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Our staff sat down this week to discuss member retention. We’re just now beginning to feel the affects of this challenging economy. It’s not as though we’re experiencing a mass exodus. To the contrary, only a very few members have dropped membership in the last six months. Although it’s probably a discussion we should have had before now, now’s as good a time as any to ramp up our retention efforts.

Certainly, we offer dozens of products and services that could take center stage in a retention campaign. But how would we narrow these down? As a highly-regulated, government-funded industry, a number of critical issues are important to our members. Luckily, we didn’t have to decide. Our members have told us loud and clear – and, for us, the answer was somewhat unexpected.

What we know is that Michigan health care professionals look to our association for quality education. Among all of the intangible services we offer, it’s one thing that we do very well and is seen as a valuable takeaway. Even though they may be financially strapped and dues may not be in the budget this year, our former members are committed to attending our education programs, even if this means paying the non-member rate.

Knowing this, we are taking steps to feature our education programs in a new member retention campaign. We are pulling articles about upcoming education programs from our biweekly newsletter to launch a separate publication on the off weeks. We’re also creating a buzz with our “Providers Pick the Topics” project, as well as planning a Virtual Open House for the launch of our new web and audio conferencing services.

Additionally, we’re taking this opportunity to say, “thank you.” Our president/CEO will be writing a letter to our members thanking them for their loyalty and commitment to the association despite the present financial hardships they are experiencing. With this letter, we plan to offer a gift certificate inviting our members to participate in an upcoming education program at no charge.

So, my question to you is this: Are you finding retention in unexpected places this year? Of the dozens of products and services your association offers its members, which would they say are the most valuable in a downturn economy? How do you know? Does this correspond with the products and services you’re investing valuable time and money to offer?