How to Plan S.M.A.R.T. Camp Communications

What Does S.M.A.R.T. Stand For?

If you’re not already familiar with the S.M.A.R.T. acronym, it's a tool that businesses can incorporate to create clearly defined goals, develop processes to accomplish those goals, and ultimately measure their level of achievement.

Why Set Goals for Camp Communications?

Any employee can quickly make a call or send out an email. Why go through all this effort? While the task is quite simple – is that communication serving your camp well? 

To answer, you must ask:

• What goal is the communication trying to accomplish?
• Does the tone of the communication match the subject?
• Does the message incorporate camp colors and branding?
• Does the message include instructions or a call to action?
• Are you using a recognizable address, caller ID, or reply-to email address that customers will associate with your camp?
• Have you developed message templates for consistency?
• Do the right people have the right tools to carry out the task?

Common Communication Goals

Here are several common camp communications goals:

• To prompt new business - such as registration or online sales
• To prompt an action - such as paying a bill or signing an agreement
• To communicate opportunities - such as scholarships, volunteer options, etc.
• To build trust or inform a customer about changes - such as price increases or drop-off and pick-up procedures
• To remind customers about a deadline - such as paperwork, arranging medications, etc.

Measuring Success

After the communication is sent, it’s important to review and evaluate its effectiveness in achieving your goal. What percentage of customers did you reach successfully? What percentage took action?

Applying Your Knowledge

If a communication is sent, but the goal is not achieved – it’s time to make some adjustments. You can adjust contact methods or verbiage to see how it impacts your results. Over time, you’ll be able to enhance your communications efforts – which can translate to increased income, better-prepared campers, smoother operations, and more!

Let’s Practice S.M.A.R.T. Communications

Scenario: Your camp needs to send out a communication to camp families about an upcoming payment deadline. 

Specific

• Communicate to the customer that they have an outstanding balance.
• Provide instructions on how to settle that balance.
• Inform the customer of the consequences of unpaid balances.

Measurable

• If making calls – ask staff to record notes such as the date and time of the call, the phone number dialed, and if they talked to the customer directly or left a message.
• If sending emails – ask staff to retain a copy of the email content, the date and time it was sent, and later review whether it was opened.
• Establish when team members will check on the payment status for these customers – such as at 3, 5, or 10-day intervals from the date of contact.

Achievable

• Which method is most reasonable to successfully reach the number of clients with outstanding balances with the staff on hand?
• If there is a large list, should you prioritize certain accounts based on total balance?
• If making calls, do you have enough camp phones with a recognizable caller ID?
• If using email, do you have an email tool that will provide open metrics?
• If sending mail, is the communication going to be delivered on time?

Relevant

• To be relevant, the communication should only be sent to customers with a balance.
• If sending multiple reminders, consider how to update the list to remove those who have paid between communications.

Timely

• Notifying customers too long before a due date may result in it being forgotten.
• Too many billing-centered communications may run the risk of being ignored.
• For billing plans with multiple installments, is it beneficial to bundle other timely camp details with the billing communications to avoid being tuned out?

Software to Empower S.M.A.R.T. Communications

Identifying the resources or tools available to send communications is a vital part of the S.M.A.R.T. planning process. With these tools, your team must create workflows to identify your audience, collect their contact details, draft and send the communications, and evaluate the results.

To learn about how iCampPro can help your team improve camp communications, you can: