Background
When it is time for your members to renew, how many calls do you get with members unable to remember their credentials, or the email address they had provided? What barrier does this create to a member renewing? What is the cost in time and lost opportunity for your staff in dealing with unnecessary administration?
The Goal
We wanted to create an environment where members could perform any transaction by responding to a direct invitation without needing to remember their login.
Background
In the course of normal business for professional associations and member organisations there are numerous and regular calls to action made to members. This can include:
- Events - registration, join a webinar, confirm attendance, provide feedback
- Membership - join, renew, complete a survey, join a group, comment
- Fundraising - donate, upgrade a regular gift, pledge, volunteer
- Other - call for submissions, express an interest, vote
Doing this with 1-Click (without a login) from an email or SMS is clearly the best member experience and maximises engagement success.
An interview with Gary Ashworth-Phillips, CEO of the Federation of Australian Knowledge Enterprises (FAKE). A member calls with a question about their account. There’s a process for that. Sort of.
Stop running on Narelle. See how →
Transcript:
What happens when a member calls with a question about their account?
We put them through to Narelle.
We used to have a process for when Narelle wasn’t available.
We don’t use that process anymore.
An interview with Gary Ashworth-Phillips, CEO of the Federation of Australian Knowledge Enterprises (FAKE). Gary is asked whether Narelle uses the membership system. The answer is more complicated than it should be.
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Transcript:
Does Narelle use the membership system? Does Narelle use the membership system.
Narelle has access to the membership system. She was on the implementation committee. She named several of the fields.
An interview with Gary Ashworth-Phillips, CEO of the Federation of Australian Knowledge Enterprises (FAKE). The member onboarding process is documented. There’s just one small problem with the documentation.
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Transcript:
How do we onboard new members?
We have a process. It’s documented.
Narelle documented it.
Only Narelle can read it.
An interview with Gary Ashworth-Phillips, CEO of the Federation of Australian Knowledge Enterprises (FAKE). Narelle audits the membership data every January. She finds things. Nobody asks what.
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Transcript:
Have we ever audited the membership data?
Narelle audits it every January. She finds things.
We don’t ask what she finds.
She fixes them.
The data is very clean.
An interview with Gary Ashworth-Phillips, CEO of the Federation of Australian Knowledge Enterprises (FAKE). Membership renewals involve a system export, a spreadsheet cross-reference, manual additions, manual removals, and Narelle.
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Transcript:
Membership renewals. How do we handle those.
Narelle runs the renewals in March. She exports the list, checks it against her spreadsheet, removes anyone who shouldn’t get one, adds anyone the system missed, and sends them out.
An interview with Gary Ashworth-Phillips, CEO of the Federation of Australian Knowledge Enterprises (FAKE). The $400,000 membership system is working really well. Narelle’s spreadsheet is working better.
Stop running on Narelle. See how →
Transcript:
How’s the new membership system going? The $400,000 one?
Really well. The implementation was eighteen months. We had a steering committee. We flew someone in from the vendor.
Narelle reviewed the member data after the migration. She found twenty-three errors.
An interview with Gary Ashworth-Phillips, CEO of the Federation of Australian Knowledge Enterprises (FAKE). Three vendors have demonstrated their systems. Narelle asked one question. They’re still looking into it.
Stop running on Narelle. See how →
Transcript:
Are we considering a new membership system?
We’ve had three demonstrations. The vendors are very impressive. Very professional.
Narelle sat in on the last one. She asked a question about how it handles lapsed members who rejoin under a different category with a pro-rata adjustment.
An interview with Gary Ashworth-Phillips, CEO of the Federation of Australian Knowledge Enterprises (FAKE). Gary describes the spreadsheet. It has 47 tabs. The colour coding makes perfect sense — to Narelle.
Stop running on Narelle. See how →
Transcript:
Can I describe the spreadsheet?
It has 47 tabs. Some of them are colour coded. Narelle knows what the colours mean. We asked her to document it once.
She said she would. That was 2019.
An interview with Gary Ashworth-Phillips, CEO of the Federation of Australian Knowledge Enterprises (FAKE). Gary imagines what Narelle could do if she wasn’t buried in processing. It’s a better version of the organisation.
Stop running on Narelle. See how →
Transcript:
If Narelle wasn’t doing all of this processing — what would she do instead?
That’s actually a really good question.
She’d probably build the kind of member relationships that make people renew without being asked. She’d know which members are at risk of dropping off before they do. She’d design the kind of onboarding experience that makes someone feel like joining was the right decision.
An interview with Gary Ashworth-Phillips, CEO of the Federation of Australian Knowledge Enterprises (FAKE). Gary describes what Narelle was hired to do. Then describes what she actually does. They’re not the same thing.
Stop running on Narelle. See how →
Transcript:
What should Narelle actually be spending her time on?
Member relationships. Retention strategy. Understanding why people leave and what would make them stay. That’s what we hired her for.
