Membership renewals are often a time of stress: for the management team, because they know some will not renew; and for the back-office team too, because of what is often a slow and cumbersome renewals process. A process that can result in lots of calls from angry members.
We’ve seen first-hand how broken and inefficient processes can negatively impact member retention and affect staff morale.
The many elements of member data
When it comes to members, there are many key data points to consider in your renewals process. They include:
- Membership levels and tiers e.g. gold, silver, bronze, or student, graduate, alumni, associate, etc.
- Time of renewal: Same time each year, on the anniversary of joining, end of month, etc.
- Payment method: Direct debit, credit/debit card, BACS/Invoice
- Payment interval: Annual, monthly, etc.
- Payment model: Automated vs. manual
Imagine (and we hope this is imagining and not your reality!) the frustration of not knowing how many of your top-tier members choose not to renew. Or how many of your ‘student’ members have been at the same membership level for that past decade or more!
We frequently see processes being developed around spreadsheets. This can be due to a lack of appropriate systems, such as a CRM, being in place. Or, even if there is a CRM in place, it might be poorly configured and not adequately handle your renewal process.
Let’s look at this challenge from the perspective of one of our clients.
The organisation in question used to schedule annual renewals to be completed in bulk at the end of each month. If someone joined on, say, 10th June, their renewal would be extended to begin on the 1st of July, effectively giving the member 20 additional days membership at nil cost.
Even though the organisation had a CRM system in place, it could not handle the renewals process. Instead, the flurry of work that took place each month produced a series of spreadsheets structured into cohorts. That is:
- Members with the same characteristics who could be emailed in bulk to remind them of their renewal.
- Another separate cohort list was created for sending to the bank to collect direct debit payments.
- And yet another cohort list was created detailing members who needed to change the tier they were on.
In fact, altogether around 15 cohort lists were produced each month. And it didn’t stop there!
Once payment was collected, a reconciliation process was undertaken to identify which members had paid and which hadn’t. This promoted the creation of sub-cohorts: i.e. Non-paying gold members, non-paying students who should become graduate members, and so on.
To mitigate membership attrition, non-payers were chased. Sometimes non-payer cohort spreadsheets were in use beyond the monthly cycle. This meant they needed to be merged with the next current month, or worse still, they were simply forgotten after month-end!
So, how could this organisation re-imagine its renewals process to improve retention and reduce stress?
A brighter future
The business wanted a process whereby:
- Membership levels were automatically upgraded from Student to Graduate after a fixed period of time – 4 years
- It was no longer necessary to send a list to banks to collect direct debits
- Reconciliation and member status updates were automated
- Email notifications to members could be improved and automated in the lead up to renewal
- Membership could be integrated with the website to provide an easy way to renew
- Admin overhead could be reduced by at least 50%
To achieve this vision, we worked with the client to design a streamlined business process, made possible by us implementing a new CRM. As a result, the membership renewals process is much improved, leaving both members and staff happier!
What a streamlined renewals process looks like
Here’s how things now work…
Members are emailed 4 times in the run-up to their renewal.
First, to alert them to the upcoming renewal, while confirming the benefits of their membership. Subsequent emails have similar messages, with greater urgency as the renewal date looms. The email delivery process is entirely automated, driven from the CRM database that accurately records membership level and renewal date.
Members now renew on their anniversary throughout the month rather than month-end. This spreads the work for back-office staff and has removed the need to give away membership days simply to align with month-end renewals.
Once a renewal date has passed, a non-paying member receives a further 3 emails to encourage them to renew. After a grace period, they are automatically flagged as having an expired membership. Their website login is automatically removed, and any other member privileges they might have had, are rescinded.
For members paying by card, renewal emails include a link that takes them to the website where payment can be made.
For people paying by direct debit there is no need to go to the website, which is made clear in the email they receive.
Once payment is collected through either method, reconciliation is automatic, as too is the updating of the membership end date.
CRM Insights help organisations improve their business processes through CRM. Whether you’re just getting started with CRM, aiming to improve your business processes, or looking to optimise and/or integrate your existing systems with CRM. And if you would like to discuss your CRM challenges with one of our experts, you schedule a free consultation here: https://crminsights.co.uk/book-an-appointment/
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