October 17, 2023 • 14 mins
❔"Are there differences in how to approach member experience versus customer experience?"❔
Are you ready to define what customer experience success means for a nonprofit organization, association, or even a professional development organization? In this enlightening episode, Jeannie Walters places a spotlight on customer experience (CX) in member-based organizations and shows how you can use best practices and tools from the CX toolkit.
With a focus on the individuals your organization serves, let's navigate the member experience journey and discover how CX can help you understand and fulfill the promise that you've made to your members. Anybody who calls themselves a member of something feels a certain sense of belonging. We want to respect that and make sure that we are inviting them to belong in all the right ways. Together, we'll tackle the conventional ways of tracking success and uncover why they may or may not be the best fit for your organization. Tune in, engage, and let's revolutionize your member experience.
Resources Mentioned:
Learn more about CXI® Flight School -- cxiflightschool.com
CX Mission Statement Workbook -- bit.ly/cx-mission-workbook
CX Success Statement Workbook -- bit.ly/cx-success-workbook
Experience Investigators Learning Center -- experienceinvestigators.com
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready, Set, Action.
Jeannie Walters (00:31):
Hey there everyone.
It's another edition ofExperience Action with me,
Jeannie Walters, and before weget started today, I just want
to remind you to check outcxiflightschool.
com.
But we've got a great questionyet again, so let's get started.
Listener Question (00:50):
Hi, Jeannie, my name is Jack.
I've been following you forquite some time on LinkedIn and
your content has really helpedme as an experience professional
.
But I actually run amember-driven organization.
We're a non-profit and I'vebeen wondering if there are
differences in how to approachmember experience versus
customer experience.
Jeannie Walters (01:11):
I love this question again.
Do I say that every week?
I feel like I say that everyweek.
Listener Question (01:16):
It doesn't mean, it's not true though.
Jeannie Walters (01:17):
You all are so smart with the questions that
you bring forward.
So here's something that'sreally interesting when I talk
to different prospects,different clients, different
organizations, what have you, alot of times they come up to me,
individuals will come up to meand they'll say you know what,
Jeannie?
This all sounds great.
I love how you talk aboutcustomer experience, but I work
(01:40):
in B2B or I work in a non-profit, or I work in education or
health care or fill- in- the-blank, and somehow they think
that what we do in customerexperience doesn't necessarily
apply to them or it's just toodifferent, too abstract.
They can't get their leaders onboard.
So here's what I would say isthe real difference.
(02:03):
When you're talking about memberexperience in nonprofits or
associations, maybe differentprofessional development
organizations, things like that,when we're talking about member
experience, the ultimate goalsare pretty much the same as
customer experience.
We want to make sure that weare focused on the individual
(02:24):
that we are serving, that ourorganization is serving.
Somehow or other, our brand,our organization, whatever we
want to call it.
We made a promise.
We said this is the experiencethat you're going to get.
This is why your time, yourmembership fee, your dues, your
volunteerism, your donation.
(02:46):
This is why it's worth it.
And so number one in bothmember experience and customer
experience, but I think there'sa special place for this member
experience, is to reallyunderstand what is the promise
that you've made to your members, and so that all comes back to
understanding those foundationalparts of building a member
(03:08):
experience program.
Number one (03:09):
do you have a member experience mission
statement?
What are we really promising?
And I'm going to give you alittle clue here.
In today's world, we can't justsay that we are offering things
like networking or professionalresources, because in today's
(03:35):
world, most people can findthose things outside of the
organizations of yesteryear.
So we really have to think hardabout the member experience
journey.
What does it look like in thebeginning?
What is the value for somebodywho's just joining?
How do we keep them engaged?
How do we make sure that we'resupporting them on whatever
(03:57):
journey they're actually on?
So, for example, a lot ofnonprofits kind of rely on
donors again and again andagain, and they don't
necessarily change how they'recommunicating with them and they
might start seeing thatdonorship goes down after a
while.
And that's because we have tomake sure that we are meeting
(04:18):
people where they are.
Now think about how we movethrough the world as individuals
.
Different phases of life havedifferent priorities.
We might have different needs,we have different expectations.
So we have to really make surethat we're matching up the
member journey of a nonprofit ora professional association or a
(04:39):
university or any of thosethings alongside what is
actually happening for thisperson, because a lot of
professional associations, forexample, they often have trouble
retaining members in today'seconomy because people might do
(04:59):
something for a year and think,well, I don't know, that's a lot
of money for something thatmaybe I can get outside of the
association.
So we really have to look atwhat is the promise that we're
making and how do we live up tothat along the member journey
within context of what themember is actually going through
.
We need to understand them.
(05:19):
So that's one area ofdifference I would say is to
really understand that journeyin a different way than just a
customer journey.
The other thing that I've seenis that a lot of times these
organizations with members,their members might play many
different roles all at the sametime.
For example, in a professionaldevelopment organization, I
(05:43):
might, as a member, attenddifferent learning events and I
might volunteer on a committeeand I might help plan one of
those events and then they mightask me to present to my peers.
So, in a way, I'm both gainingthe benefits of being a member
and providing them at the sametime for my fellow members.
(06:03):
That's a win-win.
So what does all of that mean?
Well, that's when you mightwant to look at what are you
tracking?
What are your measures ofsuccess?
So, just like we build acustomer experience success
statement, I would encourage youto look at a member experience
success statement, because theremight be different ways that
(06:24):
you measure, because intraditional capitalist
commercialism we are reallytracking things like hey, how
much revenue are we getting, howmany sales?
All those things that might notexactly apply to an
organization with membership.
So what you might want to do isreally look at your goals,
(06:44):
understand some of the researchyou might have available and
look for things like wow, we'venoticed that when people
volunteer, they stay longer.
That's a clue.
So what does that mean?
Well, how can we find ways toget people involved in a less
time-heavy way?
Because the number one thingpeople will tell you when they
(07:06):
say no to volunteering is thatit takes too much time, they
have different priorities.
What if we offered amicro-volunteering opportunity
to get people engaged andinvolved without as much
commitment?
How can we build that journeyso that they're more likely to
get engaged the further alongthey go on that journey with us?
And then ask yourself what areyour organizational goals?
(07:29):
Do you want to increase memberretention?
Do you want to increasereferrals?
Do you want to increaseadvocacy or donations or
amplification of your message?
Whatever your goals are, it'svery important to really make
sure that you understand whatsuccess looks like.
(07:50):
Now I've worked with quite a fewnonprofit organizations and one
of the things that I've noticedis actually there is sometimes,
just like in customerexperience, a heavy emphasis on
things like acquisition.
How do we get more members?
More, more, more.
And we're not necessarilypaying attention to how do we
keep our members and get them soengaged that they are helping
(08:10):
us get more members?
So really look at andextrapolate what are the real
goals that you're trying to getfor your organization and how
can the member experience thatyou provide for your members
actually support those goals andthe vision for your
organization?
Of course, I love using journeymapping.
(08:32):
Now I did this with anorganization I'm a member of and
we realized that we had thiswhole group that we referred to
as alumni.
They had been through theinitial program, they were
paying their dues, but not muchelse, and the board asked me to
really help them figure that out.
(08:52):
And what we figured out was wedidn't know what the promise was
.
Once you went through thatinitial program, which was
amazing.
How do we actually, what are wepromising alumni after that?
And so we had to really look atwhat is the alumni experience
specifically for this membership, and it really opened up so
(09:14):
many opportunities and,ironically, it made that initial
program even better because wewere able to get those alumni
more involved.
So, really, as you think aboutthe value of your organization
for your membership, make sureyou understand the promise that
you've made, make sure youunderstand what the
(09:35):
organizational goals are, andthen really look to any research
you have as far as surveys orjourney mapping or these
different opportunities to getpeople involved, because that
will tell you you know what ifwe helped people get involved
earlier or more frequently?
Or you know we're offering allthese webinars and nobody's
showing up, what are we doingwrong?
(09:56):
It gives you information aboutwhat the member experience
really is, and then, of course,you want to make sure you're
monitoring and evaluating andacting on your member experience
performance.
This is based on the metrics,that you track those
measurements of success and thenreally look at what is
happening over time.
(10:16):
Now, sometimes what happens isthe world changes and we don't
change with it, and I've seenthis quite a bit with member
driven organizations.
We have to make sure that we'repaying attention to what is
happening outside of theirmembership.
How can we support peopleeither at that individual level
(10:38):
or sometimes we haveorganizational members based on
the type of organization we'rerunning and really look for what
is it that we can do to reallysupport the real lives of our
members?
We want to collect feedbackfrom our members.
We want to make sure we'rechecking with our stakeholders.
Sometimes those include boards,sometimes those include donors,
(11:03):
sometimes those include leadersof the organization that could
be sponsoring this type ofnonprofit.
We really want to continue tocheck in with them.
And then we want to show how weare improving the member
experience, continue to paint apicture for the future so people
understand where thisorganization is going, why they
(11:26):
will benefit from it and howthey can really contribute and
be a part of it.
Anybody who calls themselves amember of something,
they feel a certain sense ofbelonging.
So, we want to respect that andmake sure that we are inviting
them to belong in all the rightways.
(11:47):
So I really respect what you'redoing.
I think it's great when we dohave an opportunity to include
members in this way, whetheryou're a credit union or a
school or a nonprofit or anadvocacy agency or a
professional development group,whatever.
(12:08):
I think it's pretty amazingthat we as humans raise our hand
and say I want to be a part ofthat, and so that's something we
should really really respectand we should make sure that,
individually, they feel likethey belong.
And so, using journey mapping,using measurements of success,
(12:29):
tracking and analyzing thefeedback, acting on it and then
communicating both with ourmembership and with those
stakeholders that's reallywhat's going to move your member
experience forward.
And all of those things I justmentioned are best practices and
tools in the toolkit fromcustomer experience.
So if you're listening to thisand you're thinking, well, I've
(12:52):
heard you say member experiencemore in this episode than I've
ever heard you say.
That's probably true, butcustomer experience can be
applied in many, many ways.
The difference is defining yourown success.
Make sure that you understandwhat your organizational and
your membership goals are.
So I hope that's helpful.
(13:14):
Keep up the great work.
I love all you nonprofit people.
I know it's hard work and Iknow that there are lots of
individual people who not onlyfeel a sense of belonging, but
they feel a sense of ownershipin a way that they want you to
know.
So I know that sometimesdealing with members can be a
(13:38):
unique set of challenges as well, but that's why hearing their
feedback, letting them knowwhere the organization is going,
can really really be successful.
So keep up the great workeverybody.
Don't forget to check outCXIFlightSchool.
com.
It's CXIFlightSchool.
com.
For those of you who have asked, CXI stands for Customer
(14:01):
Experience Investigation.
Technically, that's ourregistered trademark, but I like
to say it's also aboutinnovation and inspiration and
imagination and all theseamazing things.
So check that out and let meknow what you think and, as
always, leave me your question.
I cannot wait to hear what yousmart people ask me next week.
(14:22):
Thanks so much, and I'll seeyou next week.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience
.
Check out free resources atExperienceInvestigators.
com , where you can sign up forour newsletter, our year of CX
program, and more.
And, please follow me, JeannieWalters, on LinkedIn.
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready, Set, Action.
Jeannie Walters (00:31):
Hey there everyone.
It's another edition ofExperience Action with me,
Jeannie Walters, and before weget started today, I just want
to remind you to check outcxiflightschool.
com.
But we've got a great questionyet again, so let's get started.
Listener Question (00:50):
Hi, Jeannie, my name is Jack.
I've been following you forquite some time on LinkedIn and
your content has really helpedme as an experience professional
.
But I actually run amember-driven organization.
We're a non-profit and I'vebeen wondering if there are
differences in how to approachmember experience versus
customer experience.
Jeannie Walters (01:11):
I love this question again.
Do I say that every week?
I feel like I say that everyweek.
Listener Question (01:16):
It doesn't mean, it's not true though.
Jeannie Walters (01:17):
You all are so smart with the questions that
you bring forward.
So here's something that'sreally interesting when I talk
to different prospects,different clients, different
organizations, what have you, alot of times they come up to me,
individuals will come up to meand they'll say you know what,
Jeannie?
This all sounds great.
I love how you talk aboutcustomer experience, but I work
(01:40):
in B2B or I work in a non-profit, or I work in education or
health care or fill- in- the-blank, and somehow they think
that what we do in customerexperience doesn't necessarily
apply to them or it's just toodifferent, too abstract.
They can't get their leaders onboard.
So here's what I would say isthe real difference.
(02:03):
When you're talking about memberexperience in nonprofits or
associations, maybe differentprofessional development
organizations, things like that,when we're talking about member
experience, the ultimate goalsare pretty much the same as
customer experience.
We want to make sure that weare focused on the individual
(02:24):
that we are serving, that ourorganization is serving.
Somehow or other, our brand,our organization, whatever we
want to call it.
We made a promise.
We said this is the experiencethat you're going to get.
This is why your time, yourmembership fee, your dues, your
volunteerism, your donation.
(02:46):
This is why it's worth it.
And so number one in bothmember experience and customer
experience, but I think there'sa special place for this member
experience, is to reallyunderstand what is the promise
that you've made to your members, and so that all comes back to
understanding those foundationalparts of building a member
(03:08):
experience program.
Number one (03:09):
do you have a member experience mission
statement?
What are we really promising?
And I'm going to give you alittle clue here.
In today's world, we can't justsay that we are offering things
like networking or professionalresources, because in today's
(03:35):
world, most people can findthose things outside of the
organizations of yesteryear.
So we really have to think hardabout the member experience
journey.
What does it look like in thebeginning?
What is the value for somebodywho's just joining?
How do we keep them engaged?
How do we make sure that we'resupporting them on whatever
(03:57):
journey they're actually on?
So, for example, a lot ofnonprofits kind of rely on
donors again and again andagain, and they don't
necessarily change how they'recommunicating with them and they
might start seeing thatdonorship goes down after a
while.
And that's because we have tomake sure that we are meeting
(04:18):
people where they are.
Now think about how we movethrough the world as individuals
.
Different phases of life havedifferent priorities.
We might have different needs,we have different expectations.
So we have to really make surethat we're matching up the
member journey of a nonprofit ora professional association or a
(04:39):
university or any of thosethings alongside what is
actually happening for thisperson, because a lot of
professional associations, forexample, they often have trouble
retaining members in today'seconomy because people might do
(04:59):
something for a year and think,well, I don't know, that's a lot
of money for something thatmaybe I can get outside of the
association.
So we really have to look atwhat is the promise that we're
making and how do we live up tothat along the member journey
within context of what themember is actually going through
.
We need to understand them.
(05:19):
So that's one area ofdifference I would say is to
really understand that journeyin a different way than just a
customer journey.
The other thing that I've seenis that a lot of times these
organizations with members,their members might play many
different roles all at the sametime.
For example, in a professionaldevelopment organization, I
(05:43):
might, as a member, attenddifferent learning events and I
might volunteer on a committeeand I might help plan one of
those events and then they mightask me to present to my peers.
So, in a way, I'm both gainingthe benefits of being a member
and providing them at the sametime for my fellow members.
(06:03):
That's a win-win.
So what does all of that mean?
Well, that's when you mightwant to look at what are you
tracking?
What are your measures ofsuccess?
So, just like we build acustomer experience success
statement, I would encourage youto look at a member experience
success statement, because theremight be different ways that
(06:24):
you measure, because intraditional capitalist
commercialism we are reallytracking things like hey, how
much revenue are we getting, howmany sales?
All those things that might notexactly apply to an
organization with membership.
So what you might want to do isreally look at your goals,
(06:44):
understand some of the researchyou might have available and
look for things like wow, we'venoticed that when people
volunteer, they stay longer.
That's a clue.
So what does that mean?
Well, how can we find ways toget people involved in a less
time-heavy way?
Because the number one thingpeople will tell you when they
(07:06):
say no to volunteering is thatit takes too much time, they
have different priorities.
What if we offered amicro-volunteering opportunity
to get people engaged andinvolved without as much
commitment?
How can we build that journeyso that they're more likely to
get engaged the further alongthey go on that journey with us?
And then ask yourself what areyour organizational goals?
(07:29):
Do you want to increase memberretention?
Do you want to increasereferrals?
Do you want to increaseadvocacy or donations or
amplification of your message?
Whatever your goals are, it'svery important to really make
sure that you understand whatsuccess looks like.
(07:50):
Now I've worked with quite a fewnonprofit organizations and one
of the things that I've noticedis actually there is sometimes,
just like in customerexperience, a heavy emphasis on
things like acquisition.
How do we get more members?
More, more, more.
And we're not necessarilypaying attention to how do we
keep our members and get them soengaged that they are helping
(08:10):
us get more members?
So really look at andextrapolate what are the real
goals that you're trying to getfor your organization and how
can the member experience thatyou provide for your members
actually support those goals andthe vision for your
organization?
Of course, I love using journeymapping.
(08:32):
Now I did this with anorganization I'm a member of and
we realized that we had thiswhole group that we referred to
as alumni.
They had been through theinitial program, they were
paying their dues, but not muchelse, and the board asked me to
really help them figure that out.
(08:52):
And what we figured out was wedidn't know what the promise was
.
Once you went through thatinitial program, which was
amazing.
How do we actually, what are wepromising alumni after that?
And so we had to really look atwhat is the alumni experience
specifically for this membership, and it really opened up so
(09:14):
many opportunities and,ironically, it made that initial
program even better because wewere able to get those alumni
more involved.
So, really, as you think aboutthe value of your organization
for your membership, make sureyou understand the promise that
you've made, make sure youunderstand what the
(09:35):
organizational goals are, andthen really look to any research
you have as far as surveys orjourney mapping or these
different opportunities to getpeople involved, because that
will tell you you know what ifwe helped people get involved
earlier or more frequently?
Or you know we're offering allthese webinars and nobody's
showing up, what are we doingwrong?
(09:56):
It gives you information aboutwhat the member experience
really is, and then, of course,you want to make sure you're
monitoring and evaluating andacting on your member experience
performance.
This is based on the metrics,that you track those
measurements of success and thenreally look at what is
happening over time.
(10:16):
Now, sometimes what happens isthe world changes and we don't
change with it, and I've seenthis quite a bit with member
driven organizations.
We have to make sure that we'repaying attention to what is
happening outside of theirmembership.
How can we support peopleeither at that individual level
(10:38):
or sometimes we haveorganizational members based on
the type of organization we'rerunning and really look for what
is it that we can do to reallysupport the real lives of our
members?
We want to collect feedbackfrom our members.
We want to make sure we'rechecking with our stakeholders.
Sometimes those include boards,sometimes those include donors,
(11:03):
sometimes those include leadersof the organization that could
be sponsoring this type ofnonprofit.
We really want to continue tocheck in with them.
And then we want to show how weare improving the member
experience, continue to paint apicture for the future so people
understand where thisorganization is going, why they
(11:26):
will benefit from it and howthey can really contribute and
be a part of it.
Anybody who calls themselves amember of something,
they feel a certain sense ofbelonging.
So, we want to respect that andmake sure that we are inviting
them to belong in all the rightways.
(11:47):
So I really respect what you'redoing.
I think it's great when we dohave an opportunity to include
members in this way, whetheryou're a credit union or a
school or a nonprofit or anadvocacy agency or a
professional development group,whatever.
(12:08):
I think it's pretty amazingthat we as humans raise our hand
and say I want to be a part ofthat, and so that's something we
should really really respectand we should make sure that,
individually, they feel likethey belong.
And so, using journey mapping,using measurements of success,
(12:29):
tracking and analyzing thefeedback, acting on it and then
communicating both with ourmembership and with those
stakeholders that's reallywhat's going to move your member
experience forward.
And all of those things I justmentioned are best practices and
tools in the toolkit fromcustomer experience.
So if you're listening to thisand you're thinking, well, I've
(12:52):
heard you say member experiencemore in this episode than I've
ever heard you say.
That's probably true, butcustomer experience can be
applied in many, many ways.
The difference is defining yourown success.
Make sure that you understandwhat your organizational and
your membership goals are.
So I hope that's helpful.
(13:14):
Keep up the great work.
I love all you nonprofit people.
I know it's hard work and Iknow that there are lots of
individual people who not onlyfeel a sense of belonging, but
they feel a sense of ownershipin a way that they want you to
know.
So I know that sometimesdealing with members can be a
(13:38):
unique set of challenges as well, but that's why hearing their
feedback, letting them knowwhere the organization is going,
can really really be successful.
So keep up the great workeverybody.
Don't forget to check outCXIFlightSchool.
com.
It's CXIFlightSchool.
com.
For those of you who have asked, CXI stands for Customer
(14:01):
Experience Investigation.
Technically, that's ourregistered trademark, but I like
to say it's also aboutinnovation and inspiration and
imagination and all theseamazing things.
So check that out and let meknow what you think and, as
always, leave me your question.
I cannot wait to hear what yousmart people ask me next week.
(14:22):
Thanks so much, and I'll seeyou next week.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience
.
Check out free resources atExperienceInvestigators.
com , where you can sign up forour newsletter, our year of CX
program, and more.
And, please follow me, JeannieWalters, on LinkedIn.
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