Your members are on a journey with your association. Some are taking their first steps with you while others have reached the end of the line. Others are prospects and they’re deciding whether to hop on board.

We recently conducted in-depth telephone interviews on behalf of an industry association who were having member retention issues. We spoke to five members who recently joined the association, five lapsed members and five prospects.

Here are the questions that we asked those who recently joined, lapsed members and prospects. 

Recently Joined

1. What led you to decide that becoming a member would be a good investment?

2. Was there a specific problem or issue that you hoped the association would help you address?

3. What were your initial impressions of the organization?  What did they offer you and the industry?

4. What was your number one goal when you joined?  Have you achieved this goal?

5. If you hadn’t joined this association or if it didn’t exist, how would you achieve this goal?

6. When it comes time to renew your membership, what considerations (will) come into play?

7. How will you evaluate their performance?  How do decide if you are receiving value for the cost of membership?

8. Can you think of the last time that you contacted the association?  What was the purpose of that contact?  What type of information or assistance did you need?

9.  Were you satisfied with the information/assistance that you received?

10.  Are there one or two things that the association does really well?

11.  Are there one or two areas where they could improve their services?

Lapsed Members

1. Despite the fact that you are no longer a member, what initially led you to become a member?

2. What was your number one goal when you joined the association?  What did you hope to achieve?

3. How and when did you first become aware of the association?

4.  Which of your specific goals were not being met by the association? Are you finding other ways to achieve these goals?

5.  Can you take me back to the day that you decided not to renew your membership?  How did you make that decision?  What specific factors did you consider?

6.  Are there one or two things that the association does really well?

7.  What, if anything, would have to change before you considered renewing your membership?

Prospects

1. Tell me how you first become aware of the association?

2. What were your initial impressions of the organization?  What do they offer you and the industry?  

3. From what you know of the association, are there certain issues or challenges that you face that you think they could help you address?  What are those challenges?

4.  You mentioned having some specific challenges, how do you currently address these issues?

5.  From what you know of the association, what are the one or two things that they do really well?

6.  What does membership offer that would be of value to you? What aspects of membership are not relevant to you?

7.  Are there one or two areas where the association could improve their services?

8. What would have to happen for you to become a member?

These telephone interviews resulted in a rich vein of member insights. Importantly we learned that the association provided heightened value at specific occasions in the member company’s growth cycle. But on other occasions, their value waned. The conclusion was that the association had to do a better job of understanding the growth continuum and of developing valuable offerings for each stage of growth.