Unlocking the Power of Members Relationship Management
Whether you are managing an alumni, trade or social association, members’ relationship management has become extremely important for the success of your organisation.
What Member Relationship Management Means to Me
I know over the years the way we interact has changed substantially from traditional communications to the digital world. I realize that a balance between the human touch and technological solutions is needed to make associations relevant and lasting for members.
Our members are looking for the power of a community when they join the association. More so, they want to network with fellow members, build stronger bonds and even do business with fellow members because the feeling of trust is inherent in such dealings.
The Management Nightmare
However, managing the association is not an easy job. We need technology-based solutions to track the vast amount of data easily. Members’ data keeps changing and keeping everything in sync is a big challenge.
Associations typically have to send out notices and circulars frequently. Personalising these communications is a Herculean job if we are using Excel or similar spreadsheets to track our members’ lists.
Building a Community: More Than Just Membership
In any organisation, the relation of the members is not just to the organisation. They strive to network with other members also. They are constantly seeking to search for other members with similar interests or businesses and to interact with them.
The organisations need to provide a platform that enables the members to interact with fellow members easily. This is generally achieved by hosting events where the members can interact with their counterparts and build personal rapport.
Events Management: So Much to Do
We need to hold periodic events in every organisation. This helps us to share important information related to the industry. The events also allow the members to interact with other members, industry veterans, and experts to identify opportunities and resources for their personal and business growth.
However, announcing events, getting registrations, and reconciling payments need a lot of manpower. We certainly feel that we could devote more efforts towards managing the speakers and venue logistics if the member side of things could be managed more easily with the help of technology.
Membership Renewals
While many associations opt for lifetime memberships to avoid the hassle of managing membership renewals, annual memberships are important for trade associations.
Sending timely reminders and allowing automated, self-renewal becomes vital to ensure that most members renew in time. We have seen that so many members have not renewed their membership because they were unaware that it had expired.
Are we listening to their feedback?
While we share information with our members through regular communication, they also have feedback and requests about their needs and wants. The more we listen to them, the more they trust us. It also clearly indicates their opinions matter a lot to us.
We need to provide them with an easy channel to let them share their thoughts with the admin team without going around in hoops. A great association listens to its members and acts on popular demands.
The Technology Solution to MRM
MRM (Members Relationship Management) tools like the MEMDIR software enable organisations to implement these plans in an easy and organised manner. It reduces the workload of the secretarial team.
The jobs that used to take hours hardly take minutes to get you through now, and we can even tell from analytics where we need to give an extra hand here and there.
At the same time, it empowers the members to network with fellow members and build strong bonds to stimulate their personal and business growth, thereby increasing loyalty to the organisation also.
Always Improving
MRM is not something that you set up once and then it’s the end of it. It is a process of continuous change and development. My team and I always encourage each other to get new ideas and ways to improve.
We even have a member advisory board that keeps us on top of the latest trends and our future plans are shaped by it.
My Final Thoughts
Over the years, I have witnessed how bonds that are knit together diligently become the source of power and inspiration in businesses. Our community can be more vibrant if each of us is actively practising the MRM strategies.
Personally, I am extremely thrilled to carry on since I know that once our members succeed, we are all on the winning track!
What about you?
If you would like to apply this technology-based assistant in your association, please visit www.memdir.in and ask for a FREE demo. We will be happy to see you managing your association with much more ease! Your secretarial team will thank you profusely for this!
