Now you’re playing my music

My wife and I have attended the Minnesota Orchestra for the past five years. We have special friends who love the symphony and this time permits us to get together on a consistent basis.  I must confess though, that my wife and I find our interest declining in the classical performances we have seen. It’s not to say that the music isn’t beautifully played — it probably is. Not that I could tell you. I just don’t know enough about classic music to really understand what’s going on. So we have tried some jazz concerts to keep us in touch with our friends.   Unfortunately, those are few and far between.

If you were to study our behavior, you would come to the conclusion that we are Best Customers (after all we have subscribed for over five years). You would also conclude that we are attrition risks for at least three reasons:

1. Our participation in the core offering, classical music, is declining
2. We are not responsive to promotional offers
3. Our overall frequency had declined

In response to our behavior, and the behavior of customers like us, the Minnesota Orchestra has pioneered an innovative approach for not-for-profit institutions. In addition, there are lessons that apply to for-profit organizations as well.

We were solicited by the orchestra to attend a series called “Inside the Classics .”  This series combines education and entertainment with performance to create a unique interactive experience.  During  first half of the evening, the conductor and an orchestra member educated the audience about the piece that will be played in the second half — where the composer was in his life,  the influences on his composing and the impact of the piece on later music.  Combining valuable educational insights with a down-to-earth approach and humor, the conductor played small snippets of the larger work, explaining what the composer might have intended, and highlighting the implications of that small piece for the rest of the work and other musical compositions. Boiled down, the audience was able to experience the piece in parts before it was all put together into a performance in the second half.

Now here is when the initiative starts to get really interesting. The orchestra member spoke about a blog that he and the conductor were maintaining to provide additional information on the music they were playing, as well as to engage in a direct conversation with the audience. He asked for frank feedback about what the audience liked and disliked about the evening, and what they could do to improve the series. Finally, I received an e-mail the next day inviting me to film myself and upload the video to the orchestra’s website . Check out the email below:

When have you gotten an email like that, let alone from a “stodgy orchestra?”  Turns out that this series, in its third year, has a 95% renewal rate, with overall attendance +15%.  All that, in a down economy!

Look how the Minnesota Orchestra combines “Building Understanding” with “Building Relationships” to create a program that is targeted, measurable and community-building all at the same time.  The key elements are:

• Personalizing communications. Our impression was that we were invited to participate in the new series.  The invitation made us feel special.  When we attended the  concert this week, we also appreciated how the performance met our needs for low-key, entertaining education as well as performance.
• Building community. The repeated invitations to participate in the blog, as well as the novel approach of the follow-on email, appealed to our highly digital lives, and also served to further break down the walls between the conductor, performer and audience that can be so imposing in classical music.”They actually want to know what we think?  No way!”
• Measuring results. I hope that the Orchestra measures our participation, re-enrollment and deepening of relationship, based on the communications we have received, our participation online and the performances we attended.

While this example is not-for-profit, the key elements of this approach are applicable to any direct-to-customer company.

If your customers aren’t dancing, maybe you should consider changing the tune…

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Tagged as: best customer experience, Classical music, community building, Database marketing, Music