No More Boring Member Surveys !

What you may not know about me is that I sit on the boards of two membership-based associations and that I held the position of General Manager of Membership for over 3 years. In all that time I noticed that membership-based organizations such as clubs, associations, unions and other interest groups are having increasing trouble attracting new members and retaining existing ones.

Yet, member organizations seem insanely negligent when it comes to developing a better understanding of their members' needs, wants, likes, dislikes and desires.

So, having a deep understanding of what members value is of ultimate importance to growing member numbers and membership revenue. Yet, member organizations seem insanely negligent when it comes to developing and responding appropriately to a better understanding of their members' needs, wants, likes, dislikes and desires,

Here is what I have observed:

1. An online survey goes out to the members annually: Do your members really only care about their membership once a year ?
2. The average survey has 20+ questions across multiple pages: How many members are so passionate about their membership that they just love spending 15 or 20 minutes on a survey ?
3. The survey often wants members to rate something on a scale of 1-to-5 or 1-to-10: How many of your members really care to that level of granularity ?
4. The response rate is very low, 5 percent is considered good: How can that return rate be representative of your entire membership spectrum ?
5. Responses come predominantly from either highly engaged fans, or from deeply disenchanted members, who carry some sort of gripe: Where is the voice of the majority of your middle-ground members ?
6. Member organizations take the survey results at face value: Are these member surveys telling you the real story, or just the views of a vocal minority ?
7. Surveys are rarely acted upon, the findings often end up in a file, only to come out again next year to compare last year's results against this year's: Where are your survey findings right now ?
8. The ones that are acted upon risk that the actions are skewed towards the vocal minority of members: How likely is it that acting on incomplete data leads to improved member value ?
9. Running big annual surveys consumes a whole lot of time, resources and money, all of which are preciously rare in most membership organizations: Do your current surveys represent the best value for your money and effort ?
10. Neither members, nor staff enjoy membership surveys: Why put stakeholders through a torturous process every year, when there is a better way ?

So you see, the usual 20-question member surveys are no longer cutting it. They just don't give the right information to make well-informed decisions on how best to attract and renew members, and they are a poor investment of your scarce resources.

The usual 20-question member surveys are no longer cutting it. They just don't give the right information to make well-informed decisions on how best to attract and renew members, and they are a poor investment of your scarce resources.

So we designed something that works: A five-step "Voice of the Members" program that gives representative and actionable insight into what your members are really looking for from your organization. The program was designed with member organizations specifically for member organizations, and it has proven vastly superior to traditional member surveys.

1. First, a surprise: We still run an online survey! What ? After everything I said above, I still want you to run a survey ? Yes. Yes, but there is a but... This survey only takes five minutes to complete and it is far more engaging as it is anonymous and contains three open-ended questions for the member to say what THEY want to say, not just answer your pre-set questions. Anonymity gives the member comfort to be open and frank in their responses. This gives you a solid grounding for the next step.
2. We then conduct personal 1-on-1 interviews with a subset of survey respondents and selected members that collectively represent your entire membership spectrum, so that we hear not just the vocal minority of survey respondents. We do this as an external, neutral and unencumbered 3rd party. I sometimes joke that we come in as "Switzerland" to encourage your members to tell us the things that they may not be comfortable saying directly to your organization's representatives.
3. We then create common ground and understanding for your organization of what the members are telling us by reviewing the results and our recommendations together with you.
4. We then ensure that the findings are not neglected. Now that everybody is the same page, we facilitate your stakeholders to create an action plan that responds to the valuable insights that you gained in the previous steps.
5. Finally, to ensure that your plan is acted upon we support your teams to implement and execute the plan. This may involve project management, or other resources, as required by you.

A "Voice of the Member" program helps you to increase the value of your organization for your members, which in turn will increase your member attraction and retention rates. Everybody wins.

So, a "Voice of the Members" program such as this will:

• Keep members engaged with your organization
• Be representative of the entire membership spectrum
• Unearth the true, previously hidden, sentiments and ideas of your members
• Give you an actionable plan that is agreed by your teams, ready for implementation
• Vastly improve the success of your plan by helping you to implement it effectively

In summary, a "Voice of the Member" program helps you to increase the value of your organization for your members, which in turn will increase your member attraction and retention rates. Everybody wins.

Last, not least, let's hear from the CEO of an actual member organization who has experienced our "Voice of the Members" program.

AISA is the Australian Information Security Association, the peak representative body of the data security industry with over 3,500 members internationally. AISA's CEO, Arno Brok, was unhappy with the poor level of insight that AISA's traditional annual member survey had been producing. The survey was too long and had become too focused on the organisation, instead of on its members. The survey response rates had been dropping and it was no longer representative of the members' views across the entire AISA membership spectrum. Finally, as part of a strategic review of its operations and its new membership strategy AISA needed to better understand the true sentiments of all its members and Arno wanted to unearth members' hidden ideas and needs in order to secure AISA's future.

"AISA needed to better understand the true sentiments of all its members and Arno wanted to unearth members' hidden ideas and needs in order to secure AISA's future."

AISA decided to bring in Peter Strohkorb Consulting International to unearth AISA members' likes, dislikes and hidden ideas for the organisation. As a neutral and unencumbered entity (a quasi "Switzerland"), and utilizing its proprietary methodology, Peter Strohkorb Consulting International was able to unearth previously hidden gems for AISA in terms of member engagement, their true sentiments, and their ideas and wishes.

In the following the 4 minute video AISA's CEO Arno Brok outlines his and his board's experiences with our "Voice of the Members" program.

 Click on the image to view the 4 minute video with AISA's CEO Arno Brok, or just see Arno's quotes below: 

• "We wanted to understand how the changes to the organisation around our strategy impacted our members."
• "I think it was great ! We got some really good, positive, feedback from our members who appreciated that they’ve been listened to."
• "I think the way the survey was done, particularly with the follow-up phone calls, really got them engaged and feeling that they’ve been listened to."
• "Our members were treated with respect and we got good feedback from the members. I think that is important."
• "I think the most important advice is: Listen to your members."
• "Doing a survey just for the heck of it is not really going to help. Doing a survey and action the things that the members really expect from the organisation I think is the most important thing to do."

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The author is available for your queries. Please feel free to leave comments below.

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If you are interested in Peter Strohkorb's other articles, interviews and thought leadership pieces then please take a look at his LinkedIn Pulse postings here.

About the Author

Peter Strohkorb is CEO at Peter Strohkorb Consulting International with offices in Australia and the USA. He is a global specialist in customer centricity and sales & marketing collaboration, which he calls Smarketing?. In 2015 Peter was named as one of only five global experts in Sales & Marketing Alignment.

Peter is also a published Author, an international corporate corporate Speaker, and an Executive Mentor, as well as an Executive MBA Guest Lecturer at the prestigious Sydney Business School.

Please contact Peter here.

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