Tag Archives: customers

Growing Custo/Members For the Long Haul

by on July 18, 2005 in Business, Work

I’m remembering one of the things that I dislike passionately about associations – the constant dues haggling. Here are just a few of scenarios:

  • A member complains that their dues are too high and wants a discount.
  • A potential member says he has a handful of people to bring into the association and wants to cut a deal for reduced dues.
  • A volunteer leader is trying to develop a more international attendance for a meeting and wants to help non-US prospects join through discounted dues.

On the surface, I think a couple of attitudes drive these requests: the notion of the non-profit as charity and the belief that member growth is always beneficial.

I’m taking a stab at the charity issue. I simply don’t know why folks think non-profits have no regard for their own financial health. Perhaps it’s that term non-profit. What I do know is that it is very hard to get folks to understand that decisions must be put through a financial test and that giving something away works toward an association’s long-term vitality.

The more insidious attitude is that any type of membership growth is good for the association. The problem is that offering discounts on membership is purely a short-term solution. Yes, it may bring in members now, but what does it then say about the overall value of the membership? And here’s the more interesting question: are the members seeking a discount the right type of members for the association? Wouldn’t you rather have a member who wants to pay full price because they believe in the value rather than a member who constantly looks to cut their spending?

The common response is that if you give the member a taste now of all the association has to offer, they’ll undoubtedly come back for more next year. I believe this is not only a vicious myth, but the antithesis of creating a passionate experience. The relationship has been marred from the beginning where the association has essentially stated that we really don’t believe in the value of our own offerings.

Here is my proposition: that associations (and I’m putting my own right at the front of this line) stop looking for just any member to join and start looking for the right member to join. And the first way they can show that they are the right member is to be willing to pay in full for their membership.

Or is that asking for too much?

Connect The Dots In Your Marketing

by on July 14, 2005 in Business

Wendy at Kinetic Ideas offers a simple, yet powerful suggestion for developing marketing resources: make your marketing solve a problem. Simple, right? Then why do most association brochures present a general litany of here’s who we are, here’s our benefits, here’s what we’re doing, blah, blah. Even most association websites are self-centered vehicles for announcing blah stuff about the organization. In short, it’s all about the association and hardly ever about the person actually holding the brochure or reading the ad or browsing the site.

Point #1 that Wendy makes is that:

People (you and me included) want to know what is in it for them. They are interested in useful ideas, services, and products that make something better in their life. Don’t talk about YOU. Start talking about THEM.

Some sagely advice I received a while back is that an association feature can’t be called a benefit until it you show the member how it benefits them. So, just don’t tell a prospective custo/member that you have a nice, award-winning publication. Connect the dots and help them understand how they can use it to solve a problem they’re facing in their work or life.

Please Don’t Leave…I’m Commanding You

by on July 10, 2005 in Business, Work

Custo/member loyalty. It seems so logical and obvious to a company’s success, you’d think that more would have embraced this basic concept by now. Sure, most (if not all) companies and associations claim they are customer-centric, but then they do crazy things like shoo them off like flies. The problem seems to stem from a very NOW-concentrated thinking process: got to make those quotas NOW, need to balance the financials NOW, need to bring in more custo/members NOW…

Christopher Carfi at the Social Customer Manifesto highlights FC’s Chuck Salter and his recent experience with Ameritrade. Seems Ameritrade is playing the “jilted girlfriend” with its custo/members by charging a termination fee to those who want out of the relationship. Sound like a familiar tactic in your other custo/member interactions? While banks and wireless providers are the most notorious, associations are just as susceptible of doing this by charging reinstatement fees to lapsed members. Why? Is the thinking that if you make it inconvenient to leave, custo/members will just stick around?

There seem to be two particular problems with this type of strategy:

  1. The focus isn’t on learning and building a better tomorrow. Why not try to figure out why Chuck is leaving? What can be improved? Who knows and Ameritrade doesn’t really seem to care. When bottom lines become more important than custo/member relationships, you effectively one of your most vital assets at risk.
  2. Why use a stick when a carrot will do better? Why make it punishment to leave when it can be a delight to stay? For associations, could you give your custo/members a reward for renewing early? For companies, could you give your custo/member a discount for loyally buying from you?

Let’s just listen and learn for a change. Isn’t that the foundation for a better relationship, anyway?

Harness The Power Of The Testimonial

by on June 22, 2005 in Business

John Jantsch offers some good suggestions for how to develop the case study as testimonial. In Involve Your Clients In Their Story, he recommends these four questions as the basis of a one page case study:

  1. What solution were you seeking when you hired us?
  2. What did/do we provide that you value the most?
  3. What has been the result of working with us?
  4. What would you tell others who are considering hiring us?

If your association is looking to harness the power of the member testimonial, John’s questions might be slightly tweaked like so:

  1. What challenge or problem were you seeking a solution for?
  2. What did/do we provide that you value the most?
  3. What has been the result of your membership with us?
  4. What would you tell others who are considering joining us?

Why do your members continue to renew? What’s the lasting value? If your members are like most, they want their association to help them solve a problem.

Now capture that data in a powerful testimonial. Gather ten or twenty more. Let the member tell their story and give them the tools to share their story with other potential members. It’s word of mouth marketing like this that builds ever-increasing and long-lasting connections. As John points out, it creates relationships where association and member are now responsible for each other’s success:

I believe fully that doing business long term means
creating relationships – in any healthy relationship both parties have
a responsibility to help each other get what they want. If you are not
training your clients to expect to help you build your business, as you
help them get what they want, you are setting yourself up for a short
term relationship.

The Focus On The Custo/Member

by on June 21, 2005 in Business

I’ve been sitting on the sidelines for a few months observing how companies and associations connect with one of their most vital assets: their customers and members (since these two groups share so much in common, I’ve coined the term custo/member). What I’ve noticed is this: the best businesses are embracing the natural attraction that occurs when marketing, service, and design are aligned with the desires of their custo/members. They’re creating passionate custo/members by energetically creating the conditions for loyalty and return business.

Now I’m back as an active participant; I’m the Director of Membership for a non-profit professional society. While non-profits have been pulling ideas for the corporate world for a while, I think the for-profits could learn a bit from how associations relate with their members. My hope is that this blog will be of value to both types of businesses and those who work for them.

This is the time to do something different, something that’s never been done before. Our custo/members are waiting, but not for long. It’s up to us to connect to them in deeper, more meaningful ways. Now, let’s have some fun.