Building the donor experience
Download MP3From the Norman D. Kalmin Studio at the spectacular BBG Alamo Admin Building, it's Hearts Afire, the podcast for the team at
David:BioBridge Global, where we're working every day to save and enhance lives through the healing power of human cells and tissue. I'm your host, David King, and our guest today is Ken Doyle, whose title is Manager, Donor Experience.
Ken:That's what they call me.
David:That's what they call you. Welcome to the welcome to the studio here.
Ken:Thank you, David.
David:So so tell us, first off, what does the manager of donor experience do?
Ken:What the donor experience group does is a variety of things. Whether we're managing incentives in the donor store, supporting our fixed sites, supporting our mobile drives, supporting the drives that happen inside, set up at places of faith, or businesses, or a blood drive set up for memorial, and, of course, our high schools. And the donor experience is something that we have a grasp of, but it's always ebbing and flowing in some form or fashion. So and I'll explain about that in a bit. But we're always monitoring the voice of the donor from their experience.
Ken:And the donor experience is something that not just one department provides. It's an entire company, and not just South Texas Blood and Tissue, but an entire company effort. Much like in HR land, skill performance development is not HR's responsibility. It's us as individuals, departments, and groups. My role is to, support the team, remove barriers, capture KPIs, provide some insight from the gleaning that my team and the staff that I work with glean from our donors, whether they be through compliments or complaints, the chairperson who we're rebranding as champion from the various drives that we have, and engaging with some wonderful work friends that are in the departments that work in support and in unison, like an orchestra, such as the telerecruitment group or the donor recruitment group or the the mobile staff and hospital services.
Ken:We we all work together. So my role is to do the best job I can to support with resources, mannering, addressing issues that need to be addressed for the timely fashion. Because a donor, may not want something when they express a concern or complaint, but they wanna be heard.
David:Always a good thing. So so this is a a new position, and it's sort of a new way of approaching things.
Ken:Well, as an organization, we've always had a focus on the donor and providing a good donor experience and, blessed by the fact that Adrienne and Audra and James created this function and gave faith to me, provided faith in me to work on providing focused effort so that my focus is the donor experience. And at the end of the day, the experience would be, are we doing all we can do to focus on making sure that, whatever the donor, whatever demographic, whatever, reason why someone donates, they feel fulfilled and being able to exclusively focus on that. And that again includes many areas from incentive management to, providing support to the drives that go out into the field as well as, engaging with creative, efforts that we're doing to incentivize a growth in donor base all happens, every day, and every day is different.
David:You're herding cats here, it sounds like.
Ken:Yeah. But it's fun. And everybody's working together. And, you know, one thing I feel is a blessing in the department, and in the business unit, everybody is rowing in the same direction.
David:Oh, you really need to. It's always our number one goal to increase donations every year.
Ken:Yeah. And, you know, we have donors that join us, whether they be moving from other communities or they were at another blood institution and they, moved to, South Central Texas and or in the military. So we have people joining us all the time. And we all, we also have lapse and atrophy, people moving away or people becoming, they're unable to medically to be able to provide. So there's always this ebb and flow.
Ken:We have, the our demographics within our donor population is, you know, bimodal. We have a lot of regular ongoing donors that donate all the time that have been with us for a long, long time. We have donors that donate, maybe once or twice a year, in memory of someone or we I know donors that come in, as couples in celebration of their anniversary when that happens. And high school, students are a key focus, a key focus, because high school students, become college students, then become, young professionals. And those donors, if we can teach and educate them of why donations are important, they potentially could become lifelong donors.
David:And that's kind of the idea is to get them started young and have them continue to donate.
Ken:Mhmm. You know, we recently did a survey to find out what why our Generation Give donate. And, it was really interesting and fascinating because you would think it would be like the gift card, which is definitely up there. But the students donate for the community service hours, which many high schools have as requirements. And also they wanna acquire a red cord for graduation, students who have donated in high school for at least six times can wear and don the the red robe, but, students, I was surprised that many, many, many surveys that we got back over the 100 indicated to give to my community.
Ken:And, you know, as a young person, I could put myself back when I was 17, 16. I don't I don't think I would click for my community. So there is there is a calling that our high school students are feeling above and beyond the financial incentive or to get out of school or to get cookies. They're they're placing, as a 16 or 17 year old, I wanna give back to my community and that's telltale and you're right, when not just donating, but it's our responsibility for the donor experience to educate where that unit is going and what their donation is purposed for. Because that is a resonating call to action more than just a one time gift card or community service hours.
Ken:That don't happen when you become a young adult out in the working environment. You do it from the heart.
David:So, I mean, this isn't just something where you're you're tracking things. You're tracking trends. You've got some initiatives going, some things going on, some new things coming up. Right?
Ken:Yep. Absolutely. And, you know, we're whether it be software or software modules that allow us to capture, we're we're working on, in the validation environment for a module within our HemaConnect system that's called the donor care module. And that will allow us, not just the donor experience team, but key stakeholders that engage with the donor either via phone call or in person to capture their ideas, concerns, their frustrations, their comments, their suggestions, maybe, an experience that they had that was related to something we would escalate to donor eligibility or the donor advocate nurses, which by the way shout out to those individuals who are there every day side by side, shoulder to shoulder with us helping our donors. And this donor care module will allow us to not only track in a thread, much like when you have a text thread that you don't delete on your phone, the history of the engagement so that we better know the donor, we better understand them, and also so that we can forward that correspondence to a person accountable or responsible to kind of follow-up on that particular matter.
Ken:And that replaces the individual emails or smart sheet or spreadsheet of capture, and that's that's a wonderful thing. As, as we look at the donor experience, I liken it too, and I know we'll talk about, my pet turkeys at the farm soon. When I grew up, my dad had an old AM FM radio, with like a leather case, a big tall antenna, and it crackled sometimes. And you'd really have to fine tune it in to get it. And I got one recently from Goodwill, and I have it in my feed shed.
Ken:And it's set at the same station, but sometimes, depending on the time of day or the weather, it doesn't come through, and I have to go in and I have to readjust it. And so I know the frequency of the station that I like to listen to, but I'm always adjusting it a little bit on certain days, whether it be from frequency or clouds or radio interference. So I liken the donor experience to that. So we are constantly, James Reynold and I and, team at large are constantly looking at where we are and what adjustments that we need to do. The donor care module is is 1.
Ken:We have, Yolanda Sanchez joining us very shortly who will be working on, visiting 2 fixed sites and 2 mobile sites and doing a whole bunch of metrics, KPI management that we can focus on so that we can respond. We are looking at making sure that we respond to our concerns, comments, and complaints in a timely fashion, not just for the donor, but for our staff. Because if our staff at large is working on something and they get a feedback, a positive feedback in nature, that reinforces that behavior. And if they get something that is constructive, it's it's not to chastise or to to kind of, make, shine light on an error, but it's an opportunity to correct, to be aware. Because we know from Seneca roots and, culture plus that perception is king.
Ken:And whether we think we're doing the right thing, just like with, again, the overall definition of donor experience, we think we know what the donor wants, but it changes. It ebbs and flows. And being able to monitor that, which we will be doing behaviorally more so, within the donor experience, starting, you know, now will be, will make a difference, I believe, in not only the donor experience, but from a captured hard, quantitative KPI of if donors are having a wonderful experience and they appreciate and they feel fulfilled in why they donate, they'll come back. So the return rate, again, is kind of gray, but if a donor returns, that's a good sign that beyond the wonderful things that we're doing technically from the lab and the phlebotomy activities, that we're we're approaching things right with our outreach for our texts and our emails and our registration process and our our efforts with, screening and how we engage with the donor and the chairside, behaviors and mannerisms that we approach, not just the soft skills, but how we treat people as people. When we do our donor focus groups, we've had 2 thus far, 1 in q42023, 1 in q12024.
Ken:We find that the donor wants their big need. Their big need, a big ask is we're a person and we we'd like to be treated like a person. So you ask again, what's coming new for donor experience is to educate, further educate, and maintain that we're working with wonderful people who are giving up their time, giving up their their blood, and they are, as we know, but sometimes when you're busy, you you can lose track, that they know that they're our number one. They're not they. We're not us.
Ken:We're all one team. And when our donors feel part of our mission, our vision, feel part of our calling, feel part of, you know, saving and enhancing lives through the healing power of human cells and tissues. When they feel that, not only will they become faithful donors and perpetual donors, but they'll be advocates. They'll be champions in their communities, in their places of business, their places of worship. There'll be champions at the dinner table with relatives.
Ken:And much like I shared before, when we have donors that donate in memory of lost loved ones, the community always comes out and provides support in times of crisis, and we are so blessed by that. The the experience is something that, again, is unique to everyone, but at the same time, there are some core fundamentals that we focus on. And, the donor experience team, as it's growing and as we're getting our our self settled into our key core deliverables, I think, will play a very valuable part alongside the other internal stakeholders that I work with that we work with.
David:Good to hear. Sounds like a really a good initiative, a different way of thinking about things.
Ken:Yeah. It's it's actually David, it's I truly feel it's the most purposeful thing that I can do in my life. I feel it's the the job that I've had. You know, I'm I'm not a spring chicken. I think that in my career right now, I am fulfilled.
Ken:I'm very happy. I I feel that myself and the team are really doing something extremely purposeful and helpful, using the skill sets that we have as we've grown up in life. And it's it's a wonderful thing to do when you provide someone who's giving something of themselves, their time, their blood, their double reds, their platelets, the time, the professional approach, and the respect, and the environment that they want to fulfill why they're donating and make it so that it's convenient for them. It's great. And it's beyond the donor, David.
Ken:It's the, I mentioned before, the the champions, the chairpersons for the various places of faith and businesses and even the high schools. If we can help educate those champions to best with them, collaboratively provide the environment and the infrastructure and the process for donors to donate in their respective areas, then they are ombudsman to creating a great donor experience would invite that would invite an a further participation rate as well as a a growth in donor base.
David:Alright. Well, just to pivot here a little bit. As people may have noticed, we have initiated a new feature on One BBG called pet of the week. And we've gotten the most lovely assortment of dogs and cats and we've had a lizard in the past. But I believe that Ken's submission may be the most unusual so far. So so tell us about the turkeys.
Ken:Well, we have a few acres at my brother's place and we have a variety of animals, donkeys and goats and chickens and ducks and dogs and cats and then of course, mother nature's gifts of geese and squirrels and rabbits and all of that. As we got, as we purchased replacement chickens, because again we live in an ecosystem and sometimes the raccoons and fox and the the birds, kind of dwindle our population of fowl. We we purchase occasionally ducks and chickens, and this time turkeys. So about a year ago, we decided to try turkeys and we have 3, we bought 3, live they mailed them, gray slate. And as I mentioned before, they are Uno, Dos and Tres, and they are wonderful.
Ken:And much like anything in life, you you watch TV shows where, you know, think of Grizzly Adams when you and I were growing up. A baby cub, grizzly bear, becomes a friend, you know, with Mr. Adams. When these, turkeys are tiny and you're feeding them, and I feed them every morning and I feed them every night and I spend most of my day outside gardening or taking care of the animals, they befriend you. So they they will follow me around as I'm working in the field as well as the donkeys and the goats. Everybody gets to everybody herds together.
Ken:It is amazing. It is like a cartoon where all the different animals and that you would not think would be, you know, co hanging out together do so to, to keep each other company and also to protect each other. But these turkeys are wonderful. They're we don't use any, We feed good feed in corn and grain and stuff and peas. We they're free range, and they like to gobble a lot.
Ken:They make gobble gobble noises when you whistle. I talk to them. I mean, I talk to all the animals without saying anything. We have this communication with each other back and forth. They like to be picked up.
Ken:They like to be petted. Sometimes when I'm working outside, someone will come up and I'll pet them but that's just much like any animal. People have pets of all different natures. They have a each have a personality much like every family they get into arguments. But it's just wonderful and, I they're my friends.
Ken:It's just a great experiment. All the animals are the turkeys are unique. When people drive by, it's not, unheard of for, like, 1 or 2 cars to stop in front of the house, because they see them in the middle of the lawn in the front, and people you know, are they wild? What's going on? And, yeah, we built them roosts so they could be, they sometimes roost in the trees.
Ken:Sometimes they roost. We built like a little handrail like you have going up and down the stairwell, on top of the fence posts so that they can perch up there. Every night, when I put all the chickens and ducks to coop, the turkeys roost up above, and they let me come. I pet them, give them scratches. And in the morning, when I get up early before work to, feed, they come down and they greet me.
Ken:It's just great, David.
David:So what's your background? Did you grow up on a farm or what?
Ken:Yeah? And, my family, we lived we grew up in a humble environment. I grew up in the woods, way up in the Adirondacks, where Canada, New York and Vermont meet. And so my fun was outside. We did have horses, and because we had some acres, we end up with, at one time, 9 horses, but not all, horses that you can ride and very prestigious healthy horses that that you would envision at a ranch.
Ken:We adopted many people in the North Country if their kids went off to school or they people couldn't take care of an older horse. So we had a lot of our horses that were, you know, 18, 19, 20, 21 years old, but it was it was kind of like, like a nursing home for horses, and I my brother and I took care of them. We had sheep, we had, of course, ducks, not never turkeys, and a big garden. So I I worked outside. I did a lot of hiking.
Ken:I remember climbing up to the top of the mountains, in the Adirondack Mountains, and watching the, the B-52, bombers and the A-10 Warthogs on top of the mountains hiking, I was taking care of animals. And I love that not I also personify, animals. Everyone has a name. Everyone has a unique name, like Uno, Dos, and Trace. But the ducks too, you know, you know, I had Salt and pepper and Donald and Daisy and Anna and Luna and Sunny.
Ken:Much like people, they have their own different personalities. They like their own some like certain snacks, some don't. It just it it's a family, you know, and it's and it's wonderful. I find it, decompressing. It's my outlet.
Ken:It's my, you know, people have something that they do to kind of burn off stress. For me, like this sound room, it's my quiet spot. And, you know, the animals, they can much like a cat and dog, if you have if you're in good spirits or you're kind of tired or down, they can sense that. Animals actually more so, they can sense you. And turkeys and any fowl, the ducks, the chickens, I think because they they are preyed upon a lot in the wild, they have super senses, like superhuman senses.
Ken:But for me, I love it. It makes me happy. You know, we we all were blessed with a a bonus at the end of the year, budgeted permitted for the for the company, and I used my bonus to get, to pay for a wheelbarrow. You know, so it's just everything is about outdoors and it makes me happy.
David:Excellent. Alright. Thanks for coming over.
Ken:You're welcome, David.
David:Executive producers of the Hearts Afire podcast are Jake Podjenski and Adrienne Mendoza. Our director is Angelica Sandoval, with technical assistance from Matthew Flores. The Hearts Afire logo was designed by Roberto Esquivel. If you'd like to be on the Hearts Afire podcast, if you if you're sick of listening to the East Texas twang as the host here, email us. Heartsafire@biobridgeglobal.org.
David:And thanks for listening.
