Membership organisations like UNISON have long struggled to make sure their members read their communications. And since the digital revolution the problem has only got bigger.
Over the last few days I’ve logged how many emails, letters, text messages and phones calls I’ve had, and it’s averaged at around 60 – 70 a day. Not counting my junk email folders.
That’s a lot.
And to be honest, I ignored most of them. I was busy and they just didn’t grab my attention. And they didn’t grab my attention because they didn’t immediately seem relevant to me. For example, I got an email from Amazon on the 25th encouraging me to go buy some things I’d been browsing because it’s payday. But I get paid on the 15th…
Most of our members will be the same. They receive more emails, letters, text messages and phone calls than they can possibly keep track of, and most of them will be ignored. So, we need to make sure everything we send our members is relevant to them.
But how? It seems like a monumental task.
There are a few simple ways we can get started. We don’t know a lot about who our members are. We know their names, how old they are, and where they live. But why are they a member? Do they have a family? Have we ever supported them with a workplace problem? Knowing the answers to questions like these means that we can talk to members about issues which are important to them.
We’ve commissioned Britain Thinks to do some research over the next few months which will tell us a lot more about who our members really are. We’ve worked with them to produce a telephone survey and they’ll be calling a sample of the membership.
Once the results are in, they’re going to do some (super whizzy) analysis which will help us to work out who we should be communicating with about what.
It will tell us things like which members are likely to take action in campaigns, become more active in their workplace and get involved in our work.*
As we’ve now agreed the questions, we thought it would be interesting to take some bets on what the results will be.
What do you think the membership will say to the following?
- How satisfied are you with your membership of UNISON?
- What were the main reasons you decided to join UNISON?
- How often, if at all, would you say that you hear from UNISON
- How confident are you that you would know how to get help and guidance from UNISON at work if you needed it?
These are just some of the questions we’re asking. We’ll let you know more once we’ve got the results – probably in June or thereabouts.
* Hopefully. That’s the plan! 
I’m really glad you’re doing this! I know exactly what answers members in my Branch would give to these questions, and why. Sadly, I don’t think we do enough to capture the feedback which Organising staff are getting on the ground, or to properly respond to the changing needs of our members. Let’s hope your findings actually galvanise some changes.