5 Ways Leaders Can Support Their Members

As much as your organization’s leaders want to focus on developing a strategic course of action during the coronavirus crisis, it’s essential not to lose focus on what truly drives your organization – supporting your members.

But, with all the changes that have thrown your strategic plan into a spiral, how can leaders ensure that supporting your members is still top of mind?

Here are 5 ways leadership can support your membership.

Pay Attention to Detail

There are countless factors that create a successful member experience. From customized offers based on your members’ demographics to offering members a professional experience when meeting with staff members. It’s the attention to all the little things that leave members feeling valued.

Ensure Personalized Service

Personalizing a member’s experience shows them that they are more than just a number to your organization. In the Community Brands Digital Evolution Study, 79 percent of members say it is very or somewhat important that their organization provide targeted, valuable content. Once you have a clear view of the value members want from your organization, consider how to deliver content to the right members at the right time.

Anticipate Member Needs

This next point is not only important to practice with your members, but can also be applied to all valued relationships. Offer products and services that add efficiency to members’ otherwise busy lives is key, as technology advances and new offerings are available. This includes conveniences like a free membership app or the ability to complete their nominations application online instead of in-person. Anticipating the needs of your members keeps you one step ahead and in control of their user experience.

Respect Members’ Time and Listen

Be understanding of your members’ time to show you respect them and their business. At the end of the day, members want to feel heard.

However, it can be very time consuming to get honest opinions from members. In-person focus groups are no longer recommended, crafting and distributing surveys then expecting members to fill them out and return them often leads to low response rate. With a quick online focus group conducted with easy to use software like DirectVoteLive members can offer their immediate thoughts, feelings and opinions and provide you with actionable data to improve your interactions with them.

For instance, if 50 percent of your members respond and indicate that they would prefer online voting, invest resources into enhancing this product to show members you care about their ideas and concerns.

Listening to members can bring fruitful knowledge to your organization and help you adjust factors before you potentially lose a dissatisfied member.

Offer the Tech Experience Your Members Want

Technology plays a vital role in showing members they matter to your organization. Members will not feel appreciated if they have an outdated or frustrating online experience with your organization.

One way you can provide new technology to your members is to offer online voting for your annual election. Online voting helps cut out the need for paper ballots, which can often be daunting for members to fill-out and back in. However, online voting saves your members, and staff, time, frustration, and money.

Ready to learn more about how online voting can benefit your organization? Contact us today, we’ve got years of experience, lots of options and we’re here to help.