If Not, Why Haven’t They?
You don’t get a second chance for first impression, that’s just crucial for everything we do in today’s business world. For associations, new member inquiry is the first point of contact and should be treated like prospect clients, prompt response with clear instructions on what’s offered through membership and the efficient process for membership application; most associations have these information on their site and probably thinking that’s enough; sometimes even when you do contact them either via voicemail or email, you are still being directed to the site like you haven’t tried yet. What really counts is the way associations interact with customers/clients, with the power of social media, there is no place to hide your customer satisfaction index. After reading Ellen Naylor’s article “Will Associations Go the Way of Print Media“, I feel the urge sharing my own experience with associations in my profession–information research, hopefully it’ll be lessons learned for associations going forward.
Back in March, when I was looking at few associations to join to keeping my skills current as well as expanding my network of contacts, I heard on LinkedIn that AIIM was running a promotion “Name Your Price” to help those impacted by economic downturn–either in-transition, or unemployed, to upgrade skills, to network with peers, to obtain industry/market knowledge; all at a price you think you can afford. I joined right away through LinkedIn, they provide a toll-free number to call and make sure I speak to real person, it was done within 5 minutes. I think this is a fantastic idea, not only do they care, they also act quickly to share our pain. I wanted to find out how other associations have been doing to help our professionals, so I contacted SCIP and SLA (note: since I hadn’t thought of being Independent, so I didn’t consider AIIP, but they should be a good example to benchmark in the future) and there started my interesting (thankfully, short) journey.
I emailed and phoned the their headquarters, no answer for two days. Did it again, another week passed by. I decided to go after local chapters, finally Jennifer Burns (@jennifereh, and I do appreciate her help), President-Elect at SLA Toronto 2010 Board, got back to me with regards different membership level, there was special for unemployed category for $35/year. This is not bad but it took me over a week to track them down, fill out the form and fax !! It cannot be done electronically, only membership renewal is online; please don’t ask me why. I vote for AIIM the winner in this competition, they’ve won over my loyalty. Ironically SCIP is the first one dropped out the race given the lack of communications and poor customer support, as for SLA I had to go through local chapter, then report back to headquarter. The whole process was not seamless, and it involved more people than it should be. AIIM is on LinkedIn answering my questions immediately, and on Twitter to show their support. It’s just excellent !
AIIM had another “Name Your Price” promotion in June for their Certificate Program, which usually costs lot more. As I was writing this post, I DM Atle Skjekkeland (@skjekkeland), Vice President, Professional Development at AIIM, asking if he can provide me with numbers on how successful was the promotions using the power of social media, within two hours I got this:
“We got 221 new professional members averaging $40 per order where normal price is $125, for IOA Information Organization and Access), we received 160 orders averaging $115 per person. The Standard price was $600 for members and $750 for non-members. Each campaign lasted 1day with 2-3 days to promote.”
Not only was I impressed with the speed of response but also how effectively operates Mr. Skjekkeland’s team is. It’s the best practice of operations in this exercise and people will make wise decision to stay if associations care enough to show them first.
Now that I have positive experience with AIIM started from social media, will I be their ambassador to refer other professions, will I spread the word if I know good things is happening at AIIM? You bet.
So if social media can help associations reach broader audience, provide better services, ultimately generate more revenue, why haven’t they utilized the power?
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