Member Surveys: How to Assess and Improve Satisfaction

 Debbie Willis, Guest Blogger

This guest article was written and submitted by Debbie Willis, VP Global Marketing at ASI. Please see the end of this article for Debbie's bio. 

By: Debbie Willis

What if you could make your members happier and more engaged just by asking a few simple questions? According to iMIS’s member engagement guide, member surveys can reveal a lot about how satisfied your members are with your benefits, events, and other involvement opportunities. When you ask the right questions on member surveys, their responses will create a roadmap for improving their experience.

Collecting feedback on different areas of your operations communicates that you value your community’s opinions and want to deliver real value. In other words, your surveys are the key to higher member retention rates and greater loyalty. Let’s explore how to create and execute member surveys effectively.

Crafting Effective Member Surveys

Start by determining the goal of your survey. Are you seeking feedback on a recent event, new exhibit, the quality of your communications, or general member experience?

After defining your survey’s purpose, start developing your questions. Follow these best practices to improve your survey quality:

• Use clear, straightforward language and avoid leading questions. In other words, don’t phrase your questions in a way that influences the response. For example, avoid saying, “Don’t you think the new exhibit was amazing?” Instead, you might say, “What did you think of the new exhibit?” A neutral tone allows the respondent to provide their own opinion.
• Make surveys short and convenient for members. The higher the demand for members’ time, the less convenient it is. Limit the survey to no more than 5-10 minutes. 
• Send surveys at optimal times. Let’s say you’re gathering feedback on a members-only preview for a new exhibit. Send your survey within 24 hours after the event ends. If you’re sending a general satisfaction survey, send it toward the end of the calendar year or before members’ renewal periods to leave time for improvements.

If you aren’t seeing the response rates you want, it might come down to one of these elements. Revisit your survey’s timing, length, and tone since these foundational elements often impact whether members feel motivated to respond.

Example Member Satisfaction Survey Questions

Your membership management system may offer built-in tools or integrations with survey creation tools to simplify creating, distributing, and analyzing surveys. With your tools, you’ll want to use a mix of multiple-choice, rating, and open-ended questions to receive a variety of feedback. Let’s take a look at what that might look like.

Let’s say you’re sending a general member satisfaction survey for a museum. You might include these questions:

Multiple Choice:

• Which benefits have you used in the past 6 months? Select all that apply.
  • Free admission
  • Members-only events
  • Discounts at the gift shop
  • Access to special exhibits
  • Online resources and virtual tours
  • Other (please specify)
• How do you typically hear about upcoming events?
  • Email newsletter
  • Our app or online community
  • Social media
  • Word of mouth

Rating (Scale from 1-5):

• How satisfied are you with your membership experience so far?
  • 1 = Very Dissatisfied, 5 = Very Satisfied
• How would you rate the frequency of events and programming for members?
• How would you rate the helpfulness of our staff during your most recent visit?

Open-Ended:

• What improvements would you like to see in future museum exhibits or programming?
• How can we make our online community or app more helpful?

Analyzing Survey Results to Assess Satisfaction

Once you get a good number of responses, start looking at the results. Based on the types of questions you asked, you’ll see these types of data:

• Quantitative Data: These are numerical responses (e.g., ratings) that help you identify general satisfaction. For example, if most respondents rate satisfaction with membership benefits as a 4 out of 5, it suggests strong satisfaction with your offerings.
• Qualitative Data: Analyze open-ended responses for recurring themes or specific issues. For instance, you might uncover valuable suggestions for improving an exhibit. If many people said they struggle to find content in your smartphone app or can’t figure out how to participate in discussions on your online community, that indicates an important area to focus on.

When analyzing any collected data and identifying patterns, we recommend focusing on the most impactful feedback first. That might be an issue that affects many members or a vital part of the member experience (e.g., member communications or staff interactions). To identify specific needs or concerns within different groups, you might segment responses by member type (e.g., new vs. long-time members).

If you’re more of a visual learner, data visualizations (like charts and graphs) can help you understand trends in responses. Explore your organization’s engagement management system (EMS) to see if you have access to any reporting tools. These can streamline the process of gathering and interpreting member data.

Outside of surveys, your system may assign engagement scores to individual members, so you know which relationships to prioritize to avoid lapses. Your EMS might calculate scores based on factors like dues payments, event registrations, course completions, product sales, and email opens. This gives you a snapshot of their engagement at any point rather than you waiting for responses to surveys that disengaged members might not even complete.

Using Feedback to Improve Member Satisfaction

After analyzing survey results, translate responses into actionable improvements. Let’s say many members feel that communication about upcoming events is unclear or comes too late. To address this, you decide to:

• Implement a monthly email newsletter that highlights upcoming events and special programs.
• Set up automated email reminders for events.
• Feature a dedicated section on your website or member portal for upcoming events.
• Add a “Save the Date” feature that allows members to easily add events to their personal calendars.

This approach provides timely, easy-to-access event information, so members will plan and remember to attend.

You should also communicate any changes you’ve made based on feedback. You might dedicate a section in your newsletter or send a separate email highlighting upcoming changes. If a common point of feedback was insufficient member discounts on merchandise, events, or guest tickets, you could simply list improvements to perks in your newsletter.

Tatango’s guide to SMS for nonprofits recommends texting your audience updates or even the surveys themselves. Their research indicates that subscribers who receive text messages from organizations they support open messages 99% of the time. That ensures your members will know you made changes!

Start Crafting Stronger Member Surveys

By regularly collecting feedback, you can stay on top of member engagement and make data-driven decisions that improve retention. Strike the right balance by periodically sending surveys. This will keep you informed without overwhelming your members. Ultimately, listening to, implementing, and communicating about feedback will improve your member experience and your organization’s overall success.

About the Author: Debbie Willis, VP Global Marketing, ASI

Debbie Willis is the VP of Global Marketing at ASI, with over 20 years marketing experience in the association and non-profit technology space. Passionate about all things MarTech, Debbie has led countless website, SEO, content, email, paid ad and social media marketing strategies and campaigns. Debbie loves creating meaningful content to engage and empower association and non-profit audiences.

Debbie received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing Information Systems from James Madison University and a Masters of Business Administration in Marketing from The George Washington University. Debbie is a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority, American Society of Association Executives and dabbles in photography.