They're uncomfortable at first, but then they quickly learn there are other things to do with their time. But she admits to the heretical belief that many stations would do better if they outsourced their phone banks during pledge drives. Not surprisingly, Infinite OutSource does some outsourcing of its own. It was in a couple people's heads that this was a good idea. And every step of the way has been a confirmation of that.
Initial results are encouraging.
In eight member-acquisition campaigns so far, only one has scored lower than the common target of 1 percent, says Antes. WEDU doubled its past performance, hitting 1.4 percent. And six lapsed-member campaigns scored 2 to 5 percent. Planners originally discussed Membershop as one of several regional cooperatives owned by stations, but stations said they didn't want to manage it, according to Appleby. Appleby, who previously ran a large multi-station membership operation at Minnesota Public Radio, already had joined DEI as vice president, and was put in charge of DEI's big move from professional association to service provider.