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Market Research for Membership Associations

Mystery Shopping

You can spend vast amounts of money on marketing your association, but what happens when people make contact with your staff?

Mystery shopping research will give you new and unique insights into the interaction between members and staff. By acting as a prospective member and undertaking a series of pre-determined tasks we will observe, experience and report back on your customer service process.

This type of feedback will enable you to:

Gain fresh perspectives on what you are doing that comes from using unbiased outsiders
Assess how the member service function is performing against pre-determined criteria and measures
Use this new intelligence and insight to develop more effective member service management strategies.

For example we can evaluate:

The experience that a prospective member receives when they inquire about membership over the telephone, by post and via the web: Are your staff creating that all important good first impression? Are they polite and knowledgeable about the member benefits you offer?
Are they making the most of the interaction? How long did it take before an information pack arrived via post or email? The follow-up service they receive. What happens to prospective member inquiries? Are they acted upon or do they go cold?
Your web site: How easy is it for an outsider to navigate? How easy is it to find out about joining and to sign up on-line?

Your on-line surveys: How easy were they to complete? How long did it take? Did the questions flow in a logical order?

Your events: How welcoming are they? Was the signage and directions clear? Was it easy to register? How were they greeted? How clean was the environment?

A benchmark comparison of any of the above with other organisations.

Contact us to discuss more about your requirements because all surveys are unique. We will forward a proposal to you once we know more about the assignment, including what type of activity you want to focus on, what information and improvement factors you want measured in the process and what questions to ask and measures to record.

The research can be structured over any time period and the results checked against agreed criteria. We can then provide detailed reports that highlight the strengths and weaknesses in your processes.

Telephone Mystery Shopping

Calls will be assessed against agreed criteria and a detailed report provided, highlighting staff performance and recommending training needs where necessary.

For example, we can evaluate:

Response time
Opening of calls
Listening and questioning skills
General call handling
Knowledge of member benefits and the association
Sales and marketing skills
Compliance with your standards with regard to welcome script
Call ending

Lead Management Mystery Shopping

We can assess how leads generated by phone, email or letter are handled.

We can evaluate:

Where details are left by telephone, are instructions clear?
Was contact made within a relevant timescale?
Where contact was made, was the person making contact with us aware of all the facts?
How professional were staff?
Was the lead management system effective?

Event Mystery Shopping

Are your events well organized? Are correct procedures being used? Is the location clean and tidy?

We will visit your events as a delegate and report back. By using pre arranged scenarios we will record the actions taken by staff. By comparing the results to likely or expected answers, we will be able to rate customer service and compliance to procedures.

The findings can be used in conjunction with staff training to ensure they are up to standard in any weak areas.

We can evaluate:

Joining instructions, including directions and signage
The external environment
Welcome and greetings
How delegates are guided through the program of the event
Presentation skills of speakers
Catering
Accessibility
Cleanliness
Waiting times
Staff manner and dress

Web Site Mystery Shopping

Web sites are often one of the first places that prospective new members and existing members will visit for more information, so it is important to discover what the experience is like.

We can evaluate:

How easy is it to find information
The quality of the content
The look and feel
Feedback on page download speeds
Any technical difficulties, including broken links and pages
Ease of ordering
And a comparison of your site against any competitors.

Postal Mystery shopping

When information is posted out to members, how do they feel about the service?

We can evaluate:

The speed of response
The quality of the information
The overall impression of what was sent
The accuracy i.e. was it exactly what was asked for? Was the name and address spelt correctly?
Further follow-up action

Member Satisfaction Survey

Are members getting value for money from your organisation?

Often members will not complain in person, but make a decision not to renew when the renewal notices are sent out.

We can visit or survey members by telephone. We can tell you what they really think of membership and what they would like you to change or improve.

We can evaluate:

Response times to requests for information
Staff attitudes
Questioning skills � do staff listen to the comments being made to them?
Are members happy with your service
Are they happy with the products and services provided or do they feel that improvements can be made?
Would they recommend membership to colleagues?