By Patricia Qvern, Operations Manager
In today’s day and age, we are all looking for more convenience, less hassles, affordability, less time spent on mundane tasks, and increasing productivity by automating what we can, in our lives.
Personally, this allows me to do more, spend less and free up time to spend with family and friends! Professionally, this means increased profits, superior customer experience and satisfied clients. This is a driving force in how I view things – pursuing efficiency within my personal and professional life without sacrificing quality or taking short cuts to get there.
It’s imperative to look at each membership renewals telemarketing campaign with this mindset. At Quality Contact Solutions, one way in which we fulfill this is by offering a two year renewal option. It’s easier for the clients – to focus on the association’s purpose and delivering membership value and less on their marketing budget. It’s easier for the member – to focus on other priorities.
Some of the finer details of why membership engagement is improved through two-year renewals are:
Affordability: For the member, many times there is a savings advantage – such as saving $50 on the 2nd year membership fee. That is better than any coupon you will find in the Sunday paper! If the employer pays for the membership or if it comes out of the member’s pocket, the savings is worth it. For the client, it’s cost effective too, by not having to invest staff or budget resources on membership retention efforts for that 2nd year.
More Convenience: How many times have you received a renewal notice in the mail, e-mail or via a phone call and thought “I don’t have time to take care of this right now. I’ll do it later.” And a week later, a phone call or notice arrives again! Only this time, “the reminder to renew” reminds you that you forgot about taking care of it later! Every year this occurs. So, how about taking one of these experiences out of your life? This scenario for the member and for the client conducting the notifications is time consuming!
Increased Productivity/Automation: For the member, it provides seamless access to member benefits, such as: staying up to date on certification requirements, legal or regulatory information, as well as, newsletters, articles and tools to aid the member in continued success within their career field. Being able to maximize usage without concerns of their membership lapsing. And – as luck always has it, when time is precious, “it happens”! There is a deadline and time is spent on renewing the membership instead of using the valuable resources, which can cause a myriad of emotions and can be mentally exhausting. For the client, it gives the staff opportunities to service the member’s needs by assisting with resource usage instead of enrollment issues (and those myriads of emotions!). A multi-year renewal option reduces the chances of a mishap and keeps everyone handling the important issues not just urgent ones.
Quality Contact Solutions has long-standing relationships with many associations spanning professional development, human resources, medical specialties, aviation, baseball coaches, real estate professionals, call centers, and many others. We conduct membership renewals telemarketing, plus convention registrations, training registrations, webinar registrations, database clean-up, and other types of membership engagement outbound call programs. We also handle inbound calls on an overflow or campaign specific basis. Essentially, we have the team that can act as an extension of association clients and their internal support teams.
We have found that by offering a two-year renewal option, we achieve anywhere from 10% to 30% of the renewing members taking advantage of the cost savings and convenience of is option. Our telemarketing efforts are effective and efficient. We don’t sacrifice quality or take short cuts to get there. If you have questions or would like further information on implementing a multi-year enrollment option, contact us at (866) 693-2889 or e-mail me at patricia.qvern@qualitycontactsolutions.com
Patricia Qvern is an Operations Manager at Quality Contact Solutions, a leading Outsourced Telemarketing Services organization. Patricia has more than 20 years of experience in the telemarketing industry in various capacities, so she is able to see the big picture and how all the pieces working together produce results. As an Operations Manager, she is responsible for managing the day to day relationship with the clients and our contact center teams.
