Onboarding New Members

The following post is based on a recent webinar I attended sponsored by NXUnite.

The session focused on sharing ideas for your new member onboarding process, based on seven questions they asked.

There are lots of great ideas listed below that you could implement into your onboarding process, in addition to what you're already doing.

1.  How have onboarding best practices changed over the past 5 years?
 

• More individual interactions.

• Elevating engagement – get feedback and be more intentional on finding out why the member joined.

• The process has been digitalized – hybrid, accommodate to meet your members where they are.

• Members have a voice in the organization and let them know that.

• Use the platforms your members are on to connect.

 
2.  What advice do you have for building an onboarding strategy?
 

• Membership and marketing departments should be part of the conversation on the new member experience.

• Be consistent with your messaging.

• Think about the user experience – make it easy for them to interact with you.  Again, make it easy!

• What are your value propositions?  Deliver that message with your communications plan.

• Don’t overload with too many messages/emails.  Maybe a 5 for 5 strategy?  5 emails with 5 messages in 5 weeks or months.

• Be consistent with your messaging from all parts of the organization.

• Don’t make assumptions, use data to find out what your members want and need.

 
3.  What to do when you want to update your strategy?
 

• Ask your colleagues what they are doing, you don’t have to have all the answers.

• Have you thought about having an onboarding committee?

• Ask your most active members how they became active.

• Think about the first experience your member has with your organization.

• One size does not fit all.

• Are you doing quarterly webinars for onboarding your new members?  Have some of your most active members be your speakers.

 
4.  What onboarding mistakes are people making?
 

• Not having a formal onboarding process.

• Not asking for feedback from your onboarding process.

• Don’t just talk to them but have a two-way conversation to engage your new members.

• Overloading your new members with too much information too fast.  And, not doing enough.  You need to find the right balance.

• Not having your board, staff and members make calls.

 
5.  What small changes can you do to make a big change in your onboarding process?
 

• Create an email series campaign that officially welcomes your new members.

• Ask the new members questions that you can use later for engagement.

• Describe the onboarding process to your new members and then deliver on that promise.

• Acknowledgements, let them know you appreciate them.

 
6.  People are busy, how to onboard successfully without taking up too much of their time?
 

• Make your onboarding process self-service.  Use different platforms that they can access with your messaging.

• Are you texting with your new members as a welcoming touch point?

• Be creative!

 
7.  What is the future of onboarding?
 

• Automation of the onboarding process and AI.

• Using online communities to engage with your new members.

• Make sure you are continuing to invest in resources to make the onboarding process productive – think retention!

 
Final thought - don’t be afraid to review your onboarding process.  There is no need to blow up your current processes, but you can add or delete new ideas and track how your new members are responding, on a regular basis, to get better results.
 
For more resources on onboarding go HERE.

Onboarding to Activation: Hook New Members Early, Reel Them in for a Lifetime

What a great discussion from the speakers, as well as the participants, who all deal in membership activities for their organizations.  The following comments are my notes from the session. 

Onboarding – while I’m sure you’re already doing many of these, I thought I’d put a list of what they suggested from a trade or professional association perspective.

Do’s

• Send them your new member kit via mail or email.
• Welcome call from the CEO, staff member of volunteer (one of your membership ambassadors).
• Ask why they’re joining in your application process or you could do a quick survey after they’ve joined to get to their motivation.
• When onboarding, focus on everything you have to offer that responds to the what, where and how they want to engage with you.
• Do a new member orientation every month for the new members.
• At the end of the day, make messages/communications personal (make a connection).
• Personal introductions to key staff members, outside your CEO, within your organization (i.e., policy experts, etc.). 

Don’ts

• Feel as if you have to do everything in-person when onboarding your new members.
• Communicate with all new members as if they’re all the same (i.e., segment them) and focus on their individual needs.

Activation – finding the right hook

• What is the number one member benefit they are interested in?
• Survey them at their six-month anniversary to deepen your ties.  It’s important to do this before the renewal cycle.
• They talked about serving the different staff levels of your members, many may want different things and you need to find out what that is (i.e., advocacy for CEO and education/networking for others)?

Onboarding to Activation

• During the Pandemic they talked about moving everything to digital communications, quarterly webinars, etc.
• It’s important to keep your members engaged during these times and sending mail was not the best option, at least at this time.
• Try some more informal meetings throughout the year for different segments of your membership (i.e., networking for those individuals).
• Moving forward they feel as if events will be a combination of hybrid options of in-person and online programs.

A main theme that came out for me is don’t give them too much all at once (think drinking water from a firehose).  You should have a three-month, six-month or nine-month campaign where you are communicating with them on their membership benefits (drinking water through a garden hose).  Obviously, they’ll be getting all your regular communications throughout the year on other membership activities and programs.

It’s important to be consistent in your onboarding process communications.  A first Monday of the month communication for your three, six or nine-month strategy should be tight, focused and based on features of membership.

Another thought was don’t ask for them to volunteer in these communications or don’t do a direct marketing campaign to sell them something else.  Give them time to engage with the free features of membership.  BTW, money is tight right now!

Some even have a rule of don’t sell them anything for the first six-months of their membership (i.e. a solicitation for a PAC contribution or Foundation donation if you have either).

Having a CMS or marketing tool that automates this process is key. For a resource on auto marketing from Hubspot go HERE.

Revitalizing Member Onboarding

We’ve all heard the terms, right?

Recruitment, Engagement, Renewal (Retention).

When reviewing your membership application process and onboarding of new members, start with the basics.

Ask yourself these three questions?

• Is the application easy to fill out?  Do you make it easy for your members to renew?
• Do you have ambassadors to help you sell memberships?  Think member-get-a-member campaign.
• Do you send a welcome kit?

Once the initial transaction has taken place with the welcome kit.  Are you connecting with these new members in 30, 60, 90 day communications?

That is an example of drip marketing and an effective way of making sure you keep your new members focused on their membership. These communications should be personal and come from the CEO.  Think segmentation.

How do you personalize? Think segmentation.  Are you listening to them in the recruitment process? It’s important to understand their challenges and be ready to solve their problems.

Differentiation - tell your chambers story at the 30,000 foot level and then drill down to how you can help them with their needs.  At the end of the day, it’s about them, the member, not you.

Always remember to connect, listen and engage with your new members.  Don’t forget to communicate your culture!  What do you stand for in addition to what you are doing?

Think about how Amazon communicates with you if you’re a Prime Member - when you join Prime they don't send you one communication with all the benefits.  They send you three different communications, first is the free shipping benefit, then the movie TV option, and then the Prime Music station, etc.  Again, it’s called drip marketing and it's very effective.

Are you making phone calls to that new member six months in?  Old technology still works and should not be discounted.  Everyone likes a check-in call.

Create a script for your staff team or ambassadors who will be making the calls.  Most calls will go to voice mail, but you've made the contact.  At the very least, end the call with thanking them for being a member and a call back number should they need anything.

And at renewal time, prove your worth - are you doing a year in review document with your invoice?  Are you using video to show value by having your members give testimonials - show the value of ethics, connections, advocacy?

Communicating with your membership on a regular basis should be top of mind for all chambers and your members' lifecycle.

Finally, membership is a team sport - Membership Is Everybody's Business!  Go here for a blog post on that HERE.

Good luck in your revitalized onboarding process!

4 Tips For Onboarding New Staff

We all hire staff from time to time and how we onboard that employee into our chamber workplace is a critical first step!

Everyone is busy, but it's important to take the time to have a formal onboarding process that will position your new staff member to be successful.

Here are four areas I focus on:

• Job Description - what a great place to start.  Do you have a detailed job description for the new staff member of your chamber?  You might want to even have an operational manual of the duties that the previous staff member has created to help with your onboarding process.  This manual could be broken down into a day, week, and monthly list of tasks.

• Set Expectations - it's very important to set your expectations upfront. That way there will be no misunderstandings down the road.  I wrote a blog post HERE on that subject matter.  For me there are four: professionalism; positive attitude; strong work ethic; and results.

• Resources - give that new staff member the proper resources that will allow them to excel in their new job.  What do I mean by resources? Your time, the technology to accomplish the tasks at hand and the ability to learn your organizational structure (staff vs. volunteers) and the mission of your chamber.

• Feedback - it's critical to be honest and constructive in giving ongoing feedback on how your new employee is doing based on your expectations and the expectations of your members.

I'm reminded of a staffing concept laid out in Jim Collins' book Good to Great. The book talks about a lot of good stuff but I want to highlight where he talks about getting the right people on the bus.

Do you have the right people on your team (bus)?  And are they in the right position (seat)?

Something to think about!

For a great article by The Bridgespan Group on onboarding and supporting a new CEO go HERE.