The meal may have been a little rough, but there was still time to save the day.

Salesforce.com Senior of Manager of Content Alexa Schirtzinger details an experience she had with food-delivery service Sprig. One night she and her husband ordered through Sprig, then waited, waited, and waited for their meal. But in the end, the couple didn’t contact the company to complain about the late delivery time.

Nevertheless, the next day they received an email from a member of Sprig’s team who had noticed the subpar delivery time.

“Just wanted to reach out and follow up on your order from last night. Very sorry for the late delivery, we were a little backed up on orders,” Kim, the Sprig employee, wrote.

The lesson to take from Alexa Schirtzinger’s experience? There’s value in making customer service more flexible and responsive, and not dependent on customers’ voicing their concerns before addressing them.

Schirtzinger contacted Sprig and heard back from team member Nick, who explained: “Within the support team we leave room for a lot of judgment calls. Instead of laying out rigid guidelines to follow, we trust each other to do what feels right and handle each situation in a manner on par with what we would want as a customer.”

So the next time a member has an issue with something like event registration or reaching resources they need to access, consider putting a system in place to make note of their issue and address it, even if he or she doesn’t call in or email to complain.

For her full post, check out Forbes Magazine.

Tweet of the Day

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Does your enthusiasm for biking match your enthusiasm for associations? Then sign up for the ASAE Foundation Bike Ride, taking place September 21 in Berryville, Virginia, with varying distances to suit riders of all experience and endurance levels.

Other Good Reads

Associations that engage in lobbying should keep an eye on the America Gives More Act, which is currently sitting in legislative limbo. The bill is aimed at providing more incentives for people to give to nonprofits, including a provision allowing donors to claim charitable deductions from the prior year through April 15. Jennifer Chandler of the National Council of Nonprofits breaks down why action is needed here.

“You can’t make experts or force people to become fluent, but you can help provide optimal conditions and opportunities for the necessary learning,” Tagoras cofounder Jeff Cobb explains in a blog post.

Looking to integrate social software into your association? A list from Gartner, [highlighted by CMSWire‘s David Roe] , details the pluses and minuses of some of the premier social software offerings and suggests a few unknown challengers that may provide a more affordable fix for your needs.

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