Discover how KGBS has increased its member loyalty through membership automation with Glue Up
The Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS) is an independent, non-profit membership-based society registered with the World Green Building Council as its Kenya Chapter. KGBS is mandated to certify the built environment, advocate for green buildings, and train green building professionals. As the leading Green Building movement in the Kenyan market, it ensures buildings are designed and built sustainably. They have a dedicated team of professionals working in collaboration with industry experts, leaders, government departments to develop modern-day building best practices crafted to suit the Kenyan dynamic property industry.
Sharing their journey towards automating KGBS’s processes to better serve its members with Glue Up was Francis Kimani, Executive Coordinator. Here’s what he had to say:
Life Before and After Glue Up
Before we took on Glue Up’s all-in-one Membership Management Software, we used Excel sheets to manage our member database and Mailchimp to communicate to our members. As for our in-person events, we managed all the activities manually. We did not have a booking system where our members could register and get their tickets prior to the event. Managing events was quite difficult as you know event management activities are quite tedious. We would have to collect the ticket fees at the event entrance and reconcile the funds later, which was a major pain point.
With Glue Up, we have been able to handle all these challenges, and I am happy to say we have met so many milestones. We are getting a higher number of webinar registrants since the registration process has been made easy and is accessible to our members no matter where they are. Our attendance scores have also skyrocketed due to the automatic 24-hour reminders to the registrants. Collection of funds is done online hence smooth reconciliations. To say the least, we are very elated with the platform.
CRM & Membership Automation
In 2020, we decided we needed a change, which entailed restructuring our strategic plan for 2021/2022. We had been experiencing challenges using multiple software. We were looking forward to having a lean secretariat hence the decision for membership automation. Managing the member database via excel sheets was cumbersome. We were experiencing poor retention rates due to things falling through the cracks. We needed a system that would help us manage duplicate contacts.
The COVID-19 pandemic was the push we needed to acquire a system that would reduce our operational costs in these challenging times. After using the platform for about 3 months, we have met yet another milestone. We managed to acquire 1060 new companies/contacts. A record-breaking 842 people attended our webinars and a clean, up-to-date database.
Effective Communication & Financial Automation
We automated our email communications to members based on members’ actions, such as registering for an event or paying membership dues. When members join our organization and pay their annual dues, they receive an automated email confirmation for joining that includes a receipt of payment which is automatically triggered.
We realized from past experiences that our poor member retention was due to members simply forgetting to renew their membership or our staff forgetting to send them their invoices. One of the best ways Glue Up has addressed this is by offering an option to renew membership automatically. The membership fee is charged to the member with corresponding automated emails that notify members when their membership has been renewed. For members who aren’t set up for auto-renewal, we give them an extra nudge via automated push notifications through the My Glue mobile app to remind them that their membership is up for renewal.
Best New Feature: Membership Scorecards
My favorite feature is the newly added Membership Scorecards (MES). It gives a lot of insights into member engagement. I believe it will help us improve member loyalty, retention, acquisition and help us better measure our return on investment. Measuring members’ engagement over time, setting comparative benchmarks of active versus passive membership, analyzing why some members are more engaged than others, and modifying their initiatives to improve customer retention and loyalty will definitely help us be the best version of ourselves.
Confidence in the High-Performing Customer Success Team
We were afraid of the level of support we would get from Glue Up, mainly because it's a global company. We thought the onboarding process would be snail-paced, and we wouldn’t hit the ground running. But we've quickly put that to rest and received tremendous support from the customer success team. We are very pleased with the hand holding and ensuring we are set up for success.
What Sets Glue Up Apart from the Competition
For KGBS, Glue Up’s dedicated customer success team sets it apart from competitors. Glue Up’s onboarding process has been extremely smooth, which is what makes it incomparable to others. We had a designated customer success representative who is available 24/7 for what is needed.
For this reason, I would recommend Glue Up to any member-based organization looking to automate its processes. The setup process is crucial to how the software serves the organization and its members. We had a customer success representative to help us through the onboarding journey and that made all the difference. And when it comes to software updates, there’s always a new add-in to help improve our experience. So what you initially bought is constantly being improved to serve you better.
What’s Next for KGBS?
Since Glue Up has given us the digital leverage and ways to adapt and maneuver, we focus most of our efforts on our key goal, which is to deliver green affordable housing to Kenyans. Over the next year, we are also looking to train over 100 government officials on how to design and build sustainably. These activities will take place on Glue Up’s Event Management Software.
"Our members are giving us amazing feedback since we automated our processes with Glue Up all in one membership management solution. Most of them have downloaded the mobile app. They are very pleased that they can easily communicate with each other through the community feature, exchange business cards, etc. They have a sense of ownership over their membership which is great!"
Francis Kimani, Executive Coordinator at Kenya Green Building Society
Would you like to automate your membership management processes and increase your member retention rates? Book a demo of our all-in-one Membership Management Software. Discover how Glue Up is helping associations, chambers of commerce, and other organizations globally become digitalized through automation.
