an Online Member Portal. With this secure portal, our members can now access and change their addresses, phone number and e-mail addresses online. And it will go directly into our database which will save the organization a lot of time and money.
Also, we just launched Online Member Renewal. And we're in the process of revamplin both the Financial and Foundation sections of our website. Members and non-members alike will be able to make Foundation donations and pay their renewals online with their credit card – all very safe and secure because of the AS/400 server we use.
