Three Tips to Help New Members Want to Join Your Organization

I had been doing a lot of research lately about Vienna, Austria. As part of my State Department tour of Eastern Europe last fall, training associations about membership development, I had the opportunity to stay a night in Vienna, Austria and I wanted to make the most of it.

Through a friend of a friend, I got the names of several tour guides who worked in Vienna. Since I did not know them personally, I wanted to check them out as well as I could, using the Internet. I learned a few things about what I liked and disliked when communicating with people who were trying to get me to work with them.

The challenges I encountered in making my decision to work with someone are the same challenges people go through when deciding to partner with your organization. The tips listed below will help you to help them choose you from all the others.

My time is valuable and so is my money. Here are three criteria I used in determining which of the tour guides to choose.

1. Did they respond quickly to my requests for information?

With Internet and email, there is no reason to take days to respond to an inquiry. People expect nearly instant responses and those who do not meet that expectation may be perceived as not caring.
2. Did they seem knowledgeable about their subject?

Rather than just answering yes or no to my questions, did they offer additional information that helped me figure out what I really wanted? Did they suggest specific ways they could make my experience even better? If not, maybe theyre just not worth my money.

3. Do they have a website?

Not having a website is like not having a business card. Again, my question is: Are they serious about what they do?

My search for a tour guide through a region I am not familiar with, is very similar to people seeking out your organization for your assistance. Do you respond to inquiries right away? Do you offer additional information that enables people to make better decisions? Does your organization have an effective website that is easily accessible and people can learn about you and your business?

Here are the results of my Vienna tour guide research. Uta took more than two weeks to get back to me after my initial request for information; however, she did come back with an assortment of potential hotels in a good location that I might like. Carola responded quickly. However, she only gave me information about her availability and charges and she did not have a website.

My choice for a tour guide was Christian. He responded quickly, gave me the information I asked for, and included additional information that helped me choose him.

To help people to decide to partner with your organization, be sure to:

· Respond quickly to inquiries;

· Share additional information that might help the decision making process; and

·b Have a website where people can quickly find and learn about your organization.