AAMSE is
committed to sharing the innovative and effective work of its members in all areas
of medical society management as part of its “Great Ideas” series. These case
studies not only recognize member organizations’ creative and successful projects,
but serve to inspire new ideas for the entire medical society community,
helping AAMSE meet its mission of advancing the industry through communication
of knowledge.
Great Idea: TMA Return on Investment (ROI)
Calculator
Category: Membership
Organization: Texas Medical Association
The Situation:
Illustrating clear return on
investment (ROI) of membership dues is a challenge all medical associations
face– a challenge that is only growing with increased competition for dues
dollars and the changing landscape of physician employment. Without
demonstrating the value of membership, medical associations run the risk of
seeing costly declines in their retention rates and losing out on potential new
members who may not see the worth in joining.
The Idea:
Texas Medical Association (TMA)
was looking for a way to demonstrate the real-dollar value of membership to
physicians across the state. Their idea? The TMA Return on Investment (ROI)
Calculator– an online tool developed to help Texas physicians learn more about the true
value of TMA membership and the benefits offered by the association.
The ROI Calculator provides a
list of member benefits and services with assigned dollar values and allows users
to customize the tool to their personal use and experience. The user can see
how the values were calculated for each item, learn more about the individual
products and services (each benefit listed is linked to the web page featuring
that service), and find out how to access benefits and services to get the most
of their membership (i.e., increasing their ROI).
All members see a value higher
than their dues paid when accessing the tool as selected benefit values have
been “hard coded” to reflect the benefit all physicians have received (e.g.,
Tort Reform). Therefore, users of the calculator will see value in TMA membership
even before they customize the app based on their use.
The
calculator tool is updated at least annually and is featured in TMA renewal and
recruitment campaigns to ensure current and prospective members see the value
the association provides. The calculator is also a valuable tool to assist TMA and
county staff when speaking about the value proposition of membership.
To
broaden the reach of the ROI Calculator, TMA worked with county medical societies
throughout the state to help promote the tool. The calculator is featured in
county society newsletters, publications (via TMA created copy-ready ads),
emails and websites.
To keep up with the growing population of mobile
device users, Texas Medical Association is planning to launch a mobile-friendly
version of the ROI Calculator in May 2013.
The Means:
TMA’s ROI Calculator was
developed in-house by an internal team including Robert Hamilton, Internet
Developer, TMA Business Intelligence and Software Development; Claire Duncan,
Director, TMA Knowledge Center; and Sylvia Salazar, Director, TMA Membership
Development.
TMA’s
Internet Developer spent about 40 hours on the project, including planning,
development and revisions. Other staff spent approximately 45 hours researching
similar ROI calculators, gathering data on the value of each benefit featured,
testing the site, and working with the developer to finalize the tool.
The Impact:
TMA uses Google
Analytics to track calculator web page activity. Since the launch of the ROI
Calculator on August 2, 2011, the following results have been measured:
- 3,657 pageviews including 1,329 unique pageviews
- 82% of users stayed on the TMA website after visiting the ROI Calculator
- After viewing the calculator, 9.43% of users navigated to TMA's join/renew page and 10.58% navigated to the member login and dues invoice page
TMA's retention rate remains a healthy 95 percent.
"I was surprised to learn just how much value TMA offers me. Even the services I take for granted are worth a lot more than I realized."
-N. Keith Robinson, Jr., MD, Internal Medicine, TMA member
The Lesson:
Putting
real-dollar values on your member benefits can go a long way in retaining and
recruiting members– and providing a tool by which members can see the true
value of their membership is critical. While there will be some legwork in the
development and launch process, demonstrating the ROI of your association’s
services is sure to result in ROI of your own.
A Closer Look:
AAMSE is looking for members to serve on the 2014 Trends Task Force which will produce this year's Trends Report. 
