As an association professional, do you feel like you’re working harder than you were a year ago? If you answered yes, you aren’t alone.
In the 2021 Association Trends Study from Community Brands, 78 percent of people who work at professional membership organizations say their staff is working more than they were a year ago. How will they address the increased workload? Forty percent plan to invest in new technology.
So, how can technology reduce workload for your association? Here are a few ways that modern association management software (AMS) can help you streamline your work:
1. Process automation.
One of the most effective ways to handle increased workload is to automate processes. Just think about how much time your association staff spends on manual tasks, such as sending email communications to members. Automation reduces the burden of these manual tasks, saving staff time and effort.
Using automation capabilities in modern technology like Nimble AMS, you can easily automate complex business processes. Without code, you can specify process criteria to do things like automatically update or create new records, emails, and tasks or submit approval requests – all in a few simple steps.
Here are a few examples of ways your association can use process automation technology:
- Sending email communications to members: Automate email communications to members based on members’ actions, such as registering for an event or paying membership dues. For example, when members join your organization and pay their annual dues, they can receive an automated email confirmation for joining that includes a receipt of payment. The action that triggers this workflow is a new member joining and paying the annual membership dues.
- Automating membership renewals: Association research from Community Brands found that some lapsed members simply forget to renew. One of the best ways to address this issue is to offer an option to automatically renew membership, with the membership fee charged to the member’s credit card. Your technology should allow you to set up this option, with corresponding automated emails that notify members when their membership has been renewed.
- Streamlining reports: Schedule important, timely membership reports to send automatically via email to yourself or executive management. For example, set up a workflow to automatically send a monthly membership summary to your executive director and board of directors.
2. Predictive analytics and artificial intelligence.
Another effective way to reduce workload is to invest in technology that provides predictive analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. For instance, using Salesforce platform-based Nimble AMS, which leverages the Salesforce Einstein AI technology, associations can become smarter, more predictive, and more in tune with what members need, want, and expect. Here are a few examples of how you can use predictive analytics and AI to make your workload lighter:
- Automate aspects of member service, such as answering/assisting with common questions via a chat bot to provide immediate response 24/7, freeing up staff to help with more complex inquiries.
- Automatically predict which members are most likely to lapse and then target them with specific actions that encourage them to renew.
- Plan your next event by using historical engagement data to make predictions about your next conference or event. You can determine expected registrations based on historical member activity, making it easier to anticipate attendance and associated event logistics.
Lean more about how modern automation and AI technologies can help your association work more efficiently: Read the article, What Automation Can Do for Your Association.
3. Automatic upgrades.
The process of upgrading your AMS can be cumbersome, putting added workload on your IT team. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Moving to a modern, cloud-based AMS system like Nimble AMS means no more hassles from product upgrades. With Nimble AMS, product upgrades are automatic, at no added charge. This means you have a continuous stream of upgrades and innovation included in the software. You’re always using the latest in technology advances, without adding work for your IT team or the rest of your staff.
TIP: When looking for an AMS product, check with the AMS vendor to make sure they do not charge for product upgrades, even if it is developed on the Salesforce platform.
Learn more.
Using modern technology, your organization can become more efficient, ultimately reducing workload and doing more without a bunch of added effort. Learn more about how Nimble AMS can help your organization lighten the load: See Nimble AMS in action.
