What Your Members Remember Most May Not Be What You Think

The nature of member engagement has changed—quietly, rapidly, and irreversibly. Today, almost every aspect of membership happens online. Members join, renew, update details, register for events, access resources, complete CPD, and connect with peers through digital systems. It’s no longer a support channel but the primary way many members experience your association.

And when those digital systems falter, even briefly, the next interaction is crucial. That’s where tech support comes in. Except far too often, what members find is a black hole: slow responses, generic answers, complicated ticketing portals, or worse, no clear path to help at all.

For members, the difference between seamless value and sheer frustration often hinges on a single thing: how well tech support works. In that moment, support is the association. It reflects your competence, your responsiveness, and your respect for the member’s time. Yet many associations still treat it as an operational afterthought.

Why do some associations underinvest in tech support?

There are several recurring reasons (and blind spots) that explain this pattern:

1. Tech support is wrongly viewed as a cost centre. Support is often positioned as a necessary expense rather than a value generator. When budgets tighten, support roles and systems are easy targets. But cutting back in this area is short-sighted. Tech support isn't just fixing problems, it’s protecting the member relationship.

2. Legacy cultures value in-person over digital. In many associations, especially those with long histories, the culture still centres on face-to-face interactions: conferences, committees, working groups. Digital is seen as supplementary or administrative. This mindset leads to under-prioritising digital touchpoints, and with them, the support structures members now rely on.

3. It’s mistaken as purely technical. Some leaders see tech support as a purely technical function, i.e., about systems, not service. But most tech support interactions are emotional moments. Members are locked out, confused, or stuck. They don’t want jargon, they want empathy, clarity, and solutions. Support is a relationship role, not just a technical one.

4. Poor internal feedback loops. Associations often miss the data sitting in their support channels. Patterns of confusion, system flaws, member frustrations, these are valuable insights that should inform product development, communications, and member services; but without the right structures, this feedback is never surfaced, much less acted upon.

5. Outsourcing without strategy. In a bid to reduce costs or simplify operations, some associations outsource tech support to third parties. This can work but only if it’s embedded in the association’s wider member experience strategy. Too often, outsourced support is disconnected, inflexible, and devoid of institutional context. The result is service that feels robotic and impersonal.

This has to change 

The future of associations depends on digital delivery. Even the most mission-driven organisations are judged by how easy (or frustrating) it is to access what they offer online. And as digital expectations rise, members won’t distinguish between “tech support” and “member experience.” To them, it’s all one and the same.

Here’s why associations must shift their mindset:

1. First impressions are digital. For many members, the first real interaction they have with your organisation is digital. Maybe it’s joining through your website, logging into a portal, or downloading a certificate. If something goes wrong and support is slow or ineffective, that first impression is soured. And first impressions are hard to undo.

2. Frustration spreads fast. Member dissatisfaction used to stay between the member and the organisation. Today, it spreads. A poor tech support experience can show up in public forums, social media, and sector reviews. One unresolved issue can damage your credibility more than a dozen well-run webinars can build it.

3. Support is retention. Tech support isn't just troubleshooting, it's retention. If members consistently struggle with logging CPD, accessing event links, or navigating clunky systems with no help in sight, they’ll leave. They won’t always tell you why. They’ll just stop renewing. By contrast, timely, respectful support can turn a moment of frustration into lasting loyalty.

4. Digital empathy builds trust. Support is one of the few times a member is asking you for help. If they’re met with clarity, ownership, and real human engagement, it builds trust. If they’re met with deflection, delay, or robotic scripts, it does the opposite. Every support ticket is a small test of whether your values show up in practice.

5. It feeds organisational intelligence. Support data is insight gold. It reveals where systems are failing, what confuses members, where onboarding isn’t working, and what features aren’t delivering. But only if associations see support not just as firefighting, but as a learning opportunity. Support teams should have a seat at the table when discussing service design, digital strategy, and member feedback.

From Add-On to Strategic Asset

Associations don’t exist to be tech companies. But they do need to offer reliable, intuitive digital experiences because that’s how modern members expect to interact. And support needs to evolve in parallel.

That means:

• Investing in support staff with not just technical knowledge, but emotional intelligence and communication skills.

• Designing support processes that are fast, clear, and member-friendly, not buried in portals or dependent on navigating FAQs for 20 minutes before reaching a human.

• Elevating support data into board reports, strategic discussions, and member experience design.

• Treating support as a brand touchpoint, not a back-office task.

Above all, it means shifting from a mindset of “we have a helpdesk” to one of “we support our members in every digital moment.”

Because in this digital age, tech support isn’t a bolt-on. It’s the embodiment of your values, your responsiveness, and your professionalism. It’s where member experience is made or broken.

And if you ignore it, your members won’t just notice, they’ll leave.