As a member-based organization, it’s vital to deliver an excellent member experience. If your members’ experience is lacking, they might look for another association to meet their needs. Your organization can’t afford to make mistakes, or you might see a decline in member retention and ultimately your revenue.
How can your association avoid making member experience mistakes? By investing in modern association management software (AMS). According to the latest Community Brand Research, association members who view their organization as an early adopter of technology are more satisfied, more connected, more likely to renew, and more likely to promote their organization.
Don’t risk a decline in your member retention or revenue. Read our blog for tips on how to improve the member experience at your association by avoiding these common member experience mistakes.
Avoid these three common member experience mistakes
Here are three common member experience mistakes and how your association can avoid them:
1. Not knowing your association members.
If you don’t understand what motivates your members, it can ultimately harm your entire organization. You won’t hit your member retention goals and you’ll lose revenue.
But how can your association understand its members? By becoming data-driven and leveraging an innovative AMS that integrates seamlessly with your other systems.
When you choose a modern AMS, you can leverage your data and employ Artificial Intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics to streamline the membership renewal process, automating dues and sending reminders to members at-risk of lapsing. You can also offer personalized member recommendations for upcoming events, learning opportunities, or content offerings based on past member data.
Routinely ask members for their updated information and encourage them to update their own data through a member portal. Empower your entire employee team to practice good data hygiene, regularly auditing your records to keep them organized.
2. Not personalizing member communications.
Sending generic member emails does nothing to show members you understand and care about their needs. But sending targeted, personalized communications does.
According to Community Brands Research, 45% of association members identified targeted, valuable content as their fifth most important member benefit. You can personalize the member experience by presenting your members with content that is specific to their needs and interests. By offering customized content and personalized recommendations, you’ll show you understand your members’ preferences and that you’re working to deliver ongoing value to members.
Here are some examples of how you can personalize the member experience with your AMS:
- Smart, automated email marketing. Set up personalized, automated emails for everything from membership renewals to alerts about upcoming events. Build personalized member journeys so your members will receive relevant messages based on the action they take (or don’t take) on each email.
- Engaging and customized e-commerce. Provide your members with a dynamic, personalized shopping experience they can access via any device. Offer customized shopping recommendations based on past purchases and create automated abandoned cart emails to remind shoppers to return to forgotten products.
3. Not anticipating member needs.
Reacting to members once they come to you with a question or issue – or worse, when they fail to renew – represents a minimum level of service. But you can supercharge your member experience with a modern AMS to anticipate member needs and present personalized solutions and offerings.
Here are some ways your association can deliver a superior member experience with your AMS:
- AI chatbots. Boost the member experience with AI chatbots by offering an immediate answer to any member question, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. With AI chatbots, you can automate key aspects of member services, increasing satisfaction, and eliminating staff work.
- Member retention. As members get closer to their renewal date, use predictive analytics to uncover which members are at risk of lapsing. Leverage the data to create and send automated, personalized renewal emails to remind members of the association benefits they haven’t used and upcoming events and opportunities they’ll miss if they don’t renew.
