You spoke, we’re listening
Our VP Kieran McCann shares the recommendations, you the community, have told us we need to improve via our experience survey.
On the 24th October we concluded our final large scale event for the IABC NSW community. What an incredible way to finish off the year. As communication professionals we’re often pushed into the storytelling lane but ensuring that we don’t just stay in that lane really resonated with me.
Over the last few events sessions; with distinguished UTS professor Jim Macnamara last month and then with Microsoft’s CMO Pip Arthur last night we’ve been hearing lots about the power of listening, purpose, transparency and authenticity.
We have been trying to emulate those characteristics for our IABC NSW chapter and in the spirit of us listening to the community and transparency around results it is my pleasure to announce that our experience survey report has been delivered. I wanted to touch base with the community to let you know the initial recommendations and next steps.
We’re lucky to have such an engaged membership here at IABC NSW. Our aim is to provide exceptional value for each and every one of our members and we want to strive to do even better.
Recommendations
Addressing inconsistencies surrounding value for money and brand presence. There is opportunity to define IABC’s offering and member segments.
Invest in brand awareness activities and communicating the benefits of membership more clearly and more frequently – including educating members on how to tailor their preferences and make the most of their memberships.
Auditing the amount of communication reaching members and be clear on how the best of IABC (be that global or local) is made available in an accessible and digestible way that helps professionals grow and perform better in their day jobs.
Bringing more consistent quality to the way events are executed with clarity on the target audience.
Create ways to facilitate introductions and inclusiveness.
Create ways for feedback to reach the IABC NSW Board on an ongoing basis.
This is the first time in over five years a survey like this has been conducted by our chapter. We engaged an independent customer experience expert who kindly supported this initiative on a pro bono basis for our NFP.
A huge thank you to all those participated. 72 responses were received; a response rate of 21%. The positive response rate was interpreted by our advisor as
a) The survey was well communicated and
b) The membership base and community are engaged and have the desire to see IABC NSW succeed.
Methods used to collect feedback were online and follow up phone call conversations with respondents who opted in via the survey to explore responses in more detail. 7 follow up conversations were conducted and uncovered deeper insights as well as providing a positive experience for participants.
Next steps
Our commitment to you as a community is that we will take the full report recommendations into our strategy session (12th November), they will be foundational to our planning. We will come back to you with the actions we’re proposing to take.
Based on your feedback our 2020 event plan already has some very exciting speaker opportunities. After sensational feedback about our workshop strategy and linked to the feedback around ensuring consistent value for money, we’re committed to continuing them for 2020. We will share the calendar of events pre-Christmas.
Our AGM is on the 3rd of December – please join us if you would like to hear more
Our Christmas drinks event will be announced shortly – come join us for a drink and network opportunity
We’re currently recruiting for new members to join the board – if you are interested in getting more involved then please see here
Please feel free to reach out to me or one of the board if you have ideas to share, recommendations to add or actions to suggest.
Thank you
On behalf of the board we would like to express our deepest gratitude to Alison Doak our client experience advisor for her support and for going above and beyond to deliver this initiative for us.
To Lucy Newcomb and Salt & Shein for their continued sponsorship and sharing the survey so that we reached out to a wider contingency. Thank you to all the community for participating and helping set us up for success for 2020. We can’t wait to build on this year’s success and work with you to keep enhancing the community.
Join the community
We’re very excited about the opportunity for IABC NSW into 2020. One action from the survey report that we’ve already enacted is to create a business case letter (docx, 17KB) you can use for your team to request an investment in your professional development.