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April 20, 2016 By Amanda Kaiser

There are Important Things We May Not Know About the Association

There are Some Things We May Not Know About the Association

There are some things about the association we may not know unless we ask members. We may not know:

  • the website is buggy
  • registration is convoluted
  • our long-time members are disengaging
  • others are offering a better value than we are
  • we use different words than our members use
  • we are solving a problem members have already solved

We may not know about the big things and the little things, especially the little things, that take nips out of our member’s experience.

Members don’t usually offer up that kind of information. They worry about hurting feelings. They fear the message may not be well received. They may not have time. Think of all the times you had a below average experience and quietly made the decision to never come back.

We may not know the opportunities we are missing.

We may not know, but we can ask.

We shouldn’t ask questions like: what’s wrong with the website? Or why don’t you engage more? Or how can we solve your problem? Rather we can ask: what is using the website like? What problems does the association solve for you? What are your biggest professional challenges?

We shouldn’t guess all the possible answers, instead we can ask open ended questions and listen neutrally and carefully to the answers.

When you are ready to ask members all of the questions you are so curious about, let’s talk.

Onward!

Related articles:

  • Slow data vs. fast data
  • You analyzed member data and conducted surveys, here’s what is next
  • It is easy to misinterpret members’ opinions when observing their behavior

Filed Under: Member Research Tagged With: association strategy, member experience, member insights, member research, plussing, qualitative member reserach

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