Do you know who your most engaged and influential constituents are? I am an engaged Holiday Inn customer. I stay there 10+ times per year, use their branded credit card and have achieved Platinum status and when I check in to any of their hotels the staff know it.
Every night of my August 1,100+ mile trip to ASAE Dallas I stayed in a Holiday Inn. At each check-in, they did little things to make me feel special including:
Every night of my August 1,100+ mile trip to ASAE Dallas I stayed in a Holiday Inn. At each check-in, they did little things to make me feel special including:
- Made sure my room was on the first floor
- Had a newspaper at my door every morning
- Gave me the AAA rate even though I am not a AAA member
None of this is earth shattering but it made me feel good about being a Holiday Inn customer.
This got me thinking, “what is your association doing for your most engaged members?” Engagement could mean a lot of things including:
- Committee members
- Those active on social media with regards to your organization
- Long term members
- Members that consistently attend conferences
Call to Action:
- Determine member scoring – what is important to your organization? Is it events attended, money spent, committee participation, etc?
- Make sure that staff can immediately tell from a customer’s record how engaged they are. Ideally a simple visual would be available. Here is an example from Nimble AMS’ engagement engine:
- Outline what staff should do differently when a ‘Priority Club’ member calls. Here are some ideas:
- Thank them for their committee participation, their latest tweet promoting the organization or latest purchase
- Complement them on their continuous years of being a member
- Give them a discount code for next event registration
** Remember it does not have to be anything big – thank you’s and acknowledgements go a long way. **
Extra Credit:
- Expose engagement score to member, perhaps through your member self service portal, with tips for raising their score (fill out twitter handle and get 20 points for example). This simple gamification is remarkably effective and is a staple on sites like LinkedIn and Foursquare.
- Have an internal team do something special for the most engaged (say the top 2%). Perhaps send them a book or gift with a handwritten note. These top people are very special – treat them as such.
- Look to better engage the un-engaged (i.e. those with a low score). When they call, ask probing questions. Get them started on getting more points. “Do you have a twitter handle you can share with me? It could add 20 points to your member score – halfway to a discount on your next event.” Perhaps focus one of your most engaged members to reach out to or be a mentor to a non-engaged member who is local (this could add points to each member’s record).
