Conversational Engagement is based on the premise that what your members have to tell you is just as important as what you have to tell your members. There are many ways to get your members to talk to you; we call them conversation starters.
The simplest way to get people talking is to ask them a question. We call this process Ask — Capture — Act
The process is best illustrated through a common scenario that we have all likely experienced. A member or customer walks into our office asking how to get the most out of their membership. We wouldn’t simply hand them a pamphlet and send them on their way. Instead, we would ask them a question, capture their answer and act to help them get what they need.
This isn't always a linear process, nor is it necessarily a single-step process. Your action may be to ask another question to learn more detail—a follow-up question—or it may be to tell them to take a course and come back to tell you how it went. It may be to get them to pay their overdue membership invoice so they have access to all of your wonderful benefits.
The key concept here is that you want to engage in an ongoing, two-way conversation with your members, where you are constantly learning more about them. And in return, you are delivering tailored assistance. That value-add translates to your members developing a stronger connection with your organization.
This all sounds wonderful, right? But marketing automation systems are not generally built for the Conversational Engagement approach. Most marketing automation tools have perfected the art of the broadcast, and at PropFuel we believe there is still a place for those one-way communications. In fact, we like to look at PropFuel as a compliment to—not a replacement for—automation systems. By adding PropFuel to your toolbox, you have the ability to facilitate, on a large scale, the Conversational Engagement process between you and your members.
You can read this excerpt as well as other Association Marketing practices that focus on two-way, individualized digital communications in the Conversational Engagement eBook. Download it here.
Dave Will
While working for SAP, a multi-billion dollar software company, nearly 20 years ago, Dave Will was advised to "Walk faster and smile less, because perception is reality." Dave took this feedback to heart and started a business based on the antithesis of this advice. Fourteen years later, Dave successfully sold Peach New Media, a Learning Management System for associations, which is now part of Community Brands.
Since then, Dave and his leadership team from Peach built an engagement platform called PropFuel, the first Conversational Engagement platform designed specifically for member based organizations to improve member engagement using the Ask, Capture, Act methodology.
Dave lives on the South Shore of Massachusetts with his 3 boys, 3 boy dogs and his formidable wife, Nicole. He's an endurance runner and pretends to work from his boat in Buzzards Bay, MA as much as possible all summer long.