[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]No matter the mission, size, or benefits, Membership associations all have one thing in common: their members are their customers. Delivering top customer service is paramount to recruiting and retaining those members. Typical examples of customer service delivery outlets include face-to-face meetings and telephone calls, but one place that can get overlooked is your website. Your User experience (UX) design impacts how your association showcases its products and services. Is your association doing enough through your UX to provide the customer service you aspire your members to have?[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
What is UX?
The Interaction Design Foundation states that UX design “is the process design teams use to create products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users [including] ….integrating the product, including aspects of branding, design, usability and function.” Chances are likely that your website is the first-place members and prospects go for information pertaining to advocacy, products, events, research, etc. but how easy is it for them to get their needs met quickly and easily?[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]
Assessing Your Current Membership UX
A simple way to assess your current UX is to take a step back and ask someone outside your team (preferably outside your organization) to pretend to be a member and track their journey from first visit to last click on the site. Give them specific tasks to do on your site. After completion of this exercise, ask them questions related to the tasks they completed such as:
- How easy was it to find the information for which you were searching?
- How easy was it to sign up and/or renew your membership?
- Did you have to go through multiple sites or pages to get to the event you for which you were trying to register?
- Could you register multiple people for the event?
- How easy was it to purchase a book/report/survey?
- Could you easily make a donation?
Today’s members, particularly those considered a part of Generation Z, want products and solutions that they can access in the quickest most direct ways. They often lack the patience to continually scroll down a screen or wait for a form to load. They want their technology to serve their core needs quickly and easily. Does your current UI do that?[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]
The Solution
In our quest to improve our clients’ overall web capabilities, we have devised a way to give them the tools to maximize their members’ UX. Our Web Portal is a powerful member management tool that can be dropped into any CMS. We use visual plugins that allow website administrators to quickly add, remove, or update any association management module with simple clicks from a drop-down menu.
You can set up any event, choose from a variety of user interfaces (UIs), and manage it all through the portal. Our web portal allows for members to self-serve a variety of functions including sign ups and renewals. It also allows chapter members to manage themselves thereby streamlining chapter management.
For users of WordPress, we have integrated with its out-of-the-box Gutenberg Editor. We offer you a native WordPress plugin that allows our web portal to be the most user friendly on the market. This means that you can visually move the web parts around on a specific page to ensure that your content is next the commerce that compliments it.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Optimal UX
We make it easy for your members access all their needs in one place. Your organization provides the branding and parameters for the overall design, and we bring that together with usability and function. If that doesn’t define the epitome of achieving and optimal member UX, then I don’t know what does.
If you are interested in learning more about Altai’s Web Portal and how you can maximize your members’ UX, contact us at sales@altaisystems.com. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
