How often should you be surveying members?

Most people would rather stay silent than make a complaint, so the chances are if one member is complaining others are feeling it too. There are always exceptions to this, and every organisation tends to have a serial complainer that isn’t happy about anything! 

The lesson here is that even those serial complainers can give you ideas that are great for the organisation. I was working with an organisation where a member over a period of four years had been requesting a member lookup directory.  We took this on board and designed an online portal to include a directory, which turned out to be a great success. The organisation had interstate members meeting up on business trips and increased member engagement through the online portal by 300%. 

While one complaint doesn't represent the views of the majority, I believe it is always best to check in with your members to see if it is actually something that you need to address or is the next great idea for member engagement. 

There are several ways that you can do this; online surveys, polls on your portal or WhatsApp, but it’s on the phone, in person or via Zoom where the magic really happens. There are a few things that you want to encourage in your communication: honesty, what they love, what they dislike and what you could add to the offering to make it better value. 

Here is a line from our survey scripts that we often use when surveying members for our clients:

“We would love your honest feedback, the good, the bad and the ugly, we won’t be offended as we want to make sure you are getting the most out of our community”. 

So how often should you be surveying your members and with what tools?

Many member organisations tend to craft events and offerings around what they think will work, or be guided by the past. In my experience, thriving member communities always craft and develop their offering around data and adapt what members desire. If your members love to travel, why not look to host an annual conference overseas? If they are a bunch of foodies, host monthly dinners at great restaurants. 

Here at Mesher, we love helping to develop an offering that will see your member community thrive. If you need assistance crafting surveys, conducting member research and training staff. If you’d like to meet with us please reach out via hello@mesher.com.au.