If you’ve ever been part of an organized group of people, whether it’s for volunteer work or simply a meeting of the minds, you know they come with their own special set of issues. Here are our solutions to some of the most common problems we’ve seen:
Problem 1: Your Membership Form Is Long and Complicated.
Your first job will be to determine what’s REALLY important for you to know. Is it make-or-break for you to know their birthday, or would it just be nice to know so you can send them a card?
Asking people for too much information (particularly personal details) can make them feel uncomfortable, especially if they’ve never been a part of your organization before. Stick to the basics – name, contact info, and anything that is essential to their role within your group. Do they want to volunteer? Would they be interested in serving on a committee? Decide what questions are the most critical, and save everything else for in-person conversation.
Also, using conditional logic to hide fields they don’t need is a simple way to make your form look less complicated. If they aren’t available on Sundays for meetings, don’t show another field asking if Sunday afternoons or evenings work better. Keep it simple and let them move on to the questions that are relevant to them.
Problem 2: You’re Spending Way Too Much Time Tracking down Membership Dues or Other Fees.
It doesn’t matter how excited someone is to join your organization – they’re always less excited when it comes time to pay for their dues, especially if they have to remember to bring you cash or a check next time they see you.
Make payments as painless as possible by collecting them during the registration process. You can let members choose between different membership levels, or set a basic registration fee that gets charged to every member. All they have to do is enter their card information, and we securely process the payment for you without storing any sensitive data. Through our secure payment processors, payments land in your own account on a two-business-day rolling basis.
This also allows you to tie each payment directly to the individual who joined, making it extremely easy to manage.
Problem 3: You Don’t Have an Easy Way to Send Communications to or Get Feedback from Your Members.
Opening the lines of communication in your group can be complicated if you have ten members or hundreds. You can export your registered members into Excel to import into your email marketing system, or pull them in automatically through Zapier or IFTTT. Then you can send out regular communications to all your users at once with just a few clicks.
When it’s time to hear from your members, the easiest way to get valuable feedback is with a simple survey. Build one quickly from of our handy templates, or start from scratch.
When in doubt, keep it simple.
Managing your group doesn’t have to be complicated. From getting new members and collecting dues to creating great lines of communication, Cognito Forms gets you the data you need so you can get back to what’s really important.
Rita Fitzgerald
Rita is the marketing director for Cognito Forms. She brings more than 8 years of experience in marketing and is probably the team's most talkative member. An avid Gamecock fan and not-so-closet nerd, she loves spending time with her husband and their dog, Sirius.