Driven by my desire to get fit, I was actively looking for a suitable fitness club a few years back.
There were many players in the market, each offering almost similar services. But, one particular fitness club was way more popular than the others.
I spoke with its members and soon found out that the differentiator was – Member Experience.
While all clubs were just focused on the member’s Functional Needs, this one was also taking into account their Emotional Needs by making the member’s experience positive throughout their membership journey.
The result was - great member attention, involvement, retention, referrals, and revenue!
The member experience is all about stepping into your member’s shoes to understand their emotions and designing their membership journeys accordingly.
So, if you are running an association - be it a Gym, a Club, an Institute, a Housing Society, a Hotel, or something else, it’s time for you to re-evaluate your member experience.
Try to think about what can influence their experience…
Do you provide an easy, quick, and intuitive joining experience to your members?
Do your members feel welcomed and involved from the point they join and onwards?
Are your members able to build a network easily or they feel excluded?
Are you keeping your members engaged and well connected with other members?
Are you and your members communicating enough?
Now, if you think that your organization needs to improve its member experience, try these three cost-effective ways:
1. Take a personalized approach
Always personalize your member’s experience. The more you personalize the better their experience.
For example - Instead of generic communication, add their first names in the emails, recommend an event based on their interest, or suggest training that they are searching for.
Make sure that your organization sends out personal and engaging communications to its members. Plus, you have to be witty and creative when communicating so that your members look forward to hearing from you.
2. Engage often
Do you think that your members don’t participate actively?
If yes, then you need to engage your members more often than you are doing currently. This infuses a sense of involvement which drives them to participate more.
Some simple ways to do that are:
Building a community and requesting every member to join it.
Creating groups on social media and posting engaging content.
Setting up meetings where members can interact with each other.
Organizing varied events as per their liking.
Setting up virtual meetups.
Hosting webinars, posting videos, quizzes, and polls
Don’t forget to ask your members what would they want to see more of, so that you can engage them the way they like.
3. Use online tools
In this digital world, you need digital tools to manage and interact with your members.
Having a website is a must. But that’s not enough.
Most smartphone users look for an App. So, as your memberships increase, having a Membership Management Mobile App is a great way to give your members the experience they want!
Membership Management Mobile Apps like ‘Memberly’ helps you manage your memberships efficiently and also engage with your member community in a new way.
With ‘Memberly’, you can:
Automate membership process, renewals, and payments.
Engage your members by easily organizing and managing Events with online registration, messaging, and payment processing.
Promote your products and services through Campaigns
Form a Committee of members to share experiences and ideas within a group
Conduct effective member Surveys
Capture and organize ideas on the go with Smart Notes
Run self and third-party Advertisements
You can also have:
E-shop for online shopping
B2B platform to connect suppliers with buyers
Social Media integration
Donation management feature
So, go ahead and try it out to supercharge your organization’s member experience!