Almost every AMS on the market today has some form of CRM (customer relationship management) functionality that allows staff to track contacts made with members and customers (e.g., phone calls received or made). This CRM functionality provides an opportunity for the association to capture and track the kinds of interactions the association is having with members and customers. This data can then be used for (among other things) promoting membership to non-members and demonstrating the value of membership during the renewal process.
For example, one of my clients provides legal service to both members and non-members. They keep track of all phone calls related to their legal service in their AMS. Here’s what they can do with both members and non-members:
For members, during the renewal period, they can include within the renewal letter a short note that says “Over the past year, we’ve assisted you with legal information calls on three different occasions. Renewing your membership will ensure that you can continue to receive this type of information quickly and easily.”
For non-members, when they save a call for a non-member, as soon as the call is logged into the AMS, a workflow can automatically send an email thanking the non-member for the call and asking them to join.
These kinds of activities require discipline on the part of the staff (to ensure calls are logged) and a decent CRM system that will allow you to capture the calls and pull the data when needed (e.g., during the renewal process). The technology to do this already exists and chances are you have an AMS that can accommodate this. Now it’s up to you to get into the habit of logging the calls!