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Standard methods of measuring membership performance are becoming inefficient and inadequate. They look backwards at past results and do not flag the key indicators we need to manage and grow membership in the prevailing environment. They tell us what happened - but not necessarily why it happened.Nowadays, we need to understand cause and effect - what is behind the high level numbers, and what is the chain of events that impact upon performance?Each step on the mutual membership journey has a profound knock on effect.Many membership bodies think they are OK because things are apparently stable “there are no obvious problems, so we must be in good shape”. In reality, the very serious question is:
Is it a false sense of comfort and/or security, and……will current trends continue, or are we simply lagging the downturn seen elsewhere?
The quite dramatic challenges facing most membership bodies today require new measures, and historical performance levels are not future guarantees.We need to examine what is going on underneath the surface and not accept the apparently obvious.A good example of making high level assumptions and not looking closely enough at the detail is how most people calculate retention.Traditionally, retention performance is measured, often only once a year, at a total membership level and a bit like this:
How many did I have (or think I had), and how many have I still got?How many did I have last time, and is it fewer or more than now?
This is misleading as the overall figure often disguises much higher early year’s losses and individual behaviour variations.For most, top level retention is still being driven by some faithful friends…
…unfortunately, they won’t be around for much longer.
The generally accepted way to measure membership performance is to arrive at fairly simplistic calculations based upon:
Recruitment - How many have joined us? Retention - How many have left us?Renewal - How many renewed, and how much income have we generated?
These figures are then compared with the same statistics from last year, or maybe last month, and conclusions are drawn accordingly.These are clearly the vital signs, but given the volatile nature of the membership world, comparison is interesting, but not indicative.Again, the figures are usually at the total membership level and where there is some drilling down, it tends to measure the effect, not examine the cause.It’s normally about numbers and cash; very few measure the more subtle drivers of performance and are therefore unable to forecast with any certainty.Even fewer measure “People” progress – is all OK on the membership journey?
Retention isn’t just about the fallout from the back end of the renewal process!Retention isn’t a function – it’s an outcome of how everyone treats members:
So, we need to measure what everyone is doing to keep our members happy!
We must set and measure internal Service Level Agreements to ensure consistent standards of delivery to our members.This will also ensure that we show a consistent face to the member irrespective of whom within the organisation they are interacting with.
Getting the right fit means we have happy members!
How does the changing climate impact membership next year and in the future?Would the trough be lower in 5 years time?Early retirement age?Younger members value perception?
It’s not the outcome of a battle, nor a simple end of renewal round count up.It’s about what we do, how we do it, and how our members respond to us.We need to understand and measure trends, patterns and member habits:
How people (that’s who our members are, but we sometimes forget) progress through the mutual membership journey is a key measurement.Not many membership bodies give it much thought – but they will have to!
So, we must set targets and measure every step along the way.
Most membership bodies like to measure “member satisfaction”.Traditionally, this done via a member survey every year, or every few years.It’s normally hard copy or on-line and the faithful few respond diligently.This is flawed:
What is it that we are hoping to measure (we haven’t seen a definitive statement of what “satisfaction” actually means recently)?We need to know how our members feel every step of the way.We need engagement and feedback at all the critical points.We can’t wait a year or more to find out what members think of us.
We need a constant finger on the pulse, not ad hoc medical check ups.