Moe and Robbie Kellman Baxter discuss strategies for creating membership programs for everything from car rentals to video streaming and Software-as-a-Service.
The Shift from Customers to Members
When you consider the infectious aura of poor customer service, it becomes ever more mystifying why, as consumers, we choose to put up with it. Whether it’s the automated answering service that’s always annoying, and almost never end, or the disinterested associate on the other side of the transaction who’s just buying time, feeling like an uninvited guest has become the norm in most businesses around the world. Sure, there are plenty of exceptions, still they’re like the proverbial needle in the haystack and are clearly the ones who obsess over those they serve.
Earlier this month, I was introduced to the work that Robbie Kellman Baxter is doing to help companies, large and small, to reimagine a world where they serve members, and not customers. “A certain type of organization is winning the hearts and voices of their customer, and building the kind of loyalty that traditionally was reserved for family, community, and church.” she states in her book, The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue. The secret, she discovers is that “people are craving membership.” Whether it’s Linkedin, Charitywater, or Netflix; “organizations that build their businesses around people’s needs to belong, to be connected, and to be admired, that are focused on relationships over products, are winning in today’s economy.”
Listen carefully as Robbie and I dissect the following questions:
What is the membership economy and why now
The best modern examples of vibrant membership organizations
How a membership economy adapts to an organizational structure and vice versa
The strategies to build an effective acquisition funnel from the bottom up
Why the on-boarding process is the catalyst to success
The role of the leadership team in leading a membership organization
- The risk and deep challenges facing membership organizations