The AMS you choose today impacts the next generation of staff and members
As you evaluate association management software, it’s important to think about your organization’s needs today. But don’t forget about how your decision will affect your association in the future.
As your association grows and your member programs advance, it’s time to look at new technology to support your evolving needs. Your business case for new association technology should, of course, address your organization’s current needs. But you should also consider how the technology choice you make today will impact tomorrow’s members and staff.
Here are five things to consider as you think about how your choice of association management software (AMS) will impact the next generation.
Recruiting top notch employees
You can’t deliver a great member experience without great staff. As people become increasingly tech savvy, the association technology you have in place will affect your ability to recruit talented employees today and for years to come.
Be sure to select an AMS solution that’s attractive to employees. For example, Nimble AMS is built on the Salesforce platform partly because Salesforce makes product training fun and easy. Salesforce offers certifications that are highly desirable in today’s workplace, allowing you to offer your employees skills and certifications to help them grow their careers as well as attract top-notch talent looking to use their certifications in a Salesforce-driven organization.
Salesforce has even extended its training to the next generation of employees by offering Salesforce Student Programs to help students and career changers learn in-demand job skills.
Delivering member services more efficiently
With the fast pace of digital communications in today’s evolving business world, workflow automation has taken on even more significance for associations. With workflow automation technology, you set up business rules in software that automatically route data and files between people and systems.
By choosing an AMS solution with easy-to-use workflow automation tools, you can save time by automating routine, manual tasks. Your staff can work more efficiently and spend more time creating a great member experience – no matter how member expectations evolve in the future.
TIP: Nimble AMS leverages Salesforce Process Builder to allow your staff to save valuable time by automating complex business processes. Without code, your staff can specify process criteria to do things like automatically update or create new records, emails, and tasks or submit approval requests – all in a few simple steps.
Providing a personalized experience
Leading companies like Netflix and Amazon use modern technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to connect with consumers and provide the personalized experiences we’ve all come to expect. As for-profit companies provide these types of increasingly personalized experiences, your members expect the same in more areas of their lives – including their experience with your association.
To ensure your staff of tomorrow can meet the demands of future members, choose an AMS solution that allows your staff to easily collect, analyze, and use member data to deliver a personalized technology experience. For example, using Salesforce platform-based Nimble AMS, which leverages the Salesforce Einstein AI technology, associations can become smarter, more predictive, and more in tune with what members need, want, and expect.
TIP: Nimble AMS allows you to leverage Salesforce Prediction Builder, which enables point-and-click AI. Using this technology, you can ask Einstein to give guidance and make predictions, and then empower staff with tools to act upon what it finds. An example: It can create a call down list for your membership director of high value members who are most likely not to renew.
Offering mobile access
For effective member engagement, offering a great mobile experience is simply a must-do these days. And mobile use is only growing. Mobile traffic was responsible for 52.2 percent of internet traffic in 2018 — compared to 50.3 percent from 2017.
According to the Digital Evolution Study, members (like many of us) are tied to their mobile devices. However, the same study found that mobile technology is an area members and professional member organizations alike give their organizations the lowest ratings. There’s also a big gap between member services offered on desktop versus what’s also offered on mobile devices.
To future-proof your association, be sure to select an AMS solution that allows your members to engage with your organization from their mobile devices. They should be able to do things such as access your online community, register and pay for events/dues, take learning courses, and view your job board and websites.
And, remember a mobile experience is important for your staff, too. They should be able to access your AMS from any mobile device, so they can stay connected and work efficiently on-the-go.
TIP: With Nimble AMS, your staff members have mobile access to member data, prospective member data, event registration information, reports, and more – whether they’re in the office, at home, or at your organization’s annual event. For example, your executive director can easily check a member’s history with your organization before going into a meeting with him or her, or reference important metrics at a glance and from the convenience of a mobile device.
Preparing for continuous innovation
Of course, technology and the expectations of members and staff around technology are changing rapidly. And, you don’t always know exactly what tomorrow will bring.
Your ability to embrace the latest technology and meet expectations depends heavily on the AMS you use. One of the best ways to prepare for and incorporate technology trends (now and in the future) is to use software like Nimble AMS that offers continuous delivery so the product includes and supports the latest and greatest features. It also offers a framework first approach that ensures the software is as adaptable as possible to take advantage of new technology innovations that are surely headed your way.
