Testimonials

“With more than 70,000 member households, our telemarketing program is essential to keeping our renewal rate healthy. We began testing our calling efforts with ComNet earlier this year, with terrific results. The percentage of credit card sales more than doubled that of our previous agency, and is more than paying for our calling costs. With the extra revenue that we're receiving through mail pledge fulfillment, we have surpassed our telemarketing revenue goals every month in our fiscal year so far. ComNet has offered terrific customer service and it's been easy to work with them on scripts, list segmenting, etc. We've had so much success with our monthly renewal calling that we've decided to have ComNet test a lapsed member effort next month.”
Becky Zahrly
Director of Membership
Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association

“Our organization is very satisfied with the results and professionalism provided by COMNET Marketing. Our ROI has been consistent over the years since we started our relationship with COMNET. Kudos to all staff who are prompt, responsive, and very reliable. We hope to continue our work with this company since we value their superb customer service and the successful results with our conversions rates of renewals. The investment has proven beneficial year after year.”
Ericka Ochoa
Marketing Manager, Membership
American Society of Health-System Pharmacists

“After many months of discussion Winterthur embarked on its first ever telemarketing program, one aimed at our dropped member segment. Since this group had already received the full program of renewal mailings, we felt they would be a good “test” group to use. The results were extremely rewarding. In all we had 555 dropped members either pledge to rejoin or rejoin on the spot. These figures represent a 16% conversion rate!
In addition to the positive results, ALL of my dealings with the staff at Comnet were positive. They were helpful, informative and an overall great group to work with. Their interactions with our members and my staff were always professional. I look forward to expanding our working relationship in the very near future.”
Suzanne Smith
Director of Membership and Annual Giving
Winterthur Museum & Country Estate

"We've been using ComNet for several years and have continually achieved positive results with our lapsed member calling campaigns. Last year we decided to call earlier in the year and found our renewals increased as well. I would highly recommend ComNet to any organization."
Maureen Mandel
Director of Member Services
American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

"We have been utilizing ComNet Marketing Group's services for just over a year for various membership related programs -from lapsed member to CRM surveys to acquisition programs. Since switching to ComNet for our telemarketing programs, we have found that our ROI has increased dramatically and goals are exceeded. ComNet has become a real hands-on partner working with us to adjust our programs as necessary to provide the most cost-effective and informative results. Definitely worth the investment!
Lisa Diener
Manager, Membership Marketing
Society for Human Resource Management

“I’ve compared ComNet to the others and am more than pleased with their positive, honest, straightforward approach. As a recipient of many telemarketing calls, I have yet to find anyone even close to ComNet. We couldn’t be happier.”
Johns Olsson
KUNI Public Radio

“We have used Comnet for several years. They regularly call our lapsed members in the weeks after they are dropped, and we have been pleased with the results. They have also helped with other special projects, including surveying segments of members. We've valued Comnet's counsel on our projects, and have found them to be prompt, professional and responsive in all areas."
Jennifer Ian
Director, Member Services
Public Relations Society of America

"COMNET Marketing Group has been our telemarketing partner for the last several months. Not only have our response rates been quite good, but the folks at COMNET are easy to work with and are always eager to help".
Lori A. Ropa
Sr. Membership Marketing Manager
American Water Works Association

"When we first started working with ComNet Marketing Group on a lapsed member program, the results far exceeded our expectations and goals. We had worked with other telemarketing firms in the past, which resulted in low sales and very poor customer service, causing our members to complain about the calls. Our experience with ComNet was so great that we incorporated them into our member renewal program on a monthly basis! ComNet is also a proactive partner, helping us to adjust our programs as necessary to provide the most cost-effective and informative results. I highly recommend using ComNet for all of your telemarketing needs!”
Jennifer Hall
Director of Member & Guest Services
Phoenix Zoo

"After our first experience with ComNet, we were hooked! Our lapsed member campaigns were expensive, and got a very small response. By changing our lapsed member campaign to a telemarketing campaign with ComNet, we saw a 50% increase in renewal. The ComNet callers were also able to encourage these returning members to renew at the two-year rate 20% more often than our mail campaigns."
Angie Stengel
Director of Membership and Leadership
Oncology Nursing Society

“As was the case with many associations in the current economic environment, our membership was declining and reached an all time low in February of 2003. We embarked on a multifaceted member recruitment program that for the first time used a telemarketer (COMNET). Since that time, we have had 11 consecutive months of growth with a net gain of 4000 new members. COMNET was directly responsible for at least 1000 of those new members. I believe what separates them from their competitors is the time they take to understand your organization, prepare an effective script and represent themselves to your prospective members in a professional and pertinent manner. Their progress reports are also very helpful for tracking of past performance and evaluating future programs. We plan to expand the use of COMNET with our organization in 2004 to include a program to increase attendance at our annual Summer meeting.”
Kevin Shrake
Chief Operating Officer
American Association for Respiratory Care

"We started using ComNet last year to call our lapsed members. We were very impressed with their communications. They kept in contact with us through every step of the process and let us know when the return on investment wasn't there. They were up front and honest from the start and tracked everything. We were even more impressed with the results and that our members were saying that their callers were warm and friendly. Now we have them call our lapsed members each month and are consistently pleased with the results."
Cathi Decker
Executive Director
Friends of Santa Ana Zoo

"When you have a small fundraising team, deputizing ComNet Marketing Group by hiring them to make calls for you is an efficient and effective use of your limited resources. Our constituents have repeatedly expressed that they were pleased with the calls they received and they responded by generously making gifts. Hire ComNet, and you will expand your base of financial supporters as we did!"
Gary Hoag
Vice President of Advancement
Denver Seminary

"I associate outstanding customer service with Comnet. I can trust that Comnet will give good customer service to our members: the phone call is friendly and is not a hard-sell at all. It's rare that I receive a telemarketing complaint from a member and when I do, it's usually about them not wanting to be telemarketed, not about the content of the phone call or anything on Comnet's part. When I approach Comnet with a member's complaint, they take it seriously and help me resolve it. I've worked with a few telemarketing companies who give the telemarketing industry a bad name. Comnet is a refreshing change and gives me full confidence that telemarketing can and should be an important fund raising and customer service tool. "
Janet McIntyre
Development Director
KUSC Public Radio

"Karen here is the group I told you about for telemarketing. They'll do a test for you at no cost. I'm having great success on my campaigns. Credit card each day is more than the cost of the calls. All the invoicing that is done is "gravy" in the bank! Give them a call."
Eric Berkowitz
Director of Membership
American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance

“We first used ComNet to pilot a calling program to remind certified individuals of their impending recertification date. I was immediately impressed with the quality and professional demeanor of ComNet’s callers. But the most impressive thing was the high conversion rate they received. A significant percentage of those that were called said they would recertify by their due date…and did! In addition, we received positive feedback from our certificants about their experience on the ComNet calls. As a result, we’ve expanded the program and it is an integral part of our recertification marketing strategy.”
Alisa Goldschmidt
Marketing Manager
Human Resource Certification Institute

“Gina Lorio, our CMN Coordinator, has forwarded your email to me, and I am happy to tell you about our experience with Comnet. We have found that we lose many telethon donors from year to year. To combat this, we began doing a pre-telethon phone-a-thon to call donors who made gifts to our telethon during the previous 2-3 years. We concentrated on those donors who had fulfilled previous commitments. We all have people who commit but, for whatever reason, don't deliver, and I am not interested in pursuing those.

Initially, we used volunteers with members of our staff overseeing their efforts each night. We encountered many problems with this approach: our staffers are busy and asking them to devote several nights each was taxing on them. We also had to feed and train volunteers each night. Volunteers are not always dependable; sometimes groups of people would fail to show up after saying they would. And, frankly, while all of our volunteers have good hearts and want to help our hospital, a fairly significant number were poor solicitors.

At first, I was reluctant to turn over this responsibility to Comnet. They operate out of Oregon and don't sound like people from Louisiana. I was concerned that they would not be able to answer questions about our hospital, and that they might exert too much pressure on my donors. After discussing my concerns with Bob King of Comnet, I decided to take a chance and let Comnet conduct a phone-a-thon for us.

They worked with me to develop a script that I was comfortable with. They assured me that they would cut-off the phone-a-thon effort when I felt our rate of return fell to an unproductive level. I sent my first list of donors to them and made sure that if was peppered with people I knew well--people who would give me the unvarnished truth about the Comnet callers. The response from my donors was that the Comnet callers kept on message and moved the conversation along to the ask in a timely manner. They were courteous and friendly ...and productive.

Each morning I got a report telling me who had made commitments (and how much) the night before, who had said no, and any comments made by our potential donors ("can't give because of spouse's illness" "loves the hospital" "wants to help cancer patients," etc.) I found the comments invaluable--they gave me a "read" on how our donors perceive the hospital.

I also received a report that told me how many hours were worked by Comnet callers the previous night, how many calls were completed, the number of pledges, the total pledged for the evening, and the amount raised per hour. Since I knew the rate per hour I was paying for the callers, it was easy for me to decide when to cut-off the calling based on the return per hour.

I have used Comnet for pre-telethon phone-a-thons, but see no reason why they wouldn't be able to produce results with Lybunts. I have also used them to call previous donors to our end-of-year annual fund. They have produced good results, and I intend to use them in the future. If you have any questions, you may reach me via e-mail or call me at 504.896.9375.”
Roger Gorman
Director of Development
Children's Hospital New Orleans