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I think we actually enjoy being broke. We are the wealthiest people
with the best product in the most profitable market, and yet we
are keeping ourselves broke. I am afraid that I don't know how to
talk about this. I don't want to be offensive to sadhus (my
audience) but some people need haranguing to get the message. I
know we have God on our side; I know we are the only pure ones;
I know that Srila Prabhupada's books will be the Law Books for the
next ten thousand years; I know that all we have to do is chant
'Hare Krsna' and distribute books, and everything will happen automatically,
mystically. But I also know there are a few details that we have
to attend to. Srila Prabhupada once asked, 'What is the qualification
for becoming Krsna conscious? A devotee replied (sincerely), 'Sincerity,
Srila Prabhupada.' 'No!' said Srila Prabhupada, . sincerity and
intelligence.'
We have intelligent and, more importantly, committed people in
our movement. That alone is the greatest factor in building a successful
team. Corporations literally spend hundreds of thousands of dollars
to instil a spirit of commitment in their leaders and subordinates.
From top to bottom, we have people who are committed to the same
goal. So the question arises: 'Why can't we develop a secure financial
base by which we can escape from the crisis management trap and
engage in our real business - preaching, teaching, book selling,
counselling and ministering to the fallen conditioned souls?' The
answer is: 'It beats me!'
The money is there: we just have to put our hands
out and pick it up. 'When you have money in the bank, management
is easy.' Prabhupada told reporters: 'If I just sat underneath a
tree here in Juhu beach, Bombay, nobody would come to listen to
me. Therefore I have built this grand temple.' Shall I explain to
you the greatest 'get rich quick' formula for ISKCON: in America
we say, 'It don't exist!' As Henry Russo, a leading guru in the
135 billion dollar a year non profit-making sector, says 'Fundraising
is not easy'! No magic formula has ever been devised to transform
a fervent, even desperate, wish into instant results. There is a
discipline to gift development that progresses in logical order
from preparation to planning, from programme execution to control.
This sequence of orderliness is depicted in a continuum
often referred to as 'the cycle of fundraising'. Successful non
profit-making organisations are as concerned about marketing techniques
and their ability to prepare wise marketing plans as any profit-making
corporation. The non profit-making - or social purpose - organisation
must critically assess its worth and examine its mission, to determine
whether this mission is being interpreted properly through measurable
objectives and meaningful programmes and to evaluate its overall
impact on the market area. The cycle can serve as an effective instrument
to help executives of non profit-making agencies visualise the relationships
of fundraising elements. It permits them to see the sequence to
follow from preparation, or definition, of case through to the solicitation
and annual renewal of gifts. Fundraising cannot be an haphazard
impulsive action, improvised at the last moment in response to a
crisis situation: fund-raising is an exercise in discipline.
But don't lose hope folks, there is still a chance.
We are disciples and we can become disciplined. The International
Membership Ministry and the ISKCON Foundation have been formed to
teach devotees the skills and techniques of fundraising. Naveen
Krsna Dasa, the personnel of the ISKCON Foundation and myself have
studied and tested modern marketing methods such as direct mail,
telephone campaigns, capital campaigns, special events, etc. I have
complete confidence that ISKCON can succeed in a very big way. Techniques
and skills are not enough, however. First you and I must create
a paradigm shift. From where we are now, I would say it would require
a revolution in our consciousness and the way we deal with our congregation.
Based on the experience gained from my travels, and on a scale of
one to ten, I would have to rate most of our temples at about three
for 'quality customer care'. In addition, London Soho Street temple
has recently conducted a survey, first with the devotees of the
temple and later with the congregation. To everybody's surprise,
both gave the temple a rating of three to four out of ten. Obviously
you can't preach to, or solicit funds from, a congregation when
your attitude towards them is negative or at best indifferent.
The first area where vast improvement can be made is
in our dealings with devotees. We have to learn to treat the devotees
the way we want the devotees (preachers) to treat the congregation.
For example, meet with devotees on a regular basis and discuss the
twenty-six qualities of a pure devotee; discuss problems in devotee
relationships and ways they can be solved by proper Vaisnava etiquette.
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura had a system in his math that
every brahmacari would try to render five kinds of service
to other Vaisnavas in the math every day. Therefore, think of ways
to reward devotees who are good examples. Now, some people might
think that this has nothing to do with building a congregation and
collecting and paying the bills. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! In the business
sector where people are paid to work and give service, the leaders
of the Fortune 500 companies still strive to establish good
relations with their employees: 'Motivate them, train them, care
about them and make winners out of them ... we know that if we treat
our employees correctly, they'll treat the customers right. And
if the customers are treated right, they'll come back.' (J. W. Marriott
Jr., Chairman and President, Marriott Corporation).
How to motivate devotees? In a five-year survey of workers in America,
results indicated that being able to exercise creativity, obtain
recognition for achievements and the feeling of being useful both
to the company and society were the most powerful motivating influences
in employment, with salary at number four or five. Managers and
team leaders must constantly encourage the devotees and thank them
for their service. Are these things Srila Prabhupada did? You bet
your life they are. Even in his last days in Vrindavan when a disciple
would arrive His Divine Grace, while lying on his bed, would cry
out names, saying what a nice devotee they were and how he was indebted
to them. You can perhaps understand what this did to the hearts
of everyone present. When Srila Prabhupada was asked how his disciples
would be recognised, what was the answer? They will wear dhotis?
They will have large neck beads? They will have a big halo? No!
He said they will be perfect gentlemen. Are our devotees perfect
gentlemen when guests come to the temple or when they meet a congregational
member? I don't know - you will have to be the judge of that. Soho
Street devotees concluded not. Here's the secret: please think about
it. 'What gets rewarded gets done.' Devotees will listen to what
you tell them; they will believe what you do; but they will do what
you reward.
In ISKCON at present, we only reward quantity. The number
of books sold; the total money collected; the number of Life Members
enrolled; the number of plates of prasadam distributed. We
only strive for quantity and neglect quality. However, after reading
one of those millions of books distributed, our congregation and
people in general think: 'Oh this is a nice philosophy. After following
it I wonder what kind of a person one becomes. Are they polite,
courteous and attentive to my needs or will they just ignore me
because they have something else to do at the time. Let me go to
their temple and see for myself.' So we have to reward the devotees
for what I call 'quality customer care' (the congregation, readers
of our books and visitors to our temples being our customers).
Here's another truism: people do what
gets measured. I cannot stress that point too strongly. Every important
goal needs to be accompanied with a way to keep score so that you
and your team of devotees can measure the progress towards reaching
your objectives. Additionally, keeping score and letting devotees
know how they are doing is a tremendous motivational tool. Just
like in the non-devotee world, would people enjoy playing golf,
tennis, soccer or whatever if there were no way of keeping score?
Here are some things to look for:
1. Number of congregational complaints received every week (every
temple should have a suggestion/complaint box)
2. Number of complimentary letters received every month
3. Number of square feet cleaned per day
4. Percentage of donations coming from repeat donors
5. Number of congregational devotees involved
in service
I would also suggest you follow these guidelines when attempting
to measure progress:
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Don't let anybody con you into believing that you can't measure
what they do. If what they are doing can't be measured, they
aren't contributing.
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Keep it simple. Otherwise, devotees will spend too much time
measuring, rather than pursuing, their goals.
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Measure progress toward goals achieved and not activities performed.
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Remember that it is far more important to measure group than
individual goals: team performance counts the most. We have
a tendency in ISKCON to reward the top man without considering
the team that backs him up.
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Finally, remember that the best performance measures give devotees
frequent feedback so that they can see how they are doing and
adjust their performance accordingly. Put up a highly visible
chart, poster or scoreboard and update it regularly. There are
many different ways you can reward devotees - personal thanks,
a trip to Mayapur, recognition in front of the community. I
am sure you can use your imagination.
The second area we can immediately improve is the Sunday feast.
I remember that in Los Angeles in 1970 the Sunday feast was a gala
event, and we usually made five to ten new devotees each week. Many
of those stayed to render years of devotional service. We actually
started planning the Sunday feast on Monday. Every devotee had some
duty ... from serving prasada, to watching the shoes, to
sitting with guests and preaching to them. Devotees spent all week
rehearsing plays and dramas. On Sunday, all visitors to the temple
were greeted, given a tour and preached to.
Today we go out to distribute books, preach
in colleges, etc., but when people come to our temples they often
get indifferent treatment. Reception of guests is given a low priority.
Srimad Bhagavatam 8:16:6 and 8:16:7 states that any guest
in one's house (even an enemy) should be treated royally even if
he comes unannounced. The homes where this kind of treatment is
not given are considered to be homes of jackals. Obviously some
temples are better than others, but my honest opinion is that we
have fallen a long way from the standard. Managers must organise
the training of devotees in this area and recognition should be
given for outstanding service in 'quality customer care'.
Let me leave you with a few statistics to think about regarding
what happens when someone comes to our temple and has a bad experience,
and what factors contribute to a bad experience:
1. A typical business hears from only four per cent of its dissatisfied
customers. The other ninety-six per cent just quietly go away and
ninety-one per cent will never come back. That represents a serious
loss for temples that don't know how to treat guests and a tremendous
gain for those that do.
2. A survey on 'why customers quit' found the following:
Three per cent move away
Five per cent develop other friendships
Nine per cent leave for competitive reasons
Fourteen per cent are dissatisfied with the product
Sixty-eight per cent quit because of an attitude
of indifference toward the customer by the owner, manager or an
employee
3. A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to ten people
about his problem. One in five will tell twenty. It takes twelve
positive incidents to make up for one negative incident.
4. Seven out of ten complaining customers will do business with
you again if you resolve the complaint in their favour. If you resolve
it on the spot, ninety-five per cent will do business with you again.
On average, a satisfied complainer will tell five people about the
problem and how it was satisfactorily resolved.
5. The average business spends six times more to attract new customers
than it does to keep old ones. Yet customer loyalty is, in most
cases, worth ten times the price of a single purchase.
6. Businesses having low service quality average only one per cent
return on sales and lose market share at the rate of two per cent
per year. Businesses with high service quality average twelve per
cent return on sales, gain market share at the rate of six per cent
per year and charge significantly higher prices.
Maybe we do have God on our side, maybe
devotees are pure, maybe our book distribution is powerful, but
maybe we should also use our intelligence and see how we can improve
our preaching rather than rest on our past laurels and old paradigms.
We are not the first group to try to spread a spiritual idea: Srila
Prabhupada told us to take note of the management techniques of
the Rama Krsna Mission, Tirupati Devasthanam and the Catholic Church.
Maybe we have to take Rupa Goswami's advice - copy success and use
it in Krsna's service. Perhaps our fund-raising will be then become
'fun-raising'.
Delivered as a lecture at the Fourth European Communications
Seminar at Radhadesh, Belgium, in January 1993.
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