4 Association Member Management Tips to Help You Ditch the Spreadsheets

Is your association tired of keeping everything about your members on one spreadsheet? Gain back autonomy and flexibility by switching up the way you track member data. While using sheets and tables can be a great way to organize your member data, it can also leave you feeling trapped within the confines of a strict platform. ‍

The reality is that your members are a living, breathing collective of humans that cannot be defined by data plugged into a chart. They have emotions, experience your association in many ways, and therefore should be managed on a much more flexible level. So, what are some other methods you can try out to help make member management more personal for your association? With your organization handling and collecting more and more member data by the day, you’ll need the right tools and tricks to get things on track.

We’d like to share a few of our favorite tricks to help you ditch the stiff spreadsheets and get you on a path to improving member satisfaction and experience.

1. Membersgear

Looking for a resource that’s completely free and provides a multitude of useful tools? Membersgear could be for you. Membersgear is an open source software that allows you to take care of  member management in more ways than just keeping track of data. While it does have tracking tools that you can use, it also provides you with other sources and ways that allow you to access more qualitative data and better reach your members.

Using a PHP membership framework, Membersgear has a secure system that allows you to design a member platform of your own and even integrate it with your association’s website. This way, your membership software will feel like a seamless extension of what you already have going. Membersgear offers a wide variety of other perks and advantages. And best of all, it’s completely free- perfect for those associations trying to stick to a tight budget.

2. Cvent

Does your association struggle with keeping its events organized and managed? With Cvent, you can say goodbye to stressful event planning. Cvent allows you to take event management to the next level, including ways to make sure your members’ experience at events and conferences is one for the books. With built-in functions to handle event registration, email marketing, event surveys, and more, your association will have every avenue to get things done on your terms.

‍By using Cvent, you can get a better grip on your event attendees, including retention rate on your event campaigns and satisfaction ratings on events after they’re over. Cvent is an amazing option for those associations looking to better manage their events with a small team and/or not enough bandwidth.

3. Personify

Next, let’s talk about Personify. If you’re looking for something a little more complex to tackle complicated business processes, Personify could be the software for you. With their 360 platform, your association can tackle any task with ease. Again, Personify offers a fully brandable and responsive software for associations to use. It allows you to generate advanced reports on all of your member data, helping you keep up with member analytics.

‍You can keep track of any meetings and conferences you have, choosing to share them with whoever you wish. And the best part is, with Personify your association has the option to take things mobile. If your association is one who favors having complete control of your members no matter your location, Personify’s mobile platform is for you.

4. Muster

If your association is one that focuses heavily on communication, Muster could be for you. Muster is a communication manager that provides associations with the tools to create, organize, and manage their member contact lists. It can also help you break down your member list into much more targeted sections, allowing you to focus on one section of members at a time and refining your member engagement and retention work.

‍With Muster, your association has a much more intuitive way of getting to the bottom of member needs and developing effective communication strategies. It even shows you a real map of where your members are located, giving you a better picture of who you’re reaching and where they are from a locational standpoint.

While there are many member management tools floating around for your association to learn about, here are four we really feel hit home when it comes to improving member management. Consider trying one, or maybe even a few, out and leave behind boring member data spreadsheets in the process.