Use these top tips and insights to level up the member experience for your association.
When it comes to your association’s success, providing a great member experience is big. It impacts everything from member acquisition to member engagement and retention.
Is your association’s small staff ready to give members the kind of experience they expect? Here are essential insights and tips to help you improve the member experience for your association.
What is the member experience?
The member experience is all about how members feel about their interactions with your organization and the value they perceive from their association membership. There are multiple aspects to providing a positive member experience, including the benefits you provide members and the quality of your touchpoints with members throughout the member lifecycle.
Why is it important to improve the member experience?
The member experience impacts your association’s ability to grow your membership base and retain members. A better member experience leads to improved member satisfaction. And happy members are more likely to:
- Recommend association membership to others, helping you grow your membership
- Engage more with your organization and other members, helping to keep your association vibrant
- Continue to renew so that you have fewer lapsed members
Essential tips to improve the member experience for your association
To provide a great member experience, you must find ways to demonstrate value and make members feel more connected with your association’s community. Here are three essential ways to improve the member experience:
1. Understand what your members want.
You can’t elevate the member experience if you don’t know what members really want. Dig into your members’ needs and expectations with these approaches:
- Turn to association industry research. For example, the 2024 Association Trends Study by Momentive Software provides insights into what members value today and how associations can keep up with member expectations.
- Dig into your association’s data. Use your association’s data to gain insights into how you can provide a better member experience. For example, look at the data you have about your members’ interests and behaviors so that you can deliver more of the information, benefits, and experiences members want. Use dashboards, reports, and advanced analytics tools to make it easier to analyze your member data.
- Survey your members. Send a member satisfaction survey that asks questions about how members view their experience with your association. Consider segmenting your member list and asking unique questions for various member audiences. Doing so can help you send more targeted surveys and gain deeper insights into your membership.
2. Put all-in-one technology to work.
Consider moving to a full-featured association management software (AMS) solution that gives you the tools you need to take the member experience to the next level. For example, here are some ways that YourMembership AMS helps you improve the member experience:
- More personalized content – With your data in one place, you can use your membership information – such as career stage, interests, and behaviors – to segment your membership base and send email and text communications with content that’s personalized for each audience segment.
- Membership auto-renewal – Offering an auto-renewal option gives members a convenient way to keep their membership current so that they don’t miss out on member benefits.
- Online member community – Online community functionality is built into YourMembership AMS to help you easily engage and connect with members online.
- End-to-end event management – You can easily manage every aspect of your association’s events so that you can elevate the event experience for your members.
- Membership directory – You can provide members with an online membership directory that allows them to easily search for other members in your association. Members can use the directory to connect with other members and build relationships that can lead to mentorship opportunities, job leads, information sharing, and exchanges of ideas.
- Streamlined web access – If you use a website powered by YourMembership, members can easily join or sign into your membership portal directly from your website because it’s all in one system. This improves the member recruitment, onboarding, and engagement experiences.
3. Free up staff time.
How can working more efficiently improve the member experience? With more time available, your small staff can focus more on delivering the experience members want. There are multiple ways to reduce staff workload:
- Keep your member data in one place. If you’re managing your member data in multiple systems and spreadsheets, it can be tough to get your day-to-day work done, much less improve the member experience. When you move to an all-in-one AMS solution, you can manage your member data and processes in one place, making it much easier to find and manage the data you need to take your member experience to the next level.
- Automate manual processes. Automate routine, time-consuming processes so that your staff can streamline day-to-day operations and spend more time improving member satisfaction.
- Make it easier to keep your website updated. It’s important to keep your association’s website fresh so that you make a good impression and stay relevant with members. But it takes time. Remove some of the burden by using a drag-and-drop website editor that makes keeping your website updated a breeze.