Why Your Organization Needs a Member Satisfaction Survey and 40+ Question Examples

Has your organization’s membership seen a decline in participation? Maybe your meetings have low attendance or your discussion boards have no discussion. What about your member retention? Do you have new members joining all the time but not renewing?

If you, like many other organizations in this position, have no idea why the engagement or retention is low, it may be time for member satisfaction survey.

What is a Membership Satisfaction Survey, and Why Do You Need One?

A membership satisfaction survey is a simple tool for checking in with your membership and seeing what is important to them. It’s a chance to address issues and encourage long-term membership and regular renewals.

You can ask members to provide feedback, answer specific questions, to describe their feelings on a scale or provide open space for them to share their thoughts. The questions should focus on the member’s experience, and give them the opportunity to offer feedback on the workings of the organization.

Some of the subjects your membership satisfaction survey could cover include:

• Benefits of membership
• General satisfaction
• Meeting times, frequency, and duration
• Barriers to participation
• Ideas for improvements
• Topics of most and least interest
• Opinions of your events

If you’d just like a membership satisfaction survey template, click here.

Best Practices for an Effective Survey

It’s a good idea to share your survey on your members’ only website. Don’t forget to include an open space for comments not covered by the survey questions. This will allow members to give additional feedback, ask questions and offer suggestions.

If your organization is suffering from low retention rates, separately survey two segments of members — long-term and those who’d been members for one year. This will allow you to narrow in on the benefits of membership, ideas for improvement and topics that were most interesting to members.

5 Tips for Creating an Effective Member Survey:

Here are 5 tips to help ensure your online survey is effective in capturing the information you need:

1. Set clear objectives.

What are you trying to learn? What metrics do you need to help you achieve your goals? You might want to work backwards – first think about what results you want, then determine the questions you need to ask. I’ve learned the hard way to consider how you’ll apply the data before you craft the questions.

2. Keep it short and simple.

You’ll probably get a better response to a brief survey, simply because it will be less time consuming. It’s also important to ask concise questions with well formulated answers. Giving participants specific choices (e.g., yes, no, rating scale, multiple choice) make the questions easier to answer and simplifies analysis as well.

Plus, don’t forget to include an explanation as to why you are conducting the survey as well as a thank-you at the end of the survey. That little bit of appreciation can help members feel like their contribution is valued!

3. Test it and time it right.

Once you’ve drafted the survey, test it out on a small group of members, such as your board or highly engaged members. Get their feedback and take a look at the type of results you receive to be sure your format is effective.

In terms of timing, research suggests that you’ll get the best response on Monday, Friday and Sunday – so these might be the best days to send your invitations or post the survey.

4. Promote it.

Promotion is key if you want to achieve a high response rate to gain a true representation of your members’ viewpoints. There are a number of ways you can promote your online survey, including:

• Posting on your website
• Personalized emails
• Posting on Facebook
• Write a blog post or forum post with the link and timelines
• Including a note and the link in your e-newsletter

5. Share the results.

While you are conducting the online survey to meet your own objectives, it’s also important to share the results with the participants and your membership in general. It offers an opportunity to thank those who participated and to leverage the results for additional member content.

Ready to put your survey together? Check out our list of sample questions to get started.

40+ Questions for Your Membership Satisfaction Survey

General Satisfaction Questions

• How satisfied are you with your membership?
• How likely are you to renew your membership?
• How likely are you to recommend our organization to others?
• How does the cost of your membership compare to the value you get from it?
• Do you feel recognized and valued as a member?

Membership Benefits Questions

• What do you think is the best membership benefit we offer?
• How often do you utilize the benefits included in your membership?
• Are there any benefits you haven’t used? If so, why?
• How do you typically learn about new benefits or updates?
• Are there any additional benefits you would like to see offered?

Membership Activities/Events Questions

• How often do you participate in our organization’s activities?
• How would you rate the quality of our events/programs?
• How well does our organization do including new members in activities?
• Are our event timings convenient for you? If not, what would work better?
• What was your favorite event or activity this year?
• Are there any activities you hope we won’t do again? If yes, which ones?
• What types of events would you like to see more of in the future?
• Do you have a suggestion for a new activity? Tell us here!

Membership Communication Questions

• How often do you read our newsletter?
• Do you follow our club on social media? If so, which platforms? (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
• How often do you visit the club website?
• Do you find our website and online resources user-friendly?
• What are your communication preferences? (Text, email, website, social media, etc.)
• How often do you want to hear from us?
• Do you feel well-informed about our events and initiatives?

Membership Development Questions

• Have you gained any new skills or knowledge through your membership?
• How satisfied are you with the professional development opportunities we offer?
• Have you participated in any member networking opportunities? If so, how was your experience?
• What kind of personal or professional development opportunities would you like to see?

Membership Meeting Questions

• How often do you attend our meetings?
• Do you find our meetings beneficial?
• Are you happy with the meeting day/time? If not what would be better?
• Would you like our meetings to be virtual, in person or hybrid?
• How can we improve our meetings?

Demographic Questions (Optional)

If you didn’t get this information when your members joined, feel free to pop these in your assessment survey:

• How long have you been a member?
• What is your age group? (e.g., under 18, 18-24, etc.)
• What was your primary reason for joining our organization?

Open-Ended Questions

These questions can be at the end of your survey, with a long form response.

• What do you think is important for our organization’s leaders to know?
• What would make your membership more valuable to you?
• What has been your most positive experience as a member?
• Would you like to share additional thoughts with us?

Want some of these questions in a Google Form? Click here to easily download your own membership survey.

And if you’re a WildApricot customer, you can run surveys like this directly within the WildApricot platform.

Click here to learn more about how surveys and polls work in WildApricot!

Two Customer Satisfaction Survey Examples You Can Borrow From

The for-profit realm has mastered the satisfaction survey. Nonprofits, clubs, and associations can learn a lot from them. Consider these two examples from two major brands, Uber and Skype.

1. Uber

Uber prioritizes customer satisfaction by asking users to rate their service after every ride. Using a simple star system, customers can quickly describe their satisfaction with a couple clicks, with the option to add more detail.

Where Uber takes it farther is by following up on less-than-five-star ratings. Customers who aren’t satisfied are asked to specifically describe their issues, giving Uber more information in a simple way.

The added text description, “Ok, but had an issue” ensures that a four-star rating means the same thing to everyone. By offering specific options for the issues, Uber streamlines communication to make it easier to find the problem.

Takeaways: Use words to clarify your number scale. Follow-up immediately on negative feedback.

2. Skype Support

Like Uber, Skype asks you to rate every call. They also offer a survey on their website to give feedback on satisfaction with their support system. They ask two powerful questions, one using a rating scale and the other open-ended: How would you rate your experience using the Skype Support website? What can we improve to make it better?

The combination of questions nets a lot of information in a simple way. It allows users to express how satisfied they are (emotional content), and then give their solutions. This gives Skype a clear picture of how the customer feels, and what they want to happen.

They also give the option to be anonymous (which is also an option in the WildApricot polls functionality). This can be useful for companies and nonprofits as well. Consider if your members would be more forthcoming about their satisfaction if they didn’t have to put their name to their comments.

Takeaways: Short and simple can still yield a lot of information. Use a variety of question styles. Consider keeping your survey anonymous.

Higher Member Satisfaction

A member satisfaction survey can give you a lot of information about your members, helping you improve their experience and encourage their participation. You might be surprised with your results – perhaps your low attendance is solely due to the days you meet and not because your meeting is unnecessary for the majority of members.

Use the information in your survey results to shape your membership and improve your organization. Hopefully after implementing the changes needed from your membership survey you’ll see improved satisfaction levels, higher engagement, increased retention rates and overall a healthier organization!

To learn more about creating surveys, check out how you can do so in WildApricot, or copy our membership satisfaction template here.

Read More: 24 Membership Benefit Ideas to Attract and Retain More Members