I was recently posed a question by Austin Wechter, campaign director at MindFrame, on how nonprofits and companies could utilize the experience of Patagonia Customer Service in their marketing and communication. It was such an interesting concept…. I had to write about it.

Here is what Austin experienced.

1) I was shopping for product on patagonia.com
2) I couldn’t find my size. However, a chat bubble popped up… I talked to agent… and they found one in the warehouse for me.
3) I bought, they shipped, I received, and Patagonia made me look good.
4) After the initial purchase, I received an email from Patagonia asking about my purchase.
5) I replied and wrote review. I had the ability to upload picture of me wearing product, or video, could also post review to Facebook.
6) Once my review was submitted, questions about the product were shown to see if I had any similar issues or questions.

Brilliant system isn’t it? This gives you an example of how the sales process, customer service development, and customer reviews should act and deliver. The concept is customer centric and is developed to help the customer tell a better story after the sales process is completed.

Let’s look at how this process would work through a nonprofit.

1) I was reading about an initiative at coolnonprofit.org. I couldn’t figure out which initiative to support.
2) A chat bubble popped up and donor support helped me make a decision (automated or not)
3) After I complete the online giving (information provided for mobile and email) I receive an email thanking me for my gift with links to the online community and more information.
4) The email also asks for my story on why I gave to this initiative.
5) My story is approved and posted on the CoolNonProfit Blog. Once the story is posted, I receive another email asking me to share my story with my network.
6) A few weeks later, I receive a mobile text stating that my contribution helped save 450 children in South Africa.

What is important about both the processes? They involve the customer and the donor in the sales process, ask about the experience, and respond to the individual after the purchase. On top of that… they are collecting every piece of data relating to the experience of Customer A and Donor B.

I’m pretty sure… Austin will purchase from Patagonia again and I will give to CoolNonProfit next year when funds are needed to change the world.

What are you doing to enhance your customer/donor experience?