Membership-based organizations strive to
engage with their members as a means to deliver value and strengthen the bonds
they have with their constituents. But measuring engagement can be challenging.
Organizations often look to website login frequency, event attendance or
surveys to understand membership engagement broadly, at an individual level or
both. True many of these measures are associated with engagement, but they
don’t always accurately measure a member’s satisfaction or their actual
“engagement” with the association.
There is another simple metric you can use
to better understand engagement and it’s related to the one thing every
association wants – no, needs – their members to do annually: renew. Renewal
speed is a metric that is often overlooked.
Surprisingly, many organizations don’t
track renewal speed, but this underused measure can be calculated for each and
every member, assessed in aggregate or in segments, tracked over time and
compared with historical trends.
Faster
renewal = greater member satisfaction
If members derive great value from their
association they are most likely to renew; this is a pretty logical assertion.
It stands to reason that those members who find the greatest value are in turn
the most engaged and would renew their membership quite quickly. Therefore,
measuring a member’s or membership segment’s renewal speed – the number of days
between the announcement of the renewal window and the member renewing their
membership – provides an excellent idea of their commitment to and engagement
with their association as defined by their behaviour.
Multidimensional
marketing opportunities
From a different perspective, segmenting
members based on the speed at which they renew may reveal some distinct and
potentially actionable insights. Categorizing members as eager, indifferent or
laggard can lead to a better understanding of member motivation and their
perception of association value. These findings can in turn lead to different
marketing objectives, communication treatments and possible promotional
offerings for different segments.
Quick
cash flow
By placing renewal speed on the membership
dashboard, an organization’s senior management team will be able to review and
validate standard member satisfaction metrics (e.g., Net Promoter Score or NPS)
with a holistic behavioural measure of engagement. An association should focus
on generating not only healthy membership renewal rates but also speedy
renewals. Faster renewal results in positive cash flow impacts and incremental
association funding (more interest). Simple calculations show that an
association with 20,000 members who pay annual dues of $500 can generate an
additional $3,300 by improving renewal speed by 10%. Often this additional
revenue is enough to finance a good portion of the renewal campaign itself.
Long
view, loss prevention
Finally, understanding if a member’s
renewal speed is improving or deteriorating can indicate whether their
engagement is waxing or waning. This information can trigger customized marketing
campaigns designed to re-engage and recover lost interest. It can also provide
a marker for a segment of the membership upon which engagement and membership
value research can be conducted.
What
to do with this information today?
If you are a member-based organization
wishing to measure your members’ engagement, consider looking into renewal
speed. The most engaged members will renew their memberships more quickly than
less engaged members. This information will help your organization better
understand your members’ overall engagement and related satisfaction.
If you think improved renewal speed will
help your organization, start with the following:
·
Review your current data and
build a business case for further investment.
·
Set your benchmarks.
·
Set up or augment your
dashboard.
Halmyre Vice-President David Lloyd specializes in business intelligence, program development and service design. Prior to joining Halmyre, David served on various leadership teams at ING Direct/Tangerine and was integral in shaping the bank's product positioning and industry-leading customer service. David is an avid fan of college basketball, live music and outdoor life, but his #1 priority is raising his teenage son.