The Decline of Our Relatonship
Posted on February 3rd, 2012 by Cynthia D'Amour
It’s frustrating.
A few years ago, I was very happy.
- My favorite store started an email list.
- I signed up.
- Got periodic special deals.
As time passed, so did the frequency of emails.
- Last few months, it’s almost daily.
- The big sale of the year.
- Like the Groundhog Day movie – over and over.
Now they want to be my Facebook friend.
- To invade my life from a different angle.
- With the same info I already get.
- Don’t tickle me pink.
I’m doing the math…
- Value of my time to weed through their emails.
- Compared to the savings I periodically get.
- It’s not looking good for my formerly favorite store.
I miss my special relationship.
Makes me think of chapter leaders…Do your communications strengthen your relationships or frustrate your members?
Filed under: Community building, Keeping members
At one association, our renewal rate dropped as social media use increased. We added a weekly e-newsletter to the benefits mix and actually provided more information to people, yet they were less likely to remain as members.
Did we give them too much? Could they now get a lot of information from other sources? It’s probably more complicated than that, but the relationship had apparently changed.
I agree David with the challenge to figure out the true cause. It’s easy to blame something like social media at first glance – when maybe it was something else that coincided with the increase in social media.
I see association leaders blaming the economy for lackluster membership efforts. And yet, they haven’t changed how they are delivering value to be a better fit for the new economy. The relationship changed and they don’t seem to realize and/or internalize it.