Connect the dots

Keeping members happy keeps them engaged, just as keeping customers happy keeps them coming back for more.

Associations and affinity groups have to keep their "customers" happy, too.

Give them reasons to renew with:

• great programming
• superb customer service.

Make yours an organization they feel involved in and to which they want to belong:
Samrt, savvy and responsive to their needs.

More advice for Best Practices for Affinity Groups is found at the Assn Practicum blog.

For more about Membership and Customer Service, click here.

When your customers are members

What's the difference between "members" and "customers?"

By 吉田宅浪 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Excerpted from ForwardMetrics article published Jun 3, 2013.

The members of an affinity group-- trade association, alumni club, professional association-- are far more
vested in the company they keep than the patrons of drugstore or clothier, for instance.

 Hence, the "rewards" cards and other membership-like incentives that retailers create in order to turn
shoppers into "members."

Customer servi ce for your members is based on a more personal relationship. Find ways to keep
it that way:

• Answer all their questions;
• Address all their concerns;
• Acknowledge that belonging creates a special bond