We Are Listening

BY GREG POLLOCK

In 2022, Advocis dedicated itself to developing our processes and offerings to better meet the needs of our membership in a rapidly evolving post-pandemic world. In 2023, our focus will be on ensuring that we get it right. This means not only listening to your feedback, but responding to it with actions you can see the impact of — and encouraging you to continue engaging with us on where things go from there.

Some of this encouragement comes in the form of empowering members and volunteers to be the first to test such features as our new online renewal process — congratulations to Todd Boyd of Advocis Sudbury and Ian MacLean of Advocis Greater Vancouver on winning the prize draws we had for those folks. But I believe it begins first and foremost with honesty: your honesty about what you want from Advocis, and our transparency about the challenges we face and how we can meet your expectations while remaining responsible and accountable.

For example, we heard clearly from you that member services were not meeting your expectations, with the aforementioned renewal process a particular sticking point. Today, thanks to the substantial overhaul of that process on the IT backend and with the renewal of much of our frontline administrative team, your collective rating of this experience now averages 4.6 out of 5 stars, with comments that are almost uniformly positive. Here’s a brief sampling:

“Excellent online process.”

“Staff is very professional and courteous.”

“Great job. Simple.”

We are also moving forward with developing new features and refinements to this process in response to your criticisms. We will survey you throughout the year so we know if we’ve done well.

At the same time, listening goes in both directions. We need to be equally candid about the cost and impact of modernizing our systems and expanding our support staff — especially during the challenging economic times we’re all facing. Membership fees increased for 2023, and while it is to be expected that an increase in fees is never greeted enthusiastically, I know from my own experience that what matters most is that these kinds of increases are not seen as arbitrary or unfair. When you look at the kinds of improvements we are bringing to the member experience, our expanding slate of educational offerings, and our successful efforts in the advocacy space, it might seem that the rationale for an increase in fees is self-evident — but we also know from listening to your feedback that you want to see more value from your membership on an individual and day-to-day basis.

We will be looking closely at that feedback and how to act on it in 2023, but when we listen to members who are deeply engaged as volunteers or through their local chapters, we also see a different and more satisfied perspective — one that reflects an experience of Advocis that I wish all our membership could share. As you know, Advocis has served financial advisors in Canada as a professional association for nearly 120 years, and many of those advisors have been members of Advocis for decades. I do not believe that their memberships or the organization itself could have persisted for these lengths of time if the greatest underlying factor was the shifting sands of annual fees. Advocis endures and will continue to endure because it means something to advisors, both personally and professionally. The question is not one of cost, but of value.

Accordingly, if the fee increases of 2023 have made you reconsider your membership, my advice would be this: take the next step in getting even more out of it. Whether that means attending chapter events to network with your peers and build lifelong friendships, joining a chapter-based study group for your next course, or volunteering for a provincial advocacy committee to impact the profession itself, I am confident that Advocis has everything you need to create the membership experience you want.

And, if there is more we can do, we are listening.