Get your member data in shape to avoid the lapse and crush your goals!
When you think about member retention, you might not think about the state of your member data. But maybe it’s time to start.
In a recent association trends study from Community Brands, only 36 percent of association professionals who responded to the study’s survey say the state of their member data is very good or excellent. They also say the biggest challenge they have with data is joining member data from various sources together to paint a clear picture of members.
The study also suggests that associations with poor member retention in the past year tend to report worse member data. And lapsed members are less likely than current ones to say they feel their organization understands their needs.
What does all of this mean? The study’s findings point at the importance of communicating with members in a more personalized way. That means sending them more targeted content to deliver greater value and show you understand them, which translates to happier members and fewer lapses.
And to do this, you need to get a handle on your data.
So, what can you do to get your member data in shape? Tidying your data and keeping it in check can make a big impact on your membership goals. Here are some best practices to help you get started:
- Tackle categories. Instead of trying to tidy your data all at once, create a list of the types of member data you want to clean and organize, and then tackle each category one-by-one – even if data from the category is stored in multiple systems. This approach helps to avoid a situation in which you thought you organized all of one type of data only to come across more of that same type of data in another system.
- Sort. Consider which data you really need to keep. For each piece of data, ask yourself if your organization will ever really use that data. If the answer is not a solid “yes,” then acknowledge that it served its purpose at one time but may no longer be useful, consider archiving it. Especially due to GDPR regulations regarding data storage. In the first 20 months of GDPR regulations being live, the regulators issued hundreds of companies fines totaling more than $113 million. Be sure to purge unneeded data.
- Avoid silos. For the data you decide to keep, make sure you organize it in a single place, versus having it scattered in multiple systems. Here are some ways to break down data silos in your association:
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- Evaluate your systems. Review each system and tool your association is using to collect and store data. For each one, consider if it’s serving a unique purpose or if you can consolidate it with another system or tool.
- Move to a modern association management software (AMS) system. Move to an AMS system that allows you to collect and manage member data in one central location. Moving to a modern AMS system will allow you to easily keep member data updated and secure as well as give you a complete view of your member data through reports and dashboards. For example, storing all of your member data in an AMS system like Nimble AMS gives you a 360-degree view of all of your member relationships. This makes it much easier to see the data you have and use it to deliver a great member experience.
- Evaluate your systems. Review each system and tool your association is using to collect and store data. For each one, consider if it’s serving a unique purpose or if you can consolidate it with another system or tool.
TIP: The Winter ’22 release of Nimble AMS includes multiple enhancements to help you manage your data, including email verification for new account creation (to avoid spam accounts that clutter your data) and a multifactor authentication (MFA) tool to help you add data privacy and security measures to your data.
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- Integrate your technology systems. Even after moving to a new AMS system, you might still have other systems for specific purposes. Be sure to integrate other technology systems with your AMS so your entire organization can look to your AMS for the most accurate, updated information. Modern technology, like Nimble AMS, integrates with thousands of available integrations on the Salesforce AppExchange.
Learn more
Nimble AMS helps you avoid these common member mistakes (and more)! Find out more about the personalization, AI, predictive analytics, and other features included in Nimble AMS: Explore Nimble AMS.
