120+ questions · 16 categories · free to copy · updated July 2026
Membership survey questions that earn their place
A bank of ready-to-use questions grouped by what you are trying to find out: satisfaction, value, loyalty, benefits, engagement, joining, events, digital, pricing, governance, renewal and exit. Filter them, copy them, use them.
Then the harder half: how to word a question so the answer is worth having, cited to the UK Government’s own questionnaire design guidance rather than to whatever the last survey tool’s blog said.
Survey builderfive jobs
- 01Onboarding pulsenew members, 30 days in4 QS
- 02Annual satisfactionwhole base, once a year8 QS
- 03At-risk / renewalmembers whose engagement has dropped4 QS
- 04Exitmembers who have just lapsed5 QS
- 05Post-eventattendees, within 24 hours4 QS
Question ordereasy first, sensitive last
01/ the wording problem
The same question, asked two ways, is two different questions
This is not a stylistic point. Pew Research Center asked Americans whether they would favour military action in Iraq, then asked again with one clause added: “even if it meant that U.S. forces might suffer thousands of casualties”.
A majority in favour became a minority. Same topic, same population, different question.
Order does it too. Pew asked about legal agreements for same-sex couples before and after a question on marriage, and support moved with the position.
Your member survey has the same physics. “How great was the event?” and “How would you rate the event?” do not measure the same thing, and only one of them tells you anything you can act on.
Still deciding which survey to run? Start with our guide to membership surveys; this page is the question bank you build them from.
- Favoured military action in Iraq (wording)68%Asked one way: 68%. Asked the other: 43%.
- Favoured legal agreements (order)37%Asked one way: 37%. Asked the other: 45%.
Share in favour. Wording: January 2003, without and with the casualties clause. Order: October 2003, asked first and asked after the marriage question. Pew Research Center, Writing survey questions · research organisation, split-sample experiments.
Adding one clause
Pew asked whether people would favour military action in Iraq. Then they asked the same question with one clause added.
- “…favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein’s rule” — 68% in favour
- “…even if it meant that U.S. forces might suffer thousands of casualties” — 43% in favour
Changing one verb
Loftus and Palmer showed people the same film of a car crash and changed a single word in the question about speed.
- “…when they contacted each other?” — lower speed estimates
- “…when they smashed into each other?” — higher speed estimates
Changing the order
Pew asked about legal agreements for same-sex couples, once before a question on marriage and once after.
- Asked first — 37% in favour
- Asked after the marriage question — 45% in favour
Sources for each example are linked in the sources list — Pew Research Center for the survey experiments, the UK Government Statistical Service for the design rules.
02/ your survey
Pick your organisation and goal, once
Set these two and the rest of the page answers for you.
The survey builder opens on your job. The question bank filters to your category. The length chart marks your survey, and the last section names the page with the full method.
The organisation type adds one question that fits how your members relate to you: a career for a professional body, representation for a trade association, a cause for a charity, the next two years for a club.
Nothing you pick is stored or sent. Change it as often as you like.
Your surveyset once, used below
Organisation
What the survey is for
- Overall, how satisfied are you with your membership?
- Does your membership deliver good value for the fee?
- Which benefits have you used in the last 12 months?
- How connected do you feel to the member community?
- How relevant is the content we send you?
- How likely are you to recommend us to a peer or colleague?
- What is the main reason for the score you gave?
- What is the one thing we could do to improve your membership?
One to add for a professional bodyHow well do our benefits fit the stage you are at in your career?
Read next: Member satisfaction survey
Question counts and timings are our guidance for each job, not a published standard. Every question is from the bank on this page.
03/ question types
Six response types, and the job each one does
Scales to trend, choice to decide, open text to understand. The response type should follow from what you will do with the answer — which is also the test for whether the question belongs in the survey at all.
One caveat that survey methodology is firm about and most membership surveys ignore: agree/disagree and yes/no formats invite people to agree regardless of content. Use them sparingly.
Open and closed are not two routes to the same answer. When Pew offered “the economy” in a list, far more people chose it than volunteered it in their own words.
So write a closed list from what members actually say, and keep it short. Pew’s guidance is “just four or perhaps five at most”, especially by telephone; factual and demographic questions can carry more.
- Named “the economy” as the issue that mattered most35%Open text: 35%. Offered in a list: 58%.
The same question after the 2008 US presidential election, asked open to one half of the sample and with five options to the other. Pew Research Center, Writing survey questions · research organisation, split-sample experiment.
Job: use it to trend
Rating scale
A 1–5 or 1–10 scale for satisfaction, ease or agreement. Fast to answer and easy to trend over time — the workhorse of member surveys.
Job: use it to trend — with the caveat below
NPS 0–10
“How likely are you to recommend us?” on a 0–10 scale. A standard loyalty benchmark you can compare year on year and against sector.
Job: use it to decide
Single choice
Pick one option from a list. Ideal for a definitive answer — the main reason for leaving, the most valued benefit.
Job: use it to decide
Multi-select
Pick all that apply. Best for benefit usage and channel preferences, where members genuinely choose several.
Job: use sparingly — invites acquiescence
Yes / No
A binary check for a clear fact — benefit used or not, cost a factor or not. Quick, but pair it with an open box for the why.
Job: use it to understand
Open text
A free-text box. The richest source of insight and the most effort to answer, so use it sparingly — one or two per survey.
Fifty questions in a list is not a resource. A resource is one you can choose from.
04/ the question bank
120+ membership survey questions, by category
Filter by what you need to find out, or by response type. Click any question to copy it. Copy a whole category if you want a starting set to cut down rather than a blank page to fill.
Every question below also appears as plain text further down the page, so you can read the whole bank without touching a control — and so can anything else that reads this page.
Pick a goal in your survey and the bank filters to the matching category. Reset the filters to see everything again.
Filter & copy122 questions
122 of 122 shown — click any question to copy it
05/ build a survey
Pick the job, get a question set
Most membership surveys fail before they are written, by trying to do five jobs at once. Choose the one decision the survey has to inform and the shape follows: how many questions, which types, in what order.
These are starting sets, not templates to send as-is. Cut anything you would not act on.
If you picked a goal above, the builder has opened on it. Engagement has no pulse here: its starter set is in the picker.
Survey builder5 jobs
Who
New members, 30 days in
Length
4 questions · under 2 minutes
- How easy was it to get started as a member?
- Have you used a member benefit yet?
- How welcomed did you feel when you joined?
- What is the one thing you hope membership helps you with?
Who
Whole base, once a year
Length
8 questions · 3–4 minutes
- Overall, how satisfied are you with your membership?
- Does your membership deliver good value for the fee?
- Which benefits have you used in the last 12 months?
- How connected do you feel to the member community?
- How relevant is the content we send you?
- How likely are you to recommend us to a peer or colleague?
- What is the main reason for the score you gave?
- What is the one thing we could do to improve your membership?
Who
Members whose engagement has dropped
Length
4 questions · under 2 minutes
- How likely are you to renew at your next renewal?
- Is there anything making you consider not renewing?
- Has your membership been worth renewing so far?
- What one improvement would most influence your renewal?
Who
Members who have just lapsed
Length
5 questions · under 2 minutes
- What was the main reason you did not renew?
- Did your membership deliver what you expected?
- Was cost a factor in your decision?
- What would have made you stay?
- Would you consider rejoining in the future?
Who
Attendees, within 24 hours
Length
4 questions · under a minute
- How would you rate the event overall?
- How relevant was the content to your work?
- What was the most useful thing you took away?
- Which topics would you want covered next?
Question order follows the UK Government Statistical Service rule: start with easy questions and work up to harder or more sensitive ones, because difficult questions early increase drop-out.
06/ clubs
Questions to ask club members, area by area
A club survey asks about a place and a season, not a profession: the courts or pitch, the coaching, the clubhouse, the committee.
The Lawn Tennis Association’s guide to membership surveys recommends two “golden questions” at every opportunity: how likely members are to recommend the club, and how likely they are to still be a member in two years.
Timing matters as much as wording. The LTA suggests running the full survey towards the end of the season, when members have used the facilities most. One part of the club per survey is fine.
Pick from the areas alongside. The golden questions are already in; add only what the committee will act on this season, then copy the set into your survey tool.
The two to always ask · tap to add or remove
Playing & facilities · tap to add or remove
Coaching & sessions · tap to add or remove
Clubhouse & social · tap to add or remove
Fees & categories · tap to add or remove
Volunteering & committee · tap to add or remove
Communication · tap to add or remove
Anything else · tap to add or remove
3 questions in your club survey
Areas covered: 2 of 8 · The two to always ask, Anything else
- How likely is it that you would recommend [club] to friends, family or colleagues?
- How likely is it that you will still be a member of [club] in two years?
- What one thing would make the club better for you?
The two golden questions are from the Lawn Tennis Association’s guide; the rest are written for any club. Replace [club] with your club’s name.
Sport England built a free club survey tool, Club Views, into its Club Matters support for grassroots clubs, for asking members and volunteers what they think. Sets by club type and by moment, with a short survey builder, are on questions to ask club members.
Asking who would volunteer is research, not marketing. But keep fixtures, fee reminders and bar offers out of the invitation (research or marketing?).
07/ needs assessment
Needs assessment survey questions, asked in pairs
A needs assessment asks what members need before you decide what to offer. So each need is asked twice: how important is it, and how satisfied are you with how we provide it.
That pairing is importance–performance analysis, set out by Martilla and James in the Journal of Marketing in 1977: plot the two answers and every need lands in one of four quadrants.
The quadrant that earns the budget is top left, “Concentrate here”: important to members, and you are falling short. Bottom right, “Possible overkill”, is the finding people miss: something you do well that members barely value, and a candidate to scale back.
University of Florida extension guidance uses the same plot to prioritise its own programmes.
Name your needs, set the two ratings and watch where each lands, then copy the question pairs. Label every point of both scales, as the GSS guidance advises, and open with a few questions that let members name needs you did not list.
Needs assessment · importance against satisfaction
Training and CPD lands in
Concentrate here
Starting positions are placeholders to move, not survey data. Quadrant names from Martilla & James, Journal of Marketing, 1977. The crosshairs sit at each scale’s neutral midpoint; an alternative is the average of all your needs.
Ask these first, so members can name their own needs
- 01What is the biggest challenge in your work over the next 12 months?
- 02Where do you go for help with it today?
- 03What do you get elsewhere that you would rather get from us?
- 04Which skills do you expect to need in the next two years?
- 05If your budget were cut, what would you stop paying for first?
08/ new members
New member survey questions, timed to the first year
New members are the ones most likely to leave: first-year renewal is the weakest number in the sector’s benchmarks, as the chart shows. What a new member can tell you changes as the year goes on, so the questions change too.
In the first week they can tell you about joining: why now, how they heard, how easy it was. By day 30, whether they have used anything.
By day 90, whether it is worth it — the check-in our member surveys hub builds a whole survey around. Before the first renewal, whether they will stay.
Ask three or four questions at each stop, not the whole set at once, and fold the early stops into your onboarding rather than sending separate surveys — the sequence itself lives on member onboarding. The reminders that follow belong to membership renewals.
New member survey questions, by moment
Week 1 · the joining experience
Day 30 · first use
Day 90 · is it worth it?
Month 10 · before the first renewal
Timings are our guidance, not a standard. Tap a question to copy it, or copy a whole stop.
Associations by first-year renewal rate
- 80% or higher46%
- 60–79%29%
- Below 60%24%
09/ scales
How many points, and should there be a middle?
Two credible sources, one compatible answer.
The UK Government Statistical Service recommends a minimum of five points, notes seven gives more detail, and says the scale “should always include a neutral option in the middle”.
Krosnick and Presser’s review of the methodology literature concludes that “7-point scales are probably optimal in many instances”.
Both agree on the part most surveys get wrong: label every point with words, not just the ends. Reliability is higher when you do.
Scale designer7 points
Midpoint present. Both sources support this. This is the configuration both sources point at: seven labelled points with a midpoint.
10/ bias
Spot the question that has already decided the answer
Six real patterns, each one drawn from the UK Government Statistical Service’s own guidance or from survey-methodology research. Read the question, call it, then see what is wrong with it and how to fix it.
The one people miss most often is acquiescence — the tendency to agree with an assertion regardless of its content, which is why agree/disagree formats are riskier than they look.
Leading or neutral?1 / 6
“How would you rate the event?”
Not quite.
Neutral. It asks for a rating without suggesting one.
“How great was the event?”
Not quite.
Leading. It presupposes the event was great, and GSS guidance is explicit: “you should avoid questions that lead respondents towards a particular response.”
Better: How would you rate the event?
“Is our content useful and timely?”
Not quite.
Double-barrelled. If a member says no, you cannot tell which half they mean, so you cannot act on it.
Better: Split it: “How useful is our content?” and “How timely is our content?”
“Do you agree that membership offers good value?”
Not quite.
Agree/disagree format. It invites acquiescence — the tendency to endorse an assertion regardless of content. Krosnick & Presser recommend avoiding this format altogether.
Better: Rate it instead: “How would you rate the value for money of your membership?”
“What improvements would you like to see, if any?”
Not quite.
Neutral, and well balanced. “If any” is one of the exact phrases GSS guidance recommends for stopping a question presupposing its own answer.
“How many events did you attend last year?”
Not quite.
Assumes attendance. GSS guidance gives this exact pattern — a question that “assumes” something some respondents cannot answer.
Better: Ask whether first: “Did you attend any events last year?” then how many.
11/ nps
Net Promoter Score, with the caveat attached
The question, the 0–10 scale and the promoter / passive / detractor bands all come from Reichheld’s Harvard Business Review article of December 2003 — not, as is often written, from a later book. Move the sliders to see how the score behaves.
And the part vendors leave out: a 2007 replication in the Journal of Marketing using 21 firms and 15,500+ interviews “fails to replicate his assertions regarding the ‘clear superiority’ of Net Promoter”. Use NPS as a trend line you own, not as proof of anything.
NPS calculator · 0–10
Net Promoter Score
+40Promoters minus detractors, as percentages of all respondents. Passives count towards the total but not the score — which is why NPS can move without anyone changing their mind about you. It is a trend line you own, not evidence. A 2007 replication in the Journal of Marketing failed to reproduce its claimed superiority over other loyalty measures.
12/ length
Short beats thorough, and the evidence says so carefully
A randomised experiment in Public Opinion Quarterly found that “the longer the stated length, the fewer respondents started and completed the questionnaire” — and that later questions attract shorter response times, higher item non-response and shorter open answers.
What that evidence does not license is a coefficient. It tested stated lengths of 10, 20 and 30 minutes in one online panel in 2009. Anyone quoting you “every question over twelve costs 5% completion” is quoting a vendor’s own platform data, not research.
Length & drop-offdirection only
completion →
fewer questionsmore questions
Deliberately unlabelled on the vertical axis. The shape is evidenced; the numbers are not. This chart shows a direction, and the page will not invent a percentage to make it look more precise than the research is.
Starting length, by jobyours: satisfaction and value
So the length that matters is the one you choose. The second chart sets our starting length for each job side by side, with yours marked.
A triggered pulse should stay small enough to answer on a phone. The annual survey can carry more, because it is the one members expect.
13/ the law
Is your member survey research, or is it marketing?
It matters, because the answer decides whether you need consent to send it. The ICO is explicit that “genuine market research does not count as direct marketing” — but that a survey carrying promotional material, or collecting details for future campaigns, is direct marketing and the PECR rules apply.
For a not-for-profit the trap is sharper than it looks: PECR’s definition covers material “promoting the aims or ideals of not-for-profit organisations”. A renewal nudge in your satisfaction survey converts the whole email.
Survey or marketing?4 checks
Genuine research
On the ICO’s guidance this is direct marketing, not genuine research, so the PECR rules apply — you need consent or a valid soft opt-in to send it to individual subscribers. The straightforward fix is usually to take the promotional element out and send it separately.
On the ICO’s guidance, “genuine market research does not count as direct marketing”, so PECR’s consent rules do not bite. You still need a UK GDPR lawful basis to process members’ personal data — for a membership body surveying its own members that is usually legitimate interests.
A survey is not a way of finding out what members think. It is a way of finding out what you are going to do.
General information, not legal advice. Statements reflect ICO guidance as at August 2025, when the Data (Use and Access) Act moved the direct-marketing definition into PECR.
14/ the full bank
All 120+ membership survey questions
The complete library in plain text, grouped by category. This is the same set the filter above draws from — it reads these questions directly, so what you see here is what you get there. Copy anything.
Member satisfaction survey questions
Measure how members feel about membership overall — your headline health metric.
- Overall, how satisfied are you with your membership?
- How well does your membership meet your expectations?
- How would you rate the quality of what your membership provides?
- Compared with a year ago, is your membership experience better or worse?
- How satisfied are you with the support you receive as a member?
- How easy is it to get help when you need it?
- What has been the best thing about your membership this year?
- What has been the most frustrating?
- If you could change one thing about how membership works, what would it be?
Value for money survey questions
Test whether members feel they get their money’s worth — the question behind every renewal.
- Does your membership deliver good value for the fee?
- How does the value you get compare with what you pay?
- Which benefits do you consider most valuable?
- Would you say your membership pays for itself?
- What one thing would make your membership better value?
- If the fee rose by 10%, how would that affect your decision to renew?
- How would you explain the value of membership to a colleague?
- How confident are you that you could justify this fee to your employer?
- Have you ever compared us with another organisation on price?
Loyalty and NPS survey questions
Gauge advocacy and likelihood to stay — the leading indicators of retention.
- How likely are you to recommend us to a peer or colleague?
- How likely are you to renew your membership?
- How likely are you to still be a member in two years?
- Have you recommended us to anyone in the last year?
- What is the main reason for the score you gave?
- What would have to change for you to give us a higher score?
- If a peer asked whether membership was worth it, what would you say?
- Would you be willing to speak about your membership publicly?
- How did the last twelve months compare with what you expected when you joined?
Benefit usage survey questions
Find out which benefits members actually use — the answers usually reshape where you invest.
- Which benefits have you used in the last 12 months?
- Which single benefit is most important to you?
- Are there benefits you didn’t realise you had?
- How easy is it to access and use your member benefits?
- Which benefit would you miss most if it disappeared?
- Which benefits have you never used?
- What benefit do you wish we offered that we don’t?
- Which benefit did you expect to use more than you have?
- How well do our benefits fit the stage you are at in your career?
Member engagement survey questions
Understand how connected members feel and how they want to take part.
- How connected do you feel to the member community?
- How often do you take part in member activities or events?
- How well do we understand your needs as a member?
- Which activities would make you more involved?
- What would make you feel more part of the community?
- Have you met another member through us in the last year?
- What stops you taking part more than you do?
- How comfortable would you feel contributing to a member discussion?
- Which best describes how you take part: lead, join in, or observe?
Joining and prospective member survey questions
Ask people at the point of joining — or people who considered it and didn’t — what actually decided it.
- What made you decide to join when you did?
- How did you first hear about us?
- What almost stopped you joining?
- How easy was the joining process?
- What did you expect membership to give you?
- Did you consider any alternative before joining?
- Was anyone else involved in the decision to join?
New member onboarding survey questions
Ask new members whether they’ve reached a first moment of value — first-year renewal depends on it.
- How easy was it to get started as a member?
- Have you used a member benefit yet?
- How welcomed did you feel when you joined?
- What made you decide to join?
- What is the one thing you hope membership helps you with?
- Do you know where to find what you need as a member?
- In your first month, what did you use first?
- Is there anything you expected on joining that you haven’t found?
Event and CPD survey questions
For post-event feedback and for planning what to run next — ask separately, and quickly.
- How would you rate the event overall?
- How relevant was the content to your work?
- Was the length about right?
- What was the most useful thing you took away?
- Which topics would you want covered next?
- Do you prefer in-person, online or hybrid events?
- Did this event count towards your CPD?
Member communications survey questions
Learn how members want to hear from you, and whether your comms land.
- Which channels do you prefer to hear from us on?
- Are we contacting you too much, too little, or about right?
- How relevant is the content we send you?
- Do our communications help you get value from membership?
- What would you like to hear more about from us?
- What would you like to hear less about?
- Do you read our member newsletter?
Website and member portal survey questions
The member area is where self-service either works or generates email to your team.
- How easy is it to find what you need on our website?
- Have you used the member area in the last three months?
- What did you last come to the site to do?
- Were you able to complete it without contacting us?
- How easy is it to renew or update your details online?
- Which of these would you use if it existed?
- What is the most frustrating thing about our website?
Membership pricing survey questions
Ask about price carefully — and never as a single leading question about whether the fee is too high.
- Which membership tier are you on?
- Do you know what the other tiers include?
- At what price would membership start to feel expensive?
- At what price would it feel so cheap you’d question the quality?
- How clear is it what you get for your fee?
- Would you prefer to pay annually or monthly?
- If we added one thing and raised the fee, what should it be?
Member voice and governance survey questions
Whether members feel represented — and whether they trust you to act on what they say.
- How well do you feel the organisation represents your interests?
- How much do you trust us to act in members’ interests?
- Do you feel you have a say in how the organisation is run?
- What issue would you most want us to campaign on?
- How well informed do you feel about decisions we make?
- Have you voted in a members’ election or AGM?
Renewal intent survey questions
Surface renewal risk while there is still time to act on it.
- How likely are you to renew at your next renewal?
- Is there anything making you consider not renewing?
- What would make your renewal decision easier?
- Has your membership been worth renewing so far?
- What one improvement would most influence your renewal?
- Who decides whether your membership is renewed?
- Has anything changed in your role that affects your membership?
Exit survey questions — why members leave
Capture the real reasons a lapsing member leaves, while it is still fresh.
- What was the main reason you did not renew?
- Did your membership deliver what you expected?
- Was cost a factor in your decision?
- What would have made you stay?
- Would you consider rejoining in the future?
- Did you join another organisation instead?
- Was there a specific moment you decided to leave?
Demographic and classification questions
Ask these last, keep them optional, and use the UK Government's harmonised wording rather than inventing your own — it is the only way your results will compare to anything.
- Which best describes your current role?
- How long have you been a member?
- What stage of your career are you at?
- What size is the organisation you work for?
- Which nation or region of the UK are you based in?
- Is your membership paid for by an employer?
Open-ended survey questions
Where the real story surfaces — use one or two, never a wall of them.
- What is the one thing we could do to improve your membership?
- What do you value most about being a member?
- What should we start, stop or continue doing?
- If you ran the membership, what would you change first?
- Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?
- What would you tell a member who was thinking of leaving?
- What do we do that no one else does for you?
- If we disappeared tomorrow, what would you miss?
On the demographic questions
If you ask about ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, health or socio-economic background, use the Government Statistical Service harmonised standards rather than writing your own. They exist precisely so results are comparable, and using them means your data can sit alongside national statistics instead of floating free.
Two caveats worth knowing. The harmonised ethnicity standard dates from 2011 and is under active review.
And these are special category data under UK GDPR — see “is it really anonymous” below.
15/ writing them well
Six rules, and where each one comes from
The original six rules on this page were right. What they lacked was a source, so here they are again, each attached to the guidance or research that supports it.
The UK Government publishes questionnaire design guidance that essentially nobody in the membership sector cites. It is better than most of what survey vendors publish.
Ask one thing at a time
Split double-barrelled questions, or you can’t act on the answer.
Keep it neutral
No question that leads towards an answer. Balance it with “if any”.
Use plain language
No jargon or internal terms. A member who has to re-read will skip or guess.
Match the type to the goal
Scales to trend, choice to decide, open text to understand.
Only ask what you’ll act on
Every question costs completion, so one that changes nothing is pure cost.
Keep it short
Longer stated length, fewer starts and completions. The direction, not a percentage.
Your draft against the six rules · 0/6 in place
Tick each rule your draft already meets.
One thing at a time. “Is our content useful and timely?” cannot be acted on, because you cannot tell which half a “no” refers to. The government’s stated test is that every respondent should interpret the question the same way, interpret it as intended, be able to answer accurately and be willing to answer.
Neutral wording. The GSS guidance says “you should avoid questions that lead respondents towards a particular response”, and balances them with phrases such as “if any”, “if at all” or “if anything”.
Pew’s Iraq experiment shows the scale of the effect: one added clause moved support from 68% to 43%.
Plain language. Skip jargon and internal terms. Respondent burden is a formally defined concept: the degree to which participation is perceived as difficult, time consuming or emotionally stressful.
Type follows goal. And a firm line from Krosnick and Presser: “it seems best to avoid agree/disagree, true/false, and yes/no formats altogether and instead ask questions using rating scales that explicitly display the evaluative dimension.”
Only what you will act on. This one is judgement, not evidence, and we are labelling it as such. It follows from the length finding rather than being separately proven.
Short. The randomised evidence: the longer the stated length, the fewer respondents started and completed. Later questions also got shorter response times, higher item non-response and shorter open answers.
The direction is solid. Any specific percentage you have been quoted is not from this study.
16/ anonymity and the law
Is your “anonymous” member survey actually anonymous?
Usually less so than the invitation email promises. This matters both ethically — members answer differently when they believe they can be identified — and legally.
A tracked link is not anonymity
If responses arrive with a unique link, or can be joined back to membership records, they are pseudonymous. The ICO is unambiguous: “Pseudonymous information is still personal data and the law applies to it.”
Small segments give people away
Anonymised results fall outside UK GDPR — but only while people cannot be re-identified. The ICO warns that combining anonymised results with other information you hold can re-identify individuals. In a body of 400 members, “female trustees in Scotland” is a name.
Acting on individuals changes the basis
Processing for statistical purposes requires that you either “not use the results to make decisions or justify measures about people” or render them anonymous. Using survey answers to flag individual members as at-risk is not statistical-purposes processing.
The practical version
Decide before you send whether the survey is anonymous or identified, and then tell members the truth about which. An identified survey is entirely legitimate and often more useful: it lets you follow up. What is not legitimate is promising anonymity and shipping a tracked link.
Can you call your survey anonymous?
01Does every member get the same link, not a unique tracked one?
02Is there no way to join responses back to membership records?
03Are small segments merged before you report them?
04Will you keep answers out of decisions about individual members?
Answer the 4 questions to see where you stand.
Drawn from the ICO’s guidance on pseudonymisation and research-related processing. Not legal advice.
17/ response rates
What response rate should you expect? Nobody credible knows
We went looking for a benchmark and could not find one.
That is worth saying plainly, because a great deal of content in this market quotes numbers like “15–30% is typical for membership surveys” with no sample, no denominator, no field dates and no methodology.
The one sector figure with a published denominator
Marketing General Inc.’s own flagship benchmarking survey: 48,592 email invitations, 804 responses, over a six-week field period. That is not a member-survey benchmark — it surveys association staff — but it is the only figure we found where you can check the arithmetic. MGI 2024 report, methodology section · US industry survey.
How often associations survey their members
- Annually38%
- More often29%
- Every two years22%
None — primary benchmarks for member survey response rates
We checked MGI’s full 2024 report, MemberWise, ASAE benchmarking material and iMIS, plus academic search. No primary or peer-reviewed benchmark exists. Anyone quoting one is quoting a vendor blog. Verified 27 July 2026.
The levers you control · 0/5 in place
Tick the ones your next survey already does.
What to do instead of benchmarking. Benchmark against yourself.
Your own response rate last year, on the same list, at the same time of year, is a far more useful comparator than any published figure. It is the only one where you know the denominator.
If you want the number to go up, the levers are known even where the benchmarks are not: make it shorter, say how long it takes and be honest about it, send it from a person.
Then tell members what changed because of the last one, and ask at a moment when they have just had an experience worth describing.
18/ which survey
The five survey types, and which questions belong in each
This page is the question bank. Each survey type has its own page with the full method: when to send it, who to, and what to do with the answers.
The card below follows your pick from your survey. Clubs get the club page first, because a season and a clubhouse need different questions from a profession.
Your next pageProfessional body · Satisfaction and value
Member satisfaction survey
The annual survey: satisfaction, value and NPS, and how to read the score.
Want the satisfaction and value survey designed and run for a professional body? It starts with 15 minutes. Book a call.
→ The triggered surveys are the ones that save members.
Member surveys
The hub: which survey to run, and when.
Start hereSurvey templates
Whole surveys, ready to send.
This page
The questions themselves, to build your own.
Member retention survey
At-risk and renewal-intent.
The specific onesMember exit survey
Why members left, asked while fresh.
The specific onesMember engagement
What to do with the answers.
A rule of thumb for choosing: if you want a number you can trend, run an annual survey. If you want to save a member, run a short one triggered by their behaviour. The second kind is almost always more valuable and almost always neglected: see what a retention rate actually measures.
19/ what we checked
Four things we checked and will not claim
A page about asking good questions should say what it could not answer.
Each of these is quoted widely elsewhere. We looked for a primary source and did not find one that holds up.
Claim 01
A member survey response-rate benchmark
None exists from any primary or peer-reviewed source. The “15–30% is typical” figure has no published denominator.
Claim 02
A length-to-drop-off coefficient
The direction is evidenced; no study supports “X% per extra question”.
Claim 03
That NPS predicts growth
That is Reichheld’s claim, and it failed peer-reviewed replication. NPS is a useful trend line, not proof.
Claim 04
An NPS benchmark for the membership sector
No primary source found.
Written by Dan Keegan
20/ questions
Membership survey questions FAQs
15 minutes · video or phone
Take the questions. Keep the answers.
Everything on this page is free to use. Book 15 minutes if you want the harder part — designing the survey, running it and turning what comes back into a retention plan.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02The one decision your survey has to inform
- 03A question set cut to what you will act on
- 04A plain next step
Pick a day that suits · live availability
Work with us
Take the questions. Keep the answers.
Everything on this page is free to use. If you want the harder part — designing the survey, running it and turning what comes back into a retention plan — that is what we do. From £1,500/month.
22/ sources
Every claim, and where it came from
The guidance on this page is cited. Where something is judgement rather than evidence, or where no credible benchmark exists, the page says so instead of borrowing authority it hasn’t got.
- ONS Data Quality Hub / Government Analysis Function — Questionnaire design guidance — 14 March 2023, page marked “under review”UK government primary
- Government Statistical Service — GSS harmonised standards and guidance — the harmonised ethnicity standard dates from 2011 and is under 2026 reviewUK government primary
- Pew Research Center — Writing survey questions — question wording and order effects; source of the Iraq wording experiment (68% vs 43%) and the order effect (45% vs 37%)Research organisation primary
- Krosnick & Presser — “Question and Questionnaire Design”, Handbook of Survey Research, 2nd ed., 2010 — full text free; source for 7-point scales, labelling all points, and avoiding agree/disagreePeer-reviewed
- Likert — “A Technique for the Measurement of Attitudes”, Archives of Psychology No. 140, 1932 — the original five-point format, full text freePrimary research, 1932
- Galesic & Bosnjak — “Effects of Questionnaire Length on Participation and Indicators of Response Quality”, Public Opinion Quarterly 73(2), 2009 — abstract free, full text paywalled; supports direction, not a coefficientPeer-reviewed
- Reichheld — “The One Number You Need to Grow”, Harvard Business Review 81(12), December 2003 — the origin of NPS, including the 0–10 scale and all three bandsPractitioner article
- Keiningham et al. — “A Longitudinal Examination of Net Promoter and Firm Revenue Growth”, Journal of Marketing 71(3), 2007 — fails to replicate NPS’s claimed superiority; note: several authors worked for an NPS competitorPeer-reviewed
- Bain & Company — Measuring your Net Promoter Score — authoritative for what the question IS, commercially interested on whether it worksTrademark holder
- Information Commissioner’s Office — Guide to PECR — genuine market research is not direct marketing (updated 20 August 2025)UK regulator
- Information Commissioner’s Office — Identifying direct marketing — and “sugging” (updated 20 August 2025): research used to enable marketing IS marketingUK regulator
- Information Commissioner’s Office — Pseudonymisation — pseudonymous information is still personal dataUK regulator
- Information Commissioner’s Office — Research-related processing and statistical purposes (15 June 2023)UK regulator
- Marketing General Inc. — 2024 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report — the disclosed 804 / 48,592 methodology, member-research frequency, and first-year renewal (median 75%, n = 333)Industry survey, US
- Lawn Tennis Association — A self-service guide to membership surveys, October 2020 — the two “golden questions”, end-of-season timing, one area per surveyUK sport governing body guidance
- Sport England — Club Matters launch — free club support including Club Views, a survey tool for asking members and volunteersUK government arm’s-length body
- Martilla & James — “Importance-Performance Analysis”, Journal of Marketing 41(1), 1977 — the importance/performance pair and the four quadrantsPeer-reviewed
- University of Florida IFAS Extension — Visually plotting importance and satisfaction to identify clients’ needs (Chaudhary & Warner) — IPA used for needs assessmentUniversity extension guidance, US