7 Must-Have Features of an Association Management Software

If your association wants to grow and develop more meaningful relationships with all members, it’s crucial to focus on their experience with your organization. This is why it’s vital to leverage tools like association management software (AMS) to help you boost every member’s experience within your association.

Generally, AMS stores contact details used by different organizations to automate particular time-consuming tasks and manage requests, subscriptions, and members without involving too many employees. Tools similar to Impexium and other association management systems have countless benefits.

While you can use it to manage, record, and track interactions between your association’s members, it can also help eliminate manual administrative functions and automate your employees’ work. However, to make the most of AMS, ensure that your chosen software has the following must-have features:

1. Built-In Communication Tools

To strengthen your relationship with your organization’s members, staying in touch with them and providing them with valuable content, support, and information is essential. With an AMS that comes with built-in communication tools, it’s never an impossible job.

A common way to keep your members informed is by email. So, ensure that your AMS communication tools include email marketing features. This way, it’ll be easy to send personalized welcoming emails for members or mass emails to targeted lists and groups based on your criteria.

2. Third-Party Integrations

A good AMS should allow third-party integration to help streamline association operations if your association uses marketing and accounting tools or software solutions. Integrations enable you to manage your association without entering data twice in various locations. Also, by doing this, you prevent potential human errors, thus improving your members’ satisfaction.

3. Excellent Customer Service

When choosing an AMS for your organization, make sure to check the availability of the vendor’s customer support. If possible, select a tool that offers customer support that you can reach via various platforms, such as support tickets, telephone, and email. This way, you can guarantee that there’s always someone available to address your concerns in case you need help with your AMS.

4. Efficient Member Database

If you want to improve your members’ experience, ensure that your AMS has an efficient member database. Typically, it contains vital information about every member and helps both your members and association stay organized.

An AMS with an efficient member database that’s easy to update and navigate will keep every member happy, allowing you to retain them over time. Remember that nobody wants to encounter outdated details. So, by utilizing a solution that includes a comprehensive member database, you’ll be able to keep all documents well-organized and demonstrate to your members that you’re always on top of your organization’s data management.

5. Event Management

Many associations, particularly the professional ones, offer a variety of events to bring together their supporters and keep their association members engaged. Instead of organizing your events in a third-party event management tool, you should integrate event planning with your database to:

• Empower a local chapter to plan its events in the system
• Apply member discounts automatically and allow early registration to members logged into their profits
• Avoid migrating participation and attendance data manually into your system after events

6. Reporting

One of the best things about having your activities and data in one place is reviewing past members’ actions and assessing their performance. You may review email marketing campaigns, explore the popularity of several membership options, and monitor every membership drive within one system. This is why a reporting feature is a must-have for any AMS.

Reporting features allow you to analyze data from various points across your software. You can quickly run and create customized and auto-generated reports based on the set criteria. Since doing this manually without software can be time-consuming.

7. Financial Management

When you’re operating a membership organization, many financial transactions are involved. This may get even more complicated if you run other membership levels, offer both monthly and annual memberships, and process payments for conferences and events. Fortunately, most AMS tools are built with financial management features.

The accounting and financial management features in an AMS make handling the payment and billing processing for every member more straightforward and hassle-free. Unlike spreadsheets, this feature can streamline your financial processes. Some modules included are designed for:

• Sending receipts
• Membership fees
• Accounting for expenditure and income of your organization
• Issuing reminders

If you want to save time and automate your organization’s membership billing process, AMS can help you. Every member may opt for membership options using your system and enter payment details with online payments, automated invoices, built-in renewal reminders, and receipts. Other than saving your time, it may also lessen the errors that come with manual transaction management.

Conclusion

Increasing retention rates and improving your members’ experience doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Using an AMS with the features mentioned above guarantees you to stay on top of your membership data. As a result, it’ll allow your organization to keep every member informed while ensuring everybody is satisfied.