How the Digital World Can Help Serve Your Association’s Members

We all know the advantages to having a digital platform for members and association staff alike. But what could you implement into your technology strategy to actually better serve your members? While taking care of members in an in-person way may be what you’re used to and best at, that doesn’t take away from the need to respond and keep members happy on a digital platform. The truth is, members are reaching out on all different types of channels, so you need to keep an open ear to the digital world. So, how can you make sure your association has a member satisfaction strategy that encompasses both in-person and digital interactions?

‍Having one foot in both worlds will help you provide members with the ultimate experience in customer service. So, we’d like to show you a few ways the digital world can help better serve your association’s members and keep them happy. With our help, you won’t have to let members reaching out online go unnoticed ever again.

Social media: Pay attention

Odds are, your association is in the know when it comes to social media. But are you actually paying attention to your members on each and every social media platform? If your members are reaching out through social media, they’re going to want immediate feedback. It’s the nature of the beast- with the power of instant communication also comes the responsibility of taking care of member inquiries in a timely manner for the platform being used. While email allows for a slower response, social media has the tendency to draw in urgency to things. According to an article by Forbes, 72% of millennials and 47% of adults age 45 and over stated they would be more loyal to a brand if it were to respond to feedback on social media.

‍That’s right, your social media interactions matter- so be sure you’re making them count. Having an instant response strategy can help you eliminate the stress of coming up with responses for each and every social media message. If you can have a message set up that gives members a way to directly reach out to your association for help, you’ll give members what they want and give you time to take care of their needs.

Enlist your association’s staff

If your association is on a large scale, you may have more members to please than you can count on one hand (or maybe even one hundred hands). So, you may have to call on other members of your association’s staff to help get the job done. Customer service isn’t limited to just one member of your team; It’s best handled with all hands on deck. Having multiple people in your association’s team checking in on digital member service will help you make sure no stone goes unturned and no member goes unnoticed.

‍Setting up a digital customer service team within the staff you already have will help you disperse the work and take the load off of one singular person’s shoulders. It’s also a great way to give staff training on more skills that are highly valuable in a work setting. Training your association’s staff to be multifaceted will help everyone respond better to digital customer service- taking a lot of friction out of your current member satisfaction strategy.

Take any and all feedback

With the instantaneous features of the social media world comes a lot of different problems. One of these problems arises as feedback of all varieties- good, bad, and just plain unpleasant. While good feedback is great, negative feedback can leave a longer lasting impact on your association’s brand than you may expect. According to BrightLocal’s 2020 Local Consumer Review Study, 87% of consumers surveyed claim to read reviews on local businesses before making a purchasing decision. So, if your association has any negative reviews out there, potential new members are most likely going to see them. What can you do to solve this? You can use the bad feedback to learn more about what your members want. Analyzing negative feedback will help you learn a lot about what members really want in order to better satisfy them in the future. It also sets you up to eliminate some of that negative feedback from future audiences seeing it. By fixing problems, you’re also mending relationships with customers, so don’t take any bad feedback for granted.

‍With good feedback, it’s important to showcase this on your association’s digital platforms. Highlighting positive interactions on social media or on your association’s website in the form of testimonials will help those interested in your association get a better sense of the positive impact you make on members’ lives.

‍The digital world can be complicated and overwhelming, but not if you know how to take it on directly. Use our tips to have a better balance of how your association serves its members.