I recently received the monthly newsletter from Matrix Group, one of the many vendors on my list of AMS vendors. In the newsletter, Matrix’s CEO, Joanna Pineda, outlined how Matrix had hosted a “town hall meeting” with their customers, in order to outline new enhancements to the product, as well as to solicit feedback from their customers. As Joanna explains, it’s all part of Matrix’s customer engagement strategy.
I love this idea, especially as it pertains to software development companies, but it applies to associations, too. It’s very easy to get caught in the weeds, believing that what you’re doing is very important to your customers or members, when in fact, it’s only important to staff (or some small subset of volunteers/members).
So ask yourself: What kind of direct, human-to-human engagement are you doing with your customer and members? Sure, we all do surveys. And we take solicited and unsolicited advice from our volunteers when we’re on the phone or at committee meetings. But what are you doing to engage the broader population? What activities does your association conduct in order to solicit direct feedback from your members and customers about how you’re doing and what they’d like to see? Leave a comment and tell me.