Infographic: Do You Have Members or Customers?

This year at LRC, we’ve been having more conversations around the idea of “good fit” customers vs. “bad fit” customers.  Generally, bad fit customers are not only vulnerable customers, but have needs that do not align with your business model.

Looking at associations, we find something similar.  As associations and professional societies have looked to increase membership in recent years, they focused on increasing the quantity of people walking through the door, rather than the quality.

This has resulted in a high number of “bad fit” members that require more from organizations.  These members interact with organizations on a transactional basis and have little understanding or appreciation of that organization’s value.  These members are more like customers of organizations, rather than true members.

When looking at your own AMS, which do you see?  Do you have highly engaged members that advocate for you?  Or do you have customers that require benefits from you at a lower cost?  Check out our infographic below to see other differences between the two: