1

Retention of Middle-School Scouts

It is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one (White House

Office of Consumer Affairs)

Problem:

Youth in 6th-8th grade are dropping out at high rates throughout the Council (Seneca had 151 6th graders

compared to 79 9th graders in 2014, nearly 50% drop). Leads to shrinking membership, less Eagle Scouts,

less older boys at Camp, less leadership in troops, less committed parents/donors, less leadership

development for Scouts, less time learning and living the values of the Scout Oath and Law

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

BW 167 182 245 254 222 164 196 116 93 88 78 92

BC 67 103 111 120 107 107 82 93 69 68 55 43

GC 22 47 53 37 47 68 48 40 33 38 29 28

LH 80 144 159 157 139 141 147 103 110 70 66 70

MH 120 173 202 175 154 135 91 78 67 79 61 78

SN 108 187 186 177 201 151 128 108 79 88 68 70

Tow 118 177 240 195 195 201 130 125 103 87 106 89

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

SWC: BOYS SERVED BY GRADE LEVEL- 2014

BW BC GC LH MH SN Tow

2

Retention's Impact on Membership

Grade Level 2014 Total 2014 projections with 90% retention from 5th through 8th (all

other retentions remain equal)

Current retention rates

1 682 682 N.A.

2 1013 1013 1.485337

3 1196 1196 1.180652

4 1115 1115 0.932274

5 1065 1065 0.955157

6 967 959 0.907981

7 822 870 0.850052

8 663 740 0.806569

9 554 618 0.835596

10 518 578 0.935018

11 463 517 0.893822

12 470 524 1.015119

Total 9528 9877 0.919889

Saves 349 Scouts 349

If we remove Exploring and Turning point from totals, this retention change would've helped our council end +48 Scouts from Year end 2013 to Year end

2014

Reasons (Feedback from Scoutmasters, parents, anecdotal evidence):

1) Lack of Program and Peers to keep them involved, excited, motivated

a. No fun in troop or no friends in troop means boys will go where they will have fun/

friends- Sports, Clubs, video games, etc.

2) Lack of Parental “push” to help keep boys engaged in Troop Activities

a. Parent isn’t a leader, parent isn’t involved in troop, parent isn’t engaged in youth’s life,

parent doesn’t see the value in Scouting, therefore doesn’t make the effort to keep the

boy involved.

3) Boys, just like all people, don’t feel important or appreciated in the Troop

a. All people want to be somewhere they feel valued, appreciated, important (one of the

methods of Scouting is peer to peer leadership)

3

Proposed Answers:

Renewal of our Customer Retention Programs through targeted marketing, renewed emphasis on

customer service, and significantly boosting the Den Chief Program.

1) Targeted Marketing:

The probability of selling to a new Customer is 5-20%, while the probability of selling to an existing

customer is 60-70% (Marketing Metrics)

Imagine if we had contact information including names, addresses, e-mails, and phone numbers for over

1,000 5th graders, ready to join Boy Scouting, who already had experienced Scouting in some way.

Believe it or not, we already have that. We have around 15% of the TAY in 5th grade already registered in

Scouting across Council. Maintaining relationships with those customers has to be a priority.

1) Starts with communications with all 5th grade Scouts and parents

a. Letters from Council congratulating boys on their Arrow of Lights, including a Colorful

sign reading, “Can’t wait to be a Boy Scout!” that they can have their picture taken with,

then posted on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (by their parents), promoting Scouting

to other families outside of our network.

b. Letters home to parents from Scout Masters encouraging Scouts to continue to Boy

Scouts

c. Letters home to parents from other Parents regarding the value that Scouting has to

families (time spent with kids, self-confidence built in kids [a top reason parents sign

their boys up for Scouts], learning and develop skills and character [‘grit’ is the current

lingo])

d. Letters to youth congratulating them on their achievements from Executive

e. Letters to youth congratulating them from older Scouts, who will also invite them to try

Boy Scouting

f. Constant Contact E-mails highlighting Scouts who:

i. Participate in more than one activity (sports, clubs, music, etc.)

ii. Demonstrate Leadership at home, in Scouts, and in other activities DUE to their

Scouting background

iii. Do AWESOME things in Scouts (trips, camps, badges, challenges, competitions)

iv. Demonstrate how you can do things in Scouting that you cannot do anywhere

else- ties right into the new Experience Oriented Strategy (Butler).

2) Communications continue in 6th and 7th grade

a. Constant Contact e-mails to families regarding their Scouting experiences, highlighting

events they can do nowhere else but in Scouts

b. Letters congratulation boys who make it to First Class, while also encouraging them to

continue growing

c. Start marketing Venture Scouts to boys in 7th and 8th grade, help keep them interested

in Scouting by broadening our product offerings.

4

2) Strengthened Customer Service:

3 in 5 Americans (59%) would try a new brand or company for a better service experience (American

Express Survey, 2011)

Our organization is more dependent on personal relationships than any product we provide. People

don’t join Scouting organizations for the uniform or patch, but for the people that they work with week

in and week out. They also expect their Service Center and Leaders to be responsive to their needs.

1) Starts with communications with volunteers, utilizing resources we already have- Voice of the

Scout

a. Good presentation on the value of Voice of the Scout and how to apply what we learn

from the twice a year survey can be found here: www.scouting.org/nextconnect.aspx

b. Voice of the Scout helps us grow Scouting by measuring how many volunteers would

recommend Scouting for us. We build “Parent Advocates” by building Net Promoters.

2) Ideas based on, “How to Create True Customer Advocates” by Bill Lee, featured in the Harvard

Business Review, May 22, 2013 (https://hbr.org/2013/05/how-to-create-true-customer-ad )

i. Deliver the Promise

1. Get our Scouts Outside, provide high quality programs

ii. Know your customers’ Problems

1. Listen to customers’ complaints, begin to record them and find common issues-

camp costs, training woes, time availability, etc.

iii. Put customers together with peers

1. Create events and opportunities for customers to come together and celebrate

success/ learn from each other- trainings, programs, Facebook, etc.

iv. Market and sell your Customers

1. Don’t sell Scouting, sell Troop ***, because they do a great trip each year, etc.

It’s about humanizing the experience and connecting people. Scouts is not a

successful program- it is successful people.

v. Celebrate Customers

1. Interview Customers, make them feel important and celebrated, feature them

in communications on communications like Facebook, Scouting Quarterly,

everything.

vi. Help smaller customers grow to larger customers

1. Small troop? Pay them attention. They will become most loyal if they feel most

important

vii. Align marketing of Organization with Marketing of Customers

1. What do our Volunteers want? How can we tie marketing to their wants? Do

Customers want to join a camp organization? Then advertise camp. Do

customers want to join an organization with fun activities they can’t get

elsewhere? Advertise that.

viii. Offer opportunities for feedback

1. VOS, Focus Groups, Leadership Positions, make customers feel heard and feel

like they’re part of the process

5

3) Den Chiefs

If we fail to provide boys with pro-social models of the transition to adulthood, they may construct their

own. In some cases, gang initiation rituals, street racing, and random violence may be the result.

― Leonard Sax, Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and

Underachieving Young Men

Humans are social creatures. Middle school boys rely on their peers more so than almost any other

group. Not only do they learn from them, but they have a desire to be accepted by them and feel a

sense of belonging. Den Chiefs serve not only as helpers for Packs, but also as role models for younger

Scouts, friends to these younger Scouts (wouldn’t it be great to know a friendly face not only in the

troop, but also in school?). We can use these relationships to strengthen our retention in Troops

throughout the Council. Scouts wouldn’t leave Scouting if they had friends in their troops, felt important

and valued but the troop members.

1) Promote Den Chiefs by creating the “Den Chief Czar” Position in each District

a. Den Chief Czar (DCC) would be a member of the District Membership Committee and in

charge of growing, managing, and supporting Den Chiefs throughout the District

b. The DCC would organize a Den Chief Training opportunity as many times as is necessary

per year to keep a good supply of Chiefs

c. Working with commissioners, the DCC would manage the team of Chiefs by

communicating with each of them once per month, bringing them all together for team

building, motivation, and skill development (preferably once per quarter).

d. Using the method of Youth Recognition, DCC would need to Coach each Den Chief to

earn the Den Chief Service Award

2) Promote the importance of Den Chiefs from the Council Level by inviting all Den Chiefs to a

reception at the Service Center, meet and greet with the Scout Executive/ Council President.

a. Let’s make it a big deal to be a Den Chief. This would increase our supply and retention

of Den Chiefs and Boy Scouts by recognizing our hard working middle-school aged boys.

b. After a few years of this program, we will have a base of youth to pull from and engage

as Youth DCCs. Think Order of the Arrow (Youth and Adult Cheerful Service to Camp),

but Order of the Den Chiefs (Youth and Adult Cheerful Service to Cub Scouts). Properties

don’t affect kids week to week, but program in home troops/packs does.