Last fall, all of our donors received a letter and/or email introducing myself (Danny Hutchins), Samantha Gonzalez and Jessica Ford. The Symphony hired us as Patron Services Specialists in September in an effort to provide a more personal approach to customer service for our donors. I thought I’d give you all a closer look at what we do here at the Symphony.
As YOUR Patron Services Specialists, we are happy to help with questions regarding your contributions to our Annual Fund and with any issues you may have, such as ticket exchanges or ticket donations. During the day you will find us tucked away in our cubicles working on thank you letters for our gracious donors or making phone calls in an attempt to raise money for our many programs that fall under Music Matters!. For those of you that don’t already know, Music Matters! touches the lives of more than 125,000 children and adults each year through various outreach activities including instrument lessons for middle school students, family concerts, recitals at nursing homes, homeless shelters and fun-filled education concerts for elementary students.
Now, getting back to our effort to provide a more personal approach to customer service, one of the main goals of this change was to stop out-sourcing our tele-funding. As of last September, every phone call that is made regarding our Annual Fund is made by the Patron Services Specialists. As musicians ourselves (see our bios here), all three of us are very passionate about music education and do our best to raise as much money as possible for the Annual Fund. To achieve this, every day we make phone calls and send out letters and e-mails asking that you consider making or renewing your gift to the Symphony. Once we receive your gift, Samantha, Jessica and I send out thank you letters or make thank you calls to every one of our donors.
Attending events and concerts is another way for us to get to know our donors. The three of us attend every private rehearsal, attend at least two concerts a month each, and go to just about every other Symphony event. One of the most rewarding parts of our job is meeting our donors face to face, so next time you see one of us at a concert or event, please stop by and say hello.
Now that you know a little more about what your friendly Patron Services Specialists are up to, remember that next time the phone rings, it could be one of us calling to say hi or to thank you for your generous contribution.
