RIBA Membership & Client Services

Director - Cathy Ditchfield (ext 3614)

Purpose

• To add value to RIBA membership and communicate with members in order to ensure value for subscription.
• To develop and market a range of relevant and valued services to members.
• To provide relevant support to clients requiring architectural services.
• To grow and retain the RIBA's membership and subscription income.

Summary of key activities

Membership

• Responsible for handling membership enquiries through the Membership Services team. This includes membership applications, payments, advising on eligibility criteria, change of details, and benefits of being a member.
• Responsible for the management of RIBA Chartered Practice subscriptions as above, along with the auditing process of Chartered Practices.
• Provide a relevant and timely service to members.
• Managing member complaints and delivering a high quality service.
• Management of the RIBA's data protection relating to member data.
• Ensuring the RIBA's membership database is kept fully up to date and to produce membership statistics and reports.
• Running the RIBA's subscription renewal, reminder and reactivation programmes to ensure growth in membership.
• To work with the RIBA's membership to ensure that value is communicated as to their membership offer.
• Membership Services and Membership Marketing teams linked to feed into one another – key messaging which retains, supports and grows the membership.
• Presenting business development opportunities for members and practices.
• To oversee the quality, relevance, competitiveness and delivery of benefits and services to RIBA members and Chartered Practices.
• To lead on the development of new benefits and services to RIBA members and Chartered Practices.
• To manage the RIBA's attendance at consumer and trade shows.
• To produce marketing material in support of promoting the value of RIBA membership and RIBA Client Services.
• Responsible for the business development of the membership categories and marketing programmes.

Client Services

• Run a dedicated telephone advice service for clients giving a tailored shortlist of appropriate Chartered Practices or Client Design Advisors for their build project. This is called the RIBA Nominations Service and is free to clients.
• Run a specialist service to help clients find the right design team or design solution for their project. This is the RIBA Competitions Service; the team are based in Leeds and for a fee will manage this competitive tendering process on behalf of the client.
• Produce a range of general and specialist directories for clients, listing RIBA Chartered Practices and their services/specialisms.
• Responsible for business development on behalf of the Chartered Practice membership and for the RIBA – in relation to Competitions and Client Services.
• Responsible for bridging the gap between members and clients – to communicate the value of good design and the advantages of good architecture and architects to clients.
• Supporting the membership services and marketing teams with ideas and client feedback to grow and retain the membership.