Membership Matters

Communications are crucial when it comes to membership matters. Organisations which depend on membership subscriptions to operate can be in danger of turning away their basic income by overlooking the value of member communications. Taking members for granted is a recipe for disaster. If a member is ever left wondering what value there is to be derived from their membership, then you have a problem. Sales and marketing departments can often, understandably, be focused on winning new business. However, if the balance between that and keeping good relationships with exiting customer isn’t maintained, then they could risk alienating existing customers and find themselves in a never-ending cycling replenishing membership numbers rather than building on them. There is an art to member communications, as it can be a fine balancing act of keeping your members informed of what is available to them without becoming an overbearing nuisance whose contacts and calls become an irritation. The key to managing the right levels of communications with your members is to establish the preferred forms and frequency of communications when a member is first signed up. Also, at sign-up stage your sales and account management staff need to be absolutely sure that the new member is aware of all of the benefits which their membership brings and how to access them if they are not automatically delivered. When signing businesses up as members, you may find that the person who registers for the membership is not always the best person for future communications to go to. There may be a number of interested parties within an organisation, so make sure get the contact details of all the right people and their preferred forms of contact. Getting your communications right means putting the right efforts into getting to know your customers. Communication requirements won’t be the same for each member, so you need to be prepared to tailor your activities accordingly. Your communications team should be as skilled in listening to their customers as they are at communicating to them. When communications are all one way, engagement will quickly die away. If you are a skilled communications professional and relish the challenge of building the perfect communications strategy, look out for that next career step in vacancies being advertised by marketing recruitment agencies in Shropshire. If you are keen to work in a membership-based organisation, then ask marketing recruitment agencies in Shropshire if they already work with such companies and look for an introduction, even if only speculatively.