10 Ways to Improve the Member Experience
Building perennial memberships is essential to the growth of any museum, zoo, or other cultural institution. Even if you’ve done a good job of marketing your memberships and attaining new members, you still need to provide a positive and memorable experience for your members so they renew their memberships and invite their friends to join them.
This article will look at 10 ways you can improve member experience and bolster your long-term growth as an institution.
Improve Your Member Experience With Membership Rankings
Providing your members with fun and creative membership names and rankings will enhance their overall experience. Membership names and ranking are more than just fun-sounding titles for guests, they’re invitations for your visitors to become a part of the community and culture at your institution. Guests can get a greater sense of identity with your institution and build on their experiences visiting your venues.
Use Members-Only Hours to Improve Your Membership Programs
There are a plethora of benefits that cultural institutions should be providing to their guests, and member-only hours are a great way to keep your members feeling exclusive and cared for. Not only do members get the privilege of visiting your venue outside of regular hours, but they can also meet other like-minded members through these invitations.
Members-Only Events Can Improve Membership Engagement
Like member-only hours, member-only events provide more opportunities to build a sense of community for your members. These are also great because institutions have the opportunity to get creative and fun, utilizing whatever event ideas their team comes up with to bolster membership involvement. Wine and dines, night-time events, and game-days are all great event ideas to mix things up for your members.
Membership Discounts and Incentives
Sometimes, a simple discount is all you need to remind your guests why their memberships are worth the monthly payment. Discounts on snacks, drinks, gift shop items, and other goods and services are all great ideas to improve member experience.
Membership Emails & Updates Keep Members Engaged
Don’t forget to thank your guests and remind of all the new and exciting upcoming events at your cultural institution. Email updates are also great opportunities for you to provide your members with interesting links, information, and relevant material that might interest them. If you’re a history museum, for example, you might send them an email with a number of important historical dates that are coming up in the given month. These don’t have to be dry emails focusing on your institution–be creative, be fun, and be personable.
Membership Behind-the-Scene Tours
Nothing says exclusivity more than a behind-the-scenes tour of your cultural institution. Give them a tour of your artifacts archive, animal habitats, and other exciting aspects of your venue that they would otherwise be unable to see.
Membership Local Benefits
Get involved with your city, schools, local restaurants, and other community members to engage and galvanize your local presence. Not only will this provide your members with new opportunities to engage with your community, but you can reach a wider audience to other locals who may not know of your membership benefits.
Be Personable With Members
Whatever method of engagement you employ, remember to be personable and human with your members. These individuals believe in your mission statement and role as a cultural institution, and you owe it to them to be as personable and welcoming as you can.
Keep an Active Membership Calendar
Keep a membership calendar available online and update it regularly. This is an easy way to remind your members of all the upcoming events, galleries, and seasonal festivities within a given month or year. This can help mitigate heavy-handed email updates and provide your members with a bird’s-eye view of everything their membership provides them for the year.
Keep it Fun and Simple
Whatever you do, remember to keep it fun and simple. You’ve already done the hard work of turning visitors into memberships, so you must have done something right. Be confident in what you’ve accomplished and don’t overthink things. Do more of what you’ve done to attract your guests and maintain an upbeat, optimistic tone with your members.
With ACME ticketing, we’ll provide you with the managerial technology and POS customization tools to sign up and introduce membership benefits any time, any where. ACME’s cloud-based technology will ensure your servers stay online 24/7 and are updated regularly, providing your members with a smooth and dependable online platform.
Don’t let your ticketing software be the thing that holds you back from securing returning visitors; sign up for a free ACME demo today.