Have you ever thought about considering a volunteer as though they were your customer? Do they have an expectation about your volunteer program? Yes, absolutely. It doesn’t matter where they volunteer and what role they undertake, volunteers are customers of your volunteer program and they come with a unique set of expectations.

Our Responsibility to the Customer (Volunteer)

As Volunteer Managers it is important that we invest time to:

• Understand the needs and expectations of our volunteers;
• Find out about their experiences (positive and negative); and
• Continuously look for ways to improve the volunteer program and their volunteer experience.

Volunteer Recruitment Process

Typically we are able to learn about the general expectations of volunteers during the recruitment process. For instance on an application form or as an interview question, you may have asked ‘what are you hoping to achieve by volunteering in this role?’; or ‘why do you want to volunteer with us?’. Common answers often include gaining new skills and experiences, helping others, making friends and doing something fulfilling with their time.

Often if those expectations are not met, volunteers will leave and offer their time elsewhere. It is helpful to review the reasons why people choose to volunteer at your organisation and reflect on if your program provides opportunities for those expectations to be met.

What is Working Well and Opportunities for Improvement

To understand more specific expectations, experiences and opportunities to improve; it is important to speak directly with your volunteers, just like we would in a customer service environment. The three most important questions to ask are:

• What is working well?
• Where are the areas we could improve on?
• What improvements could we implement?

Customer Feedback: Useful Approaches With Volunteers

Some of the approaches I have found useful to find out this information include:

• Taking a walk in your volunteers’ shoes by completing a volunteer shift. Sometimes this is the best way to really experience the highs and lows of a volunteer role.
• Facilitating a focus group or ‘Voice of the Volunteer’ session for a specific role / program. This has the additional benefit of providing another avenue for volunteers to meet and share common experiences.
• Developing a Volunteer Advisory Committee with members represented from each volunteer role can facilitate a link between the volunteers and the organisation. By inviting senior staff members to attend relevant meetings you can also raise the profile of the volunteers and the good work they do.
• Regularly conducting volunteer surveys provides an opportunity for volunteers to contribute honest and anonymous feedback and to gain valuable data to demonstrate how your program is tracking.

Are you happy to share your experiences with giving your volunteers a voice? What approaches have you taken and what were your experiences?