AlliedInput

I recently completed a membership needs study for a group and one of the questions that came up was, “How do we figure out who the dissatisfied members are and fix them?” This question came about after they saw the following chart, which shows the member’s satisfaction from the highest to the lowest. In addition, we looked at their loyalty metrics, which showed that most members in the circled group would potentially not be renewing and/or continuing with their membership to the group.

So What Should They Do?

Simply go after and find out who the dissatisfied members are and try and help them? Or figure out what is causing the dissatisfaction and develop a long-term strategic plan to address what is causing the dissatisfaction and improving everyone’s experience? (Yes, that was a bit leading.) Each of these options has benefits and potential risks. Let’s take a look at each.

Finding the Dissatisfied Members and Satisfying Them

The leadership team for this membership group now knows there are six members who have rated their satisfaction as being low and potentially not renewing. To help them locate these members they could:

- Implement tracking in the survey - this removes the option for anonymity and could change how people answer the questionnaire.

- Add very specific demographic questions - this helps in trying to figure out who the people are through their responses.

- Ask them for their contact information in the questionnaire - this is very straight forward and something that should be left optional.

Fixing the Cause of Dissatisfaction - Developing a Strategic Plan

For me, this seems very basic. After doing research for 20 years and developing C-level strategies for improvement, it sounds like the best option. Of course, this does not usually return an immediate benefit like helping just the dissatisfied people potentially could. Also, it takes dedication to implement a strategy versus a tactic. How this works:

- Identify the critical dissatisfaction indicators

- Uncover the root causes of what is causing these indicators

- Develop a plan to address these root causes

- Track and adjust the plan through implementation

What Did This Membership Group Do?

They decided on developing and implementing a strategic plan to help improve the entire membership. They set up a series of steps and have followed through on each step of their plan, which focused on their strengths and fixed their weaknesses.

What Has Been the Outcome?

They actually grew larger even though part of their plan was to clean out the old, dead, non-supporting members. The keys for this kind of return are:

- Accurate and actionable information

- A focused leadership team that wants to help all members

- Goals that are focused on benefiting the group as a whole

It’s really tough to stay focused and know that you have the right information to act on. Don’t get side tracked with one or two people’s comments and don’t just focus on one or two things. You need an accurate and clear picture before you proceed! Don’t be a knee jerker, be a powerful leader.

Upcoming topics:

Survey goals - What are you doing with your results, if anything?

Question formats
- What are you after with your question?
- The confusion of a combo question.
- What do you mean by that?

Question wording - the good, the bad and the really ugly