Essential Surveys

Membership organizations are unique because each individual member (or individual business) made a deliberate decision to associate themselves with the organization. This commitment, whether of money, time, or ideology, means your members have a vested interest in the success of your organization. Many members also have a deep concern about what the organization stands for and how it is operated.

Members want to feel good about their decision to join. They want to feel that being a member has value, either for themselves, for others, or for a cause they care about.

Delivering on that value - so members will feel proud of their association with the organization - is critical to success.

Value comes from a deep understanding of your members and their values and opinions. This understanding is key to keeping the organization vital and moving forward. After all, your members should be the organization's best ambassadors.

Membership surveys are the best tool to develop that deep understanding of your membership, and fortunately, because members want the organization to be successful, they are motivated to share their opinions.

The only way to really know what your members think, want, or will support, is to ask them. It just makes sense. Industry trends and studies are interesting and a good starting point, but are no substitute for information from your own members.

A membership survey can explore a variety of topics to provide direction for both near-term and long-term planning:

• Member Involvement: What makes membership worthwhile? What motivates people to join? What motivates them to renew? These are fundamental questions for every membership organization.
• Preferences & Priorities: On which issues should the organization focus its resources? Understanding the priorities of the membership can make the organization more relevant.
• Service Quality: Members have higher service expectations than ordinary retail customers. Great service can have multiple dimensions ... it's more than just friendliness. In some organizations, responsiveness is most important, in other organizations it's expertise. Find out where you are meeting, exceeding, or failing to meet members expectations.
• Programs & Activities: Who participates in the programs and activities you provide? Who doesn't ... and why? How relevant are these programs to your members? Information from members can provide direction to add or modify programs and increase participation.
• Benefits & Amenities: What do you provide that can only be received through membership? Benefits may be philosophical, emotional, physical or financial. A survey can explore which benefits and amenities are valued by different segments of the membership. It can also explore what it was that motivated members to join, and if they feel the benefits justify continued membership.
• Facilities: For many membership organizations, like museums, health clubs, and recreation or entertainment organizations, facilities are a key element driving member involvement and satisfaction. Members can evaluate the pros and cons of facilities across many dimensions, such as location, atmosphere, cleanliness, equipment, lighting, amenities, and personal safety.
• Newsletters, Websites, & Other Communication: Some organizations rely heavily on these resource-intensive communication vehicles. A survey can help maximize the effectiveness of newsletters, websites and other communications by evaluating usability and identifying what is most interesting and relevant to members.
• Events: Events require substantial participation to be successful. They are also expensive to produce. Surveys can be used to plan and evaluate events, and to make decisions about the types of events to stage. In some cases surveys can be incorporated into an event.

Surveys can also be used to address a single topic in greater detail. The lower production cost of online surveys makes this option feasible for many organizations.

Surveys provide knowledge about the overall membership and membership segments, such as young members, new members, long-time members, or sustaining contributors. Results are also analyzed by demographic and lifestyle factors. When the membership is comprised of organizations instead of individuals, business or organization characteristics like size, industry classification, and other business demographics are used.

Don't write-off the members that don't renew. Survey them instead. Knowing why they didn't renew their membership is critical information. What benefits were they looking for that they didn't find? How did the organization fail to meet their expectations? These are questions that must be answered to turn around declining enrollment.

In some cases it is possible to survey non-members. Are non-members aware of the organization? If so, do they agree with the organization's mission? Why haven't they joined? What would make membership worthwhile? This is valuable information to build membership.

Essential Surveys: Membership Survey Specialists

• Expertise: Anyone can design a survey, but few do it right. With over 20 years experience in the business, we know who to survey, how to design the questions, and how to analyze the data.
• Custom-Design: Every organization is unique and so is every survey. We take the time to understand the characteristics and issues of importance to your organization and membership.
• Attention to Detail: We're very "hands-on". Over-reliance on automation can sterilize a survey. We study members' comments - a manual time-consuming process that puts meat on the bones of research and makes results understandable and relevant.
• Clarity: Our analysis provides clear, concise "member-based" insights. You receive results that are straightforward, reliable, and easy to use. Our reports will be on your desk - not on the shelf.

You don't make important decisions by guessing, so don't guess when conducting a survey. It pays to use a professional. A well designed survey provides powerful decision-making information. Give us a call and let's discuss how a survey can be used to get the information you need to move your organization forward.

Essential Surveys
PO Box 872 Bremerton, WA 98337
360.792.9117