Insight 2020 – Into Your Members’ Thinking and Across Associations

Do you want 2020 to look different – better – than 2019?
It’s time to try something new. We have an idea.

You’re in the customer loyalty business – continuously working on your portfolio, your strategic initiatives, services and offerings to deliver more value to your members.

How do you get even better at that?

In 2020, we want to help you see your own association as your members see you, to help you assess both value and satisfaction and grow a more loyal membership.

To do that, we’re facilitating a survey to members across 25 associations. A survey different from any prior research you ever conducted.

If any one of these thoughts is going through your head, read on.

• I’m not sure by fact how valuable our services are. We “think” they are valuable; we do so many things right.
• We are open to finding out what members think.
• We know what members think. We are absolutely confident they find us valuable.
• Something is not quite right with how we connect with members. My intuition tells me this but I don’t have facts about why.
• I need member input to decide how to prioritize, but it’s time consuming to do the research. We don’t have the staff, or know-how to do it ourselves.
• We keep coming up with new ideas but have not vetted them with our members.
• We need data to feed strategic planning and/or value proposition decisions.
• We say we want to be transparent; This is a way to be as transparent as possible to make sure we’re living up to our commitments.

We call this project a Communications Collective.

Join a group of your peers (association executives or as we like to call you, the Communications Collective) who are looking for new ways to solve similar problems. Our first initiative as a “collective” will be a one-of-a-kind research project: A survey to members across multiple association sizes and types to find out, “What are they really thinking?”

We’ll use a proven research process administered one time to assess how members perceive your association.

When you join, you’ll get:

• A survey created and delivered by a credible 3rd party.
• Insight into what your members are most satisfied with and find most valuable about your association. You get to pick one of the write-in questions.
• Someone to do the work and share the cost.
• Data on 3 diverse groups of members (plus your overall membership, excluding affiliates).
• Qualitative and quantitative results to use in your future planning.
• Ideas about how to create a more loyal and satisfied membership.
• A view into how you stack up against other similar associations.
• Your Net Promoter Score – one of the world’s most common customer service metrics.
• Data to build on prior research.
• Confidence that your results are statistically valid (we’ll do the math to help make sure you get the right number of responses).
• Anonymity: we won’t share your details without permission.
• Support: we’re full of ideas and tools to help you promote the survey and get responses.

Keep going to learn more!

1. See the FAQs below for answers about the project and more information and resources about the value of member research.
2. Click here to email Kat anytime you have a question.
3. Ready to say, “Let’s go!” Click here to save your spot. We’ll reach out to give you more information and get started.

The finer points.

What’s the timeline?
Surveys will deploy in April. We’ll hold weekly updates to tell you your response rates. Formal findings from the project will be released late summer of 2020.

Do we (the association) send the survey?
No, nSight sends the surveys. This reassures members of its confidentiality. You’ll send an email in advance of the deployment (we provide the email content) to tell members the survey is coming.

What’s the cost to participate?
Much less than you’d normally pay for a professional survey. Here are fees by association size:

How do I submit my fee?
We’ll send you an invoice and you simply mail us a check.

What questions will you ask?
10 questions centered on value and satisfaction. You get to choose one of the write-in questions. We’ll email you the question list once you sign up and we get your payment.

How will I get enough responses?
An incentive always helps. We’ll give you ideas for that, plus tools to promote the survey and tell members “what’s in it for them”.

What’s a Net Promoter Score?
It’s one number, a simple measure of how customers think you’re doing. Stay tuned for a blog article that explains NPS.

Will other associations see my data?
No, each association only receives their own results. nSight will publish the research findings but won’t disclose individual association data, only aggregate data by association size and member types.

What do we do with the results once we have them?
All participating associations will receive a Summary document of the collective results. We suggest you set aside time together as a staff to discuss the results and brainstorm ideas for how you might use them to improve the value you deliver to members.

Can you give me some ideas for promoting my survey?
We’ll provide all participants ideas on how to promote the survey as we go along.

Can nSight sign a non-disclosure regarding using my database?
Yes, we will. Just let us know you’d like us to do that and we’ll send it to you. (nSight Marketing works with hundreds of associations and their members – so we use member information all the time. You can be confident that we’ll use the data for this project and nothing else.)

What format does nSight need for my member database?
Please send in an Excel spreadsheet with the following information in 3 distinct columns: First Name, Last Name, Email Address.

Why is nSight the best choice to analyze the results?

• We have no predisposition in looking at the results.
• We look a data a lot, so we are programmed to look at considerations you may not think of (which means this gives you a different head in the game).
• If you split associations by age or by tenure, we’ll get very different results and also different ideas for strategies on how to fix it.
• You cannot look at your association by looking at your population as a whole. You have put the results in context.
• We’ll help you identify both your strengths, and also help you mind your gaps if there are any.
• Net Promoter Score is a highly relevant baseline, but the survey needs to go beyond one number, and ask questions that are actionable, thoughtful and relevant.

Many times, people think there is variability in the data, and even uncertainty. We find that data is better than you may think.

Associations get really excited when they can use data to make change that sticks.