Join Together

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Let’s talk about grammer*.

‘Website’ and ‘CRM’ are nouns

Unions have websites, powered by Content Management Systems. These generally act as a public store of content for two things:

  1. things about the union
  2. things members (and sometimes workers more generally) will find useful

Note that the word “website” is a noun.

In the case of a website, unions usually hire a web design firm to help them choose a CMS, produce a design and build out the initial content. The union then takes over management of the content store, adding, editing and removing pages over time.

Alongside their websites, unions also have membership databases, usually powered by Customer Relationship Management systems. These act as a private store of members’ details and activities. Note that the word “database” is also a noun.

When choosing a membership database, unions follow a similar process to building a website. A consultant or technical implementer helps set up a CRM, before union staff responsible for membership take over to manage the data.

‘Join’ is a verb

Now let’s talk about a different type of word. Joining a union takes you from a place (“not a member”) to a different place (“a member”). Joining is a service, not a store. Joining is a verb.

The problem is that many unions hire firms who are experts at creating stores (nouns) to manage their online join experience (verbs).

Website designers are mostly good at designing static content, not services. On the other hand CRM product builders are good at making things that fit the database, but worry less about the user experience. Their systems aren’t designed for members to use directly.

But a good online join service is a dynamic user journey — a series of well-framed, highly-relevant questions that prospective members find incredibly easy to answer, until suddenly they find themselves a union member a few frictionless clicks and taps later.

This is the point of Join Together — to specialise, maximally, on the verb that takes people from “not a member” to “a member”.

To learn more about Join Together’s product and results, book a demo.

*We know.

** Due credit to this Government Digital Service blog post for the inspiration.