CRM Customer Relationship Management

Even a small maker space might have 50 members; larger spaces could have 1,000. Keeping track of your members is vital. You might start with a spreadsheet of names and email addresses, but you will find that this quickly falls short. There are a number of free CRM systems you can install on your own server, and there are cloud based services that do not cost much for the value they deliver.

Functions of a CRM systems

You should consider which of these functions your organization will need:

• Quickly lookup a member by name (for instance in your reception area)
• Send email blast to all members
• Categorize members so you can email blast only a subset (e.g. Just those who are part of the woodshop team)
• Charge credit cards automatically each month so the membership revenue comes in easily
• Track member training (e.g. Has John taken the laser cutter training class?)
• Maintain a private calendar for your staff to view
• Maintain a public calendar of events
• Provide an easily updated web site
• Track volunteer hours
• Process one-time payments for classes, events, etc
• Export data for use in your accounting system (like Quicken or Quickbooks)
• Export your membership data (so you can use it offline if you want)
• Provide an API to the database so your door/machine access system can validate a member (If there is no API, then you will need to Export your data every week or so to load into your access system)

Some CRM Systems

• CiviCRM
  • Open Source
  • Many cloud hosted services. Current cost is about $100/month for almost unlimited members.
• SalesForce
  • $150 month for some number of users
  • Considered a full blown, high end system
  • Highly configurable. May require some programming on your part to configure it to work as you want
• Club Express
  • Inexpensive at $24/month for 50 users; $160/month for 500 users
  • Offers billing, web site, calendar, events, etc.