MemberSuite

We've been using MemberSuite (MS) for at least 10+ years and we still aren't using it to its full capacity, but we're getting there. Having worked with many AMSs throughout my career, I know none are perfect and the more you customize, the more you create problems for the organization down the road. We are happy with the broad capabilities of MS. As a trade association, we have a somewhat complicated membership structure and MS reps have been extremely helpful in working with us to refine our original setup to better meet our needs (albeit through a managed services contract, not just support). Our concentration over the past 2 years has been getting more of our data into MS (minimizing the data silos as it makes sense) and tracking engagement of our organizational and individual members. The downside to doing this work is that we can't get all of the reports/data back out of MS. I have not investigated if this is a MS limitation or because of our structure. The engagement module appears to be impressive, but is a lot to digest and as a small staff, we just don't have the manpower to devote to getting it set up so we can get out the types of engagement reporting that we are looking for. They lost a key player who created the engagement module and the understanding by others is limited. We'll have to get a quote for them to set up that module for us which it would seem that we shouldn't have to go to that extra expense.

Utilizing and setting up the system are good. Reporting is where I think the system falls a bit short.

We utilize MemberSuite as a database for members of our organization. We have the bookkeeping end on our side and they have access to their Member Portal with MemberSuite. Learning the basics of MemberSuite was not challenging, but getting the hang of the more involved aspects of MemberSuite can get more convoluted and may need more practice. There are so many different pieces of MemberSuite that can be utilized that can benefit our organization, and once mastered, are extremely helpful. Thankfully, they have the Sandbox, which is an extremely helpful tool for getting repetition of movements in without actually messing with any real data. Their customer service is amazing and they have an incredible support team that is quick at answering tickets. They always ensure that they get the big picture of what is going on and even take videos of their screen to do a "walk-through" for visual aid which is extremely helpful. MemberSuite does struggle with downloading large reports and will time out if they're too big, but we've found that breaking reports up into multiple sections can be helpful. Also, being able to customize fields for each page is extremely helpful so that we can tailer our Organization 360, Individual 360, etc. to precisely what we need. This ensures that MemberSuite is extremely customizable and everyone can dial in their particular set of data collected using those fields. 

MemberSuite is overly complex and very clunky. Most of our team hates using it. Also the graphic elements are basic and difficult to customize. Our members do not like the way it assigns relationshsips within the prgram and we wind up with duplications.

Our small nonprofit's use case was that we were keeping contact information, event information, committees, and email lists in different places. We chose MemberSuite in part because we could select which modules we needed at the time, and add as needed. Another important feature was the system being cloud-based, and available to unlimited users at our organization. We ended up using MemberSuite not only for membership renewal/invoicing, but for event registration and sponsorship invoicing. Having event, communication, and engagement information in one place empowered our staff to make informed decisions about outreach. In five years using MemberSuite, the system has grown with us, and we've customized only very little and been able to use the out-of-the-box capabilities mostly.

MemberSuite has many modules that can pretty much cover any aspect an association would ever need.  The customer service is subperb, which is especially important to me as a non-tech person that is using the system all the time

Pros:

• Some of their Implementation Consultants are rock stars that know the system inside and out and can rapidly diagnose and solve problems.
• The system is very customizable.
• The system has an extensive list of features

Cons:

• Customer Service is slow to respond.
• Tier 2 support is even slower to fix the issues verified by Customer Service
• Everything requires multiple clicks to accomplish
• Many of the features don't actually work well

Takeway:

I stepped into a job in June of 2019 after the association had signed a contract with MemberSuite.  We were migrating from an in-house built system based on MS SQL Server.  The implementation was difficult and a decent amount of data from the old system, while present in the new system, is either not accessible or not maintainable in MemberSuite despite their pride in the system's customizations.  MemberSuite is also built on MS SQL Server and runs on AWS.  The system's main "console" looks extremely outdated which is a little bit disappointing but the only practical impact is that it is completely unusable on mobile devices.  The new Mobile Responsive Portal (or MRP in MemberSuite parlance) which is where your members will see the system is modern looking but does not look current if that makes sense.  It is obviously from the current era but it still doesn't feel up-to-date and fresh.  The biggest issue with the MRP though is that it doesn't actually support all of the features of the "old" portal (which we've only used for the features not supported in the MRP).

The Event Management portion of the system is extremely overly complex to navigate and yet simultaneously lacking in customizability.  Like so many parts of the MemberSuite console it takes 3-4 clicks to make just about any change to an event.  The number of clicks required wouldn't be so frustrating if the pages themselves loaded quickly but that is not the case.  Without making changes to preferences to disable the "360° On-Demand Loading", pages can take 30 seconds or more to load and even with that disabled it still takes several seconds to pull up a members information.

For a product that costs over $30k annually, it is extremely disappointing.

We found working with MemberSuite very easy.  Their customer service was exceptional and representatives were very responsive and professional. If you are looking for a platform to manage your member information be sure to check out MemberSuite. 

Membersuite is a robust, cloud-based system that allows associations to customize everything from reports to events to membership categories. If your association has a lot of specific idiosyncrasies this is the database system to choose. Additionally, they have several in-person training sessions which our staff has found very helpful over the years.

Membersuite offers tremendous capability for those who need register customers for events and track members. Customer service is very responsive. Because the capability is so powerful, there can be a learning curve for users but training is available.

I inherited MemberSuite at the small staff association at which I work. Having come from Aptify and Salesforce environments, I am used to working with large scale AMS systems. But I am also used to being able to find decent documentation and online help to answer questions.  MemberSuite falls way short on that .... entries in their help system are blank or have non-directive information; their help desk is slow and inconsistent, and general terminology in the system is at times out of line with generally accepted association management practices.  The system is slow, we had issues with email deliverability, and some help requests have been unaddressed for more than six months.   

The versatility and robustness of this AMS is a huge benefit. Many different types of modules reside in a central repository for you to access allowing you to select which ones are needed for your business. This also allows you to pull in fields from across different modules into the same search/report. However, due to the system's robustness and customizability, it can be time consuming to learn how to use for sytem admins (especially for those with little previous AMS/CRM experience). 

MemberSuite is definitely a hugh improvement from the software we used to have before.  I think one of the biggest things I like about MemberSuite is that it's always improving and there are always new releases with what's updated and new.  The downside is that if your association has a lot of customization on their AMS, then it takes a little longer for those modules to be updated and improved.  

During our transition into MemberSuite, we had an extensive amount of time put into the implementation process and I think that was a huge help to get myself and my supervisor acquinted with MemberSuite and how the AMS works.  Our Implementation Manager was amazing and worked closely with us to make sure that he answered all of our questions and went through in depth steps of each of the modules that were new to us.  We had two calls a week with him for about three to four months which gave us an extensive amoun of time to get familar with the console.  Also, within that time period of learning the different modules MemberSuite offers, we were able to work in a "sandbox" with our own data giving us hands-on experience and practice to get used to using the new AMS.  It made the transition into our Go-Live date much more stress-free. 

My association has used MemberSuite for about a year now and I think there will always be improvements that need to be made in any AMS used.  But I can assure you that we are happy to have chosen to work with MemberSuite.  They have a great support staff and you get assigned a Customer Success Manager that checks in on you every month to provide updates and support which is really nice. 

If you need a lot of customization, this is the AMS system for you. Our events module is so detailed that Membersuite has done everything they can do to help it run smoothly.

I have been using membersuite for about 6 years and I can confidently say that this product goes through seasons or working properly and not working however, my biggest gripe is the customer service.

Pros: The query function while not intuitive is very useful, we use this a lot for reporting and have saved queries that automatically send to the users who need the information. If you can get the attention of the CEO or marketing team for any issues you have you can expect a quick resolution.

Cons: Most of the issue tickets that we submit come back with questions from the membersuite team that are answered in the original ticket submitted. They do not read nor try to comprehend the issues until about the 3rd or 4th back and forth.

Ex: We were recieving multiple errors (20+ per billing run) for our membership billing. We submitted tickets monthly as they happend for over a year. Their solution was to continue to run multiple billing runs until all renewals are processed without errors. We are still finding problems having run billings this way with multiple invoices never being created despite being part of a billing run. This did not get resolved until just a couple of months ago-- after a poor review was left on another website by someone on our team.

We constantly have to leave things broken because if we find a workaround, i.e- something like a registration cancellation not being handled properly, the support team will say that the problem is resolved and they will take no further action.

The Good

I am told the API is very useful. From a finance perspective, I had our IT team build something that allows me to build a query in MemberSuite, save it, and then I have a link that I can use to download updated data on-demand.

I like the flexibility of building custom queries. The functionality is confusing for some, but once you learn it, it is powerful.

The Bad

Nearly every aspect of the financial and fundraising modules is flawed. It is a rare month I am able to close the period without having an issue. Customer support is of very little use. We have support tickets dating back months and years with unresolved issues.

The Ugly

• We have long since given up on trying to get our inventory to calculate correctly in MemberSuite after years of support tickets going back and forth. We do it all by hand now.
• We were told before we initially purchased the product that it would support multiple merchant accounts (i.e. one for our association and one for our foundation). We went more than 3 years without being able to process a single transaction in the foundation account. Finally, after that time we are now able to process some transactions, but recurring monthly pledge payments only work for as long as no changes are made to the credit card. If the card is canceled or expires, it cannot be updated, and we move the payment over to be processed directly in the merchant account and entered manually into MemberSuite later.
• Record keeping in the fundraising module is not comprehensive. If a gift is entered and later needs to be adjusted (e.g. a check bounced or ACH was returned), the easiest way to make that adjustment is to unpost a previous period, unpost the batch, void the gift, repost the batch, repost the period, redownload the batch, and reupload the batch into the financial system.
• Cancellations and refunds do not work particularly well. There has been an ongoing issue where if a conference registration is canceled and there are add-on sessions attached, the deferred revenue calculation effectively cancels it twice, and you wind up with negative revenue rather than zero.
• Not specific to finance, but a global issue is with membership flowdown. Our memberships are primarily organization-based, with individuals receiving member benefits by virtue of being associated with an organization. Membership benefits should flow down from the organization to individuals, but there are times when this flowdown can take minutes, hours, weeks, or months. This has implications for finance when someone who should have received member benefits registers for something at the non-member rate, and we later have to make adjustments to grant them the member rate.

Customer support is not particularly helpful with any of these issues. If one of us encounters an issue that is not cut-and-dry, we have taken to tackling it as a team. We have one person watch over the shoulder of the other so that when something goes wrong there is another witness to what actions were taken to lead to the issue. In other cases where there is an issue that we find, we often have to leave it "broken" because if a support ticket is submitted after we have already taken action to rectify the issue, the response is that it is no longer broken and does not require MemberSuite's attention. There are many issues that we cannot appropriately submit for MemberSuite's review because if it directly impacts a member we will not leave it "broken," and thus MemberSuite will not investigate further.

For all of these issues, we have developed complex workarounds that slow down our day-to-day business. There are certainly many other issues I am forgetting because these workarounds have become second nature, when ideally the system we own should be performing many of those tasks for us.

Since switching to Membersuite, the line of communication have opened within our company. It brought us all back together using one system. The sytem is user friendly and the support team is very responsive. They really care about making the system work for us. 

The product in itself it okay. It has a few good features. However, it is rigid and MemberSuite do not want to work with your on customization. We are having to find a new product for our backend as this one isnt good. They also get lots of kickbacks from Bluebird, hence not having payment options like Paypal available. 

It is intuitive to use. There are links and instructions all over the software to help you navigate and get the informaiton you need. Additonally, any information your organization puts in the AMS can be pulled out in reports. They recently added dashboards for membership, finances, events and a member heat map. 

Since using the billing process through MemberSuite, invoicing takes much less time for staff to process and our members are paying their dues more quickly since they can download an invoice from an email and pay online. We have also found the e-marketing included with MemberSuite so easy to use, we are canceling the contract we have with another e-marketing platform and sending all our emails through MemberSuite.

I recently started working for an organization that uses MemberSuite.  Upon logging in the first time, I was surprised at how clunky and outdated the interface felt.  I honestly thought they may have not updated their interfact during the last decade.  Once I was able to move beyond the interface, I found some aspects of their system intuitive but others lacking.   I would often look in one place for information just to find that it was in another place (rather than products, what I was looking for was under set-up).  This made it challenging to be able to work in the system as an end-user.  Our organization also has issues with their permissions and some oddities about granting permissions that requires us to grant more permissions to users than what we feel comfortable doing so (for instance, to gain access to create a product, they had to give me access to the entire financial module).  This, too, feels outdated in a technology driven world where permissions can be set at a very granular level.  Having said that, it is entirely possible that this can be done but, based on the user interface, we were unable to determine where or how. 

MemberSuite stood out among the competition because of their insistence that "anything is possible." During the implementation process, we learned that a lot of what we thought it could do off the shelf wasn't possible and customizations are very, very expensive.  Plus, annual renewal/licensing fees are increased for every customization.  The database software is incredibly complex, with layers upon layers of screens and information.  All staff are experiencing an increase in the amount of time it takes to do everything.  The custom report tool looks promising but you'll need a computer programming degree to figure it out.  Bottom line: if your association doesn't have a programmer on staff, or at least someone who is super savvy about databases, tables, custom reports, etc., this system is probably too complex for your needs.  But if your association is multi faceted, with publications, certifications, events, continuing ed credit, various levels of membership, etc., MemberSuite has the engine in place to provide the power.  Customer service is super responsive and the team works hard to answer questions and offer assistance.  Their "help" content is slowly improving, with videos and tutorials.  There is a relatively new leadership team in place and we're feeling confident about planned improvements.