Member Success is Always Evolving; Shouldn’t your Member Success Management Tactics Evolve with it?

The only universal truth in Member Success is that it’s always evolving and if your organization is using the strategies and tactics that were the ‘new norm’ in Member Success Management – new, even 3 years ago, – you’re being left behind.

Over the past few years, that evolution has happened far more rapidly than anyone could have foreseen.

I just finished reading “Member-Shift” by Sarah Sladek (available now on amazon.com!), Host of the Membership IQ Podcast and Author of some half-dozen books since 2007, focusing on Memberships in Associations. It’s an excellent read on the disengagement of members from their organizations, and the associations which have lost sight of who and what matters most (and, by the way, its your members!) and how associations are struggling to leverage their assets.

It’s time to buck traditions and Disrupt the Myths of Membership, Member Success, and Member Success Management.

Let’s Get Started.

The world of Member Success is Ripe for Disruption

Traditional approaches to Member Success Management – often held tightly by those that have implemented them – have left organizations still grappling with high churn, low expansion, their limited resources stretched thin, and burnout and turnover among Member Success Managers (MSMs).

But what if there was a fundamentally different way to think about your Members, a method so innovative that it could revolutionize how we approach Member Success and membership growth in general?

Enter Appropriate Experience (AX)-based Coverage Segments, the future of Member Success.

A Revolution in Member Success Management

In the quest for balance and efficiency, there is a novel approach to address the most pressing challenges of Member Success Management: delivering the Member’s Appropriate Experience at scale.

Remember, Member Success is when a Member achieves their Desired Outcome (Goal + Appropriate Experience) through their relationship with the organization, leading them to stay longer, use more resources, and advocate for their association.

By prioritizing the Member’s Appropriate Experience and segmenting Members accordingly, you should be able to reduce churn, massively and rapidly drive expansion, and increase Member satisfaction, while improving the Membership Teams’ wellbeing.

The Traditional Approach: Where Associations have Missed the Mark

Revenue-based Member Segmentation, the traditional and widely accepted practice in Member Success, has long been used to dictate the level of service a Member receives.

The bigger the Member’s Desired Outcome, the more attention the Member receives from the team, and, consequently, the smaller members and their DO, the less attention they get.

However, is this truly the best approach for the Member, your team, or the overall health of your organization?

More importantly, does it ensure reduced churn and improved expansion while keeping your MSMs from burning out?

Unfortunately, the evidence suggests not.

The New Approach: Appropriate Experience -Based Coverage Segments

What if we told you there’s a radically different approach that effectively solves all the issues outlined above?

Appropriate Experience-based Coverage Segments, a method that groups your Member by their shared Appropriate Experience (AX), allows you to deploy resources effectively and efficiently to ensure your Members achieve their Desired Outcome.

This resource deployment is called a Coverage Model.

It’s a bold shift from the traditional revenue-based Member segmentation model, focusing not on the amount of dues they pay, or the size of their business or agency, but on the Member’s experience, needs, and Goals (DO).

With AX-Based coverage segments, your Member Success operation becomes a finely tuned machine, delivering precisely what your Members need, when they need it. For this to work, you do need a solid Enablement and Operations layer.

Here is how the four most common types of AX-Based Coverage Segments look – in detail.

Inbound Coverage Segment: This segment is characterized by Members who engage with you on their terms. They don’t have a dedicated MSM on your membership team, but access a pool of highly skilled resources. By allowing Members to control their engagement, you enable them to attain their success in their way, fostering a better relationship, reducing the chance of churn, and setting them up for expansion, also on their terms.

Asynchronized Coverage Segment: These are Members who prefer asynchronous engagement – emails, chats, videos – rather than regular one-on-one or group meetings. This approach not only meets Members’ needs but also drastically reduces the risk of MSM burnout as it provides a more balanced and manageable workload.

Synchronous Coverage Segment: This segment is where one-on-one, real-time engagement occurs most. While it may seem traditional, it is balanced by asynchronous carve-outs that help provide scale and prevent overwhelming your MSMs.

Task Force Segment: For the most complex, high-value, or at-risk Members, a task force is assigned. Multiple contributors from your membership team work with the Member simultaneously, providing their Appropriate Experience while boosting Member satisfaction and advocacy.

Those are just the four most common coverage segments and there’s so much more detail that’s beyond the scope of this, but that should give you a general idea.

You may employ all of those, some of those, none of those, or come up with others that make sense in your unique situation. Whatever works to provide your Members with their AX.

Just a Different Take on the “Touch-level” Model?

Isn’t Synchronous Coverage just “high-touch” Member Success? No, but if it helps you to make that connection, fine, but just understand that in something like “Synchronous Coverage” the model is weighted more toward synchronous meetings, but asynchronous modalities are also employed for scale.

But even if you can’t get past the “touch” level pyramid of ancient Member Success, then just look at it this way: in this Appropriate Experience -Based Coverage Segmentation methodology, you will have Members that pay a high dues rate (based on their size) that would be in the “low-touch” segment and Members that pay you very little that would need to be in “high-touch” since that would more align with their Appropriate Experience.

To make it even more clear: You will have Members in the same AX-Based Coverage Segment that pay dues in radically different amounts.

Coverage Segments do not take what the Member pays into consideration since that doesn’t figure into their Appropriate Experience.

A Member that is a larger business or agency with much more industry experience, larger staff, or more technologically advanced operations might have an Appropriate Experience that would dictate very little hands-on resource deployment across most lifecycle stages.

Whereas a Member that is smaller and uses less sophisticated operations techniques might require what would have been categorized in the past as “high-touch” engagement.

Association-World Impact: Appropriate Experience -Based Coverage Segments in Action

Coverage Segmentation is one of the “secrets” that World-class organizations use to get to >125% NRR.

But to truly appreciate the transformative power of Appropriate Experience-based Coverage Segments, let’s look at some real-world examples in organizations that are on their way to World-class, but aren’t there yet:

NRR Boost:

A Homebuilders association was struggling with a natural amount of unavoidable churn in their sizable Member cohort. However, by understanding the Appropriate Experience of their Members and shifting from traditional Revenue-based Member Segments to Coverage Segments, they saw their NRR jump from 98% to 105%, even with a (large) 15% churn rate. This surge in NRR past 100% led to a significantly higher valuation in their next funding round, proving the tangible financial impact of using Appropriate Experience-based coverage segments.

Rebalanced Capacity, Reduced Burnout:

A particular Bankers association was stuck in the rut of old-school Revenue-based Member Segmentation, creating a “low-touch” segment for low-paying Members and a “high-touch” segment for high-paying Members with dedicated MSMs for each of those segments. When an examination of the capacity planning model was run, it was shown that their MSMs (of which there were two LT-MSMs) working on the association’s membership team) working with “low-touch” Members were overloaded, juggling 3x more Members than they should if they were to actually deliver the Member’s Appropriate Experience (which they were not doing).

This resulted in high burnout and turnover for low-touch MSMs. Meanwhile, their two “high-touch” MSMs were severely underutilized; and could have effectively managed 4x as many Members with capacity to spare. The high-paying Members didn’t need as much synchronous engagement as expected. By implementing Appropriate Experience-based coverage segments, they could then rebalance the workload, reduce burnout, and boost efficiency.

Increased Profit Margins Through Efficient Resource Allocation:

Another association had used the “pod” approach for their Members, dedicating many resources for each Member, only to discover this was far from the Appropriate Experience for a large cohort of Members. Around half of their Members had the experience, internal expertise, and resources to manage on their own, with only occasional strategic guidance needed from the association. By moving these Members to an Inbound coverage segment, they freed up valuable resources, saw a 50%+ increase in profit margin for these Members, and still ensured the Members’ success.

These examples highlight the potential of AX-Based coverage segments in not just reducing churn and improving expansion, but also in creating an environment where MSMs can thrive.

By focusing on the Appropriate Experience for each Member, it will ensure that both Members and MSMs can succeed.

Making the Shift: Applying Appropriate Experience-Based Coverage Segments

Transitioning from the traditional model to AX-Based coverage segments might seem daunting, but the rewards far outweigh the effort. It’s not just about reducing churn or increasing revenue.

It’s about providing a Member experience that meets their unique needs and objectives, fostering long-term relationships, and allowing your team to thrive in their roles.

Remember, the goal of AX-based coverage segments isn’t to categorize your Members by their financial value to you, but to identify the level and type of engagement that best ensures their success.

By doing this, you ensure not just the success of your Members but also the success and wellbeing of your team, and the association.

We’ve created an Excel dashboard you can use as a tool to help you create a Member Success profile for each of your members. This resource will help you in planning and implementation of Member Success with them. You can use it when you have your preliminary discussions with them about their Desired Outcome and Appropriate Experience, and set Success Milestones to help them on their way. Then, you can enter other data you collect on the Dashboard into your AMS where you can further track their progress towards Member Success, and proactively adjust their Success Vector as they go along. Good Luck!