The New Question You Want To Be Asking Yourself

There is a question that we’ve been asking ourselves for decades now. What do our members need? What do they need when they are new members? What do young professionals need? What do members and attendees need at each career milestone or organizational milestone? What do they need now that that critical regulation has changed? You get the picture.

Sometimes we even ask them, “what do you need?” This question reminds me of Aladdin’s genie. Remember Robin Williams saying, “Poof! What do you need? Poof! Wadya need? Poof! What do YOU Neeeed?” The answers to this question nearly always point to value.

When we ask, “what do you need?” members often answer by explaining their problems. Our solutions become content, benefits, and events—value.

“What do you need?” is only one part of the engagement equation. Whenever we ask ourselves, “what do our members need?” we should also ask a new question. That new question is:

How do we want our members to feel?

Asking, “how do we want our members to feel?” propels us into the mindset of experiences. Let’s say we want our new members to feel welcomed, appreciated, and celebrated. We can help them feel those emotions in the words we choose and the tone we adopt when we craft their welcome letter.

Every time we create a product, plan an event, pick up the phone, craft a webpage, write an article, email, or post, take a second to ask, “when members connect with us, how do we want them to feel?”