Toastmasters improves the member experience and enables growth with Dynamics 365

For 100 years, Toastmasters International has helped people build confidence and expand their network through effective communication. Clubs in 150 countries welcome all people to practice preparing and giving speeches, responding to questions, and supporting other members. Online education programs empower members to develop skills at their own pace. “A lot of people join Toastmasters for a sense of community and an opportunity to make a difference,” says Diana Passow, Marketing and Communications Director at Toastmasters. 

The nonprofit is undertaking a digitization journey to better meet member needs and grow for another 100 years. Recently, the Colorado-based organization adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service to improve the member experience, generate data-based insights to inform strategy, and gain efficiencies. Strengthening the Toastmasters brand and member loyalty sets up the organization for sustainable growth.

“Toastmasters is about human beings connecting with human beings, and technology is helping us do that,” says Jason Caldwell, Club Quality and Member Support Manager at Toastmasters. “We’re making the world a better place, one Toastmaster at a time.”

Modernizing the member experience 

Toastmasters is best known for creating supportive environments and providing the tools to help people meet their public speaking and communication goals. In the process, members find camaraderie, build community, and forge meaningful relationships with diverse groups. That positive experience is what draws in new members and keeps people in clubs.  

Toastmasters is leveraging technology to create a similarly positive experience throughout members’ interactions with the nonprofit.  

With just 30 call center staff serving 270,000 members worldwide, Microsoft's CRM is helping the team answer questions and track concerns more efficiently. Dynamics 365 Customer Service offers a centralized place to record all interactions, from calls to emails. Seeing all points of contact within a single omnichannel platform saves staff time, as they do not have to switch between applications.  

“With this CRM, it’s very easy for our team to look at the history of a member and their contacts with us,” Caldwell says. “It connects all the dots, giving everybody the information they need when they need it.” 

Dynamics 365 Contact Center, a Copilot-enabled service solution, works with existing CRMs. With generative AI, it summarizes customer service interactions into the Dynamics 365 notes section. “What a joy and delight that is,” Caldwell says. Contact Center’s omnichannel view unifies calls, chats, emails, and the CRM platform all on one screen, leading to team efficiencies. This single lens ensures all staff are up to date and able to help members the next time they call. Generative AI-powered case management also means Toastmasters staff do not have to type while talking, allowing them to focus fully on the conversation. 

Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations connects to the Toastmasters website to enable self-service. For the first time, people can apply and pay dues online. “It’s the twenty-first century, so we need to digitize the experience for our members,” says Heidi Hollenbeck, Chief Operations and Information Officer at Toastmasters. “It makes things more efficient on our end, but it importantly makes the process more user-friendly, too.” 

The online self-service improves security because members do not have to share their payment information over the phone or on a membership form. It also improves accuracy because members input their own data, rather than staff reentering the information from a form.  

Toastmasters also leveraged Microsoft Copilot Studio and agents to build Ora Tor, a generative AI chatbot. This always-on resource draws from a knowledge bank staff filled with their trouble-shooting wisdom so members can get answers online, any time.  

Modernizing through technology removes barriers to joining and staying involved. “When we offer the technology-enabled experience they expect, we attract a younger demographic,” Passow says. “Digitizing helps us open our doors to more people.”

Optimizing services with data 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Toastmasters nimbly shifted its in-person model to online meetings, providing a much-needed outlet for isolated people to connect and learn. The nonprofit continues to adapt to meet members’ needs by securely leveraging data across platforms. 

Dynamics 365 seamlessly connects to other Microsoft solutions that Toastmasters uses, such as SharePoint and Power BI. A single data landscape “allows us to share effective reporting to our executives,” Caldwell says. “This gets them more accurate data so we can make faster decisions.”  

Dynamics 365 identifies themes in member concerns—for instance, if people are having trouble with a glitchy button on the website or need help navigating tricky interpersonal relationships in their club. Staff can share data-backed insights with the relevant team, who then fix the issue more quickly. 

Concrete evidence about common member questions also empowers the customer service team to provide solutions. For example, if members of corporate clubs frequently call for help to split their dues with their employer, the team can use generative AI to draft a troubleshooting document, which they then refine. "This provides us the ability to help members directly, no matter who on the team is answering the question,” says Danielle Mitchell, Director of Club Quality and Member Support at Toastmasters.  

Data also informs strategy and longer-term projects, such as developing new courses for their online learning platform. Mitchell says, “Better reports based on good data helps us improve our systems so members have fewer questions in the first place.” 

Gaining efficiencies to grow

Toastmasters customer service staff used to have to search for member communication across platforms, forward messages to colleagues, and manually input data. Dynamics 365 automates many of these time-consuming steps, freeing up staff for value-adding projects. The team has used Power Automate to create even smoother flows of recurring internal processes within the Dynamics 365 ecosystem. “These efficiency wins are big for the whole team,” Hollenbeck says.

The customer service team saves hours each week with streamlined Microsoft technology. "We’ll have the bandwidth to proactively reach out to members, like somebody who’s starting a new club”—a long-held goal they never had the time for, Caldwell says. The team will also be able to use data analytics from Dynamics 365 to guide the development of new products that would benefit members. They can also test systems improvements, relying on data to quantify how tweaks improve outcomes.

“We now have the platform to scale, grow, and create more opportunities for members,” Hollenbeck says. The nonprofit is exploring new products, different types of memberships, partnerships, and even expanding to more countries. “We have the technology to meet our needs now and in the future.”

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