Make your association the kind of place a techie wants to work

National Techies Day is a perfect occasion to consider the future of your association. To deliver a great member experience, it’s time to make sure your organization is the kind of place techies want to work.

Today is National Techies Day – a day when students are encouraged to consider a career in technology. It’s also a great reminder to reflect on your own organization. Is your association the kind of place a techie wants to work? This idea is more important than you might think.

By Michelle Schweitz, Marketing Manager, Momentive Software

The Momentive Software Digital Evolution Study indicates that technology plays an important role in the lives of today’s members. Most members of professional associations say technology helps them be more efficient, has transformed the way they live their lives for the better, and makes life more fun.

The study also shows that the most loyal members place more importance on technology in their lives and feel their organization delivers a better technology experience. This data suggests that a lack of emphasis on technology in some organizations could leave many of their members questioning the value of membership. This, in turn, could impact retention and the long-term outlook for their organizations’ success.

But you can’t deliver a great technology experience without tech-savvy people on your staff. You also need modern association technology in place to attract tech-savvy professionals in the first place, and then provide them with the tools they need to deliver a great member experience once they’re on board.

Here are three steps to help ensure your organization is the kind of place techies want to work:

1. Create a technology plan.
The Momentive Software Benchmark Report on Small-Staff Associations indicates that small associations feel technologically unprepared to meet their members’ needs in the future. It’s time to change this.

Create a digital business plan that helps you deliver the services members value most through modern association technology solutions. Make sure your entire organization, including leadership is in sync with the priorities set forth by the plan. Ensure you have technology solutions in place that allow your staff to easily collect, analyze, and use member data to deliver the personalized technology experience members expect.

TECH TIP: Look for an association management software (AMS) solution that offers an all-in-one membership management solution. For example, YourMembership supports everything from membership management and custom designed websites to event registration and an online member community.

2. Automate your association’s processes.
With the fast pace of digital communications in today’s evolving business world, workflow automation has taken on even more significance for associations. It’s increasingly important to automate as many manual processes as possible so your staff can work more efficiently and spend more time creating a great member experience.

TECH TIP: Look for an AMS solution that helps save staff time through streamlined operations. YourMembership allows your staff to easily set up workflows to automate manual tasks. For example:

• Schedule automatic email renewal notices.
• Generate and send invoices automatically or with one click.
• Schedule reports for automatic distribution via email on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
• Automate event confirmations, reminders, and thank you emails.

3. Get connected.
For effective member engagement, offering a mobile responsive built-in online community is simply a must-do these days. Your members should be able to engage with your online community, register and pay for events/dues, take learning courses, view job board and websites on the go.

Invest in an AMS solution that offers a mobile responsive online social community. And make sure your website, emails, and online community pages are built with a mobile-responsive design that’s optimized for viewing on a broad range of mobile devices. And remember that a mobile experience isn’t just for your members. It’s for your staff, too.

TECH TIP: Using YourMembership online community, you can empower your members with an interactive, mobile responsive social community feed that ensures your organization can easily keep members in the know and connected with you and other members at all times.

National Techies Day is an ideal time to evaluate your association’s approach to technology. Taking the steps in this article will get your organization off to a great start.

Go a step further. Read the ebook: The small association’s guide to getting started with an online community.

Additionl resource:
– Tip sheet: How to attract the next generation of members.