Three Words that will see your Association Benefit from CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has come a long way in terms of consumers now being more familiar with the concept. The fact is that many organisations know what a CRM is, however, most associations are still not using the system very well, and there are a few reasons for this. Xero conducted research on 600 clients currently using a variety of CRM applications, and found that only 20% are using them correctly. You may be asking what the correct outcome is. In just three words the correct process will be explained.

1. Automation

Are you aware which marketing materials each member is receiving? Or, if someone hasn’t received a newsletter for the past six months, why not? Are you aware if a member's support question has been answered, or by who and when? Are overdue memberships falling through the cracks? Do you know how many new leads/ new members you received from your latest conference? These are all questions that should be answered with a yes and if not, you need to review your automated processes.

All good association management software (AMS) will have a little bit of automation, and the great ones will have even more. If your current association membership system does not have automated capabilities partnered with accounting software such as Xero, then you may need to re-look at ways to make life easier. Automation is the key, and you need to make sure you’re not repeating tasks or duplicating data entry.

By automating your current business processes with a CRM membership website you are creating a much quicker, faster and more productive solution for your association.

2. Integration

An integrated association membership system should not be isolated on its own - it should be talking to other systems. This means your CRM software should be exchanging data and information with your website, ecommerce, accounting and events system and member portal. So make sure that when you select an association management software program, it’s integrated or linked with these systems.

When you are viewing members information you want to be able to see all of their activates, emails, notes along with their membership and event history and other CRM data. The Member Evolution member database software integrates with all applications across the database, creating a seamless user journey for not only staff but for all members and stakeholders involved.

The integration of the member management solution allows staff to create targeted lists that can be easily exported to a CSV file to use via email or targeted email marketing campaigns. The idea is to have all the data in a centralised location. Don’t waste time duplicating data - integrate.

3. Reporting

Reporting is essential to the day-to-day operation of an association, and if you’re not running reports on a daily or weekly basis then you may need to update or change your business processes. A CRM is nothing more than a huge database with information stored under headings, where everything is easy to find and at your fingertips. Forget the bells and whistles, associations that are excelling are getting good, relevant and timely data out of their systems and using that data to run their organisations.

The type of report you need to include is called a pipeline report. This report shows the number of members that are at a certain phase of the membership purchasing scale. For example; payment pending, declined or approved and then, when the member payment has been approved, their membership status needs to be approved.

If any issues do arise from members, an issues report is needed where staff can be kept up-to-date with any problems, cases, tickets or calls that need addressing. You need to know who has been assigned which task, how long it’s been a problem and a timeline for to fix the problem. The organisation then needs to know the issue has been resolved and the ticket closed. These reports should all be automatic and frequent, allowing you to effectively and efficiently manage your members.

If you would like to know more about the Member Evolution Association Management Software and how we can assist your needs, please contact us today or request a demo to find out how our solution can be customised to suit your business processes.