ASAE Annual Meeting

Innovate Your Survey Strategy

By Association Adviser staff • August 15, 2019

When it comes to surveying your members, Scott Douglas with the National Strength and Conditioning Association shared an easy hint during his Express Talk at the 2019 ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition: Less is more.

A big mistake most associations make is focusing too much on the data. The priority, he said, is the member, who associations have to start thinking of more as individuals and not pie charts. Members are not numbers, and statistics won’t solve your member recruitment and retention issues.

After all, most associations consider an 8 percent response rate for surveys good, but that leave a large silent majority who are providing you with no feedback at all. Instead, if you respect members’ time and keep surveying simple, you’ll get far more engagement.

To do that, Douglas shared three challenges for associations:

  1. Go short. Use single-question check-ins versus multi-question comprehensive surveys.
  2. Target the nuetrals. Learn how you can get them from middle of the road to great.
  3. Share verbatim feedback. Direct quotes about your members’ experiences carry an emotional punch.