Bridging The Gap Between Member Expectations and Association Technology

The importance of emerging technologies and member loyalty from the Community Brands Digital Member Study

The way we connect, communicate, learn, and shop is ever changing. Consequently, your association members have a heightened level of expectation for flexibility, convenience, and personalization in everything they do. But, association experiences are struggling keeping up with these growing member expectations.

In the  “Digital Member Study,“ Community Brands surveyed more than 1,000 association members and 400 association staff representatives to examine the gaps that exist between member expectations and association technology. We also wanted to look towards the future to better understand the importance of emerging technologies and how members would like to engage with their professional membership organizations.

Here’s a sneak peak of the first chapter.

Technology Drives Member Loyalty

There is a strong correlation between member loyalty and technology. Members who believe their professional membership organization is an early technology adopter are generally more satisfied and feel more connected to their organization (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). We see these loyalty metrics rise even more when members perceive their organization’s use of technology as “excellent.” However, only 26 percent of members surveyed currently rate their professional membership organization as “excellent” when it comes to technology usage.

 

Figure 3 looks at the breakdown of where members feel their professional membership organization falls on the technology adoption spectrum. Interestingly, professional membership organizations rate themselves even lower on the technology adoption spectrum than members (see Figure 4). Only one-third say their organization uses new technology ahead of the curve.

Knowing technology adoption and usage are at the forefront of the member experience, how can associations better align their technology strategies with what members are expecting?

If you haven’t had a chance to read the study, you can check out this helpful infographic to get up to speed quickly on highlights of the study.


About the Community Brands Digital Member Study
Community Brands surveyed more than 1,000 association members and 400 association staff representatives to examine the gaps that exist between member expectations and association technology. We also wanted to look towards the future to better understand the importance of emerging technologies and how members would like to engage with their professional membership organizations. Access the full study here.

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