Statistics have show that it’s five times cheaper on average to keep an existing client and/or member, versus finding and getting a new one. This is especially true in today’s market where it takes more than 25 touches before someone will commit to buy, as opposed to five years ago when it took just five touches.
We’ve been working with a number of association groups to help them understand and retain members. Through our work we’ve discovered a very interesting relationship between satisfaction scores and loyalty or renewing. The basic thought was if you’re not overly happy or satisfied, you probably won’t renew. We’ve found this to be true in some cases. In addition, there are a number of natural reasons that will cause people to not renew (move, job change, personal factors) and their satisfaction could be very high.
A real interesting piece of data we found is that satisfaction can be very low and it doesn’t impact a person’s renewing their membership within a group. People will still renew even if they’re not happy, as long as one thing is not negatively impacting them.
We discovered there’s a linchpin in each group, which is the key reason why people won’t renew and it’s different for each group.
What Are Some Linchpins?
COST
One of the first is cost. This was a bit of a surprise, since cost is also the most common off-the-cuff answer for why someone doesn’t renew or buy something. However, it’s also one of the linchpins for renewing.
If this is your group’s linchpin, some things to think about are:
- Can you offer alternative pricing without compromising the benefits of the group?
- Can you clarify what goes into the pricing, so people understand the value of the cost?
- Have you clearly defined and highlighted the benefits of membership for each person?
When it comes to something like cost, knowing what goes into the pricing helps people understand the reason for the price. Don’t be afraid to talk about it. It makes things easier in the long run.
VALUE PROPOSITION
When you have a specific benefit (training, business growth, peer interaction, etc.) for being a member and your patrons don’t realize this benefit, they will leave. If your group is clearly defined with a specific purpose, you need to ensure that it’s tracking that purpose. Some examples are:
- If it’s referrals and/or business, you need to make sure everyone has the tools and ability to get recommendations.
- If you’re a politically inspired group, you need to ensure that all your members have the information they need to impact politics.
- If you’re a group designed to support disadvantaged people, make sure you have a specific focus on who, why and what.
All groups have a purpose. Make certain your group is meeting its goals and be very clear with the membership.
Conclusion
Know what your members are expecting from their membership. What is important to them? What is your group’s value proposition? What are you communicating? For example:
- Building strong relationships with other members
- Peer-interaction
- Events
- Building their businesses
If these are part of your group’s mission and they’re important to your membership, in priority order, you need to focus on helping your members get from point 1 to 4. If you’re focusing on things that are NOT important to your members, you need to reevaluate either your mission and/or your purpose because this will not retain members.
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