CIE Member Survey: Serving Our Members Better
In October, CIE launched its first “CIE Membership Survey”. This was an opportunity for the team at CIE to get feedback on what our Members have appreciated and valued by being a part of CIE, as well as seek input on where CIE can develop and improve what it offers its Members. The survey was the first survey taken of CIE Members in the three years of CIE’s existence.
Some of the key highlights from their responses include:
- 96 % of the respondents said that they would recommend CIE membership to another company.
- 65 % of these Members have been part of CIE for over two years.
- 81% of people would like to have hybrid meetings from now on.
- 84% of members have extended their network since becoming CIE members.
For Members, the ability to be connected with other leading companies in the industry and receive updates and information on projects and industry news were some of the key benefits of being part of CIE, with one Member saying “It is an honour and a pleasure to be connected with a group that has been so successful in such a short period of time”!
More specifically, when asked what were CIE’s most important achievements in the past three years, respondents overwhelmingly valued CIE’s advocacy work in the development of EU Recovery Plans for 2022-2024, which resulted in two billion euros being earmarked for cycling infrastructure, premiums for e-bikes and bike sharing. Other highlights included CIE’s engagement with the EU Commission and putting the cycling industry on the Commission’s agenda, followed by CIE’s advocacy work which resulted in one billion euros of COVID funding during initial government responses in 2020.
One of CIE’s key Membership outreach and information activities is our Expert Groups. Many of the respondents take part in our Expert Groups on Market Impact and Intelligence, Connected Cycling and ITS as well as Cargo Bikes and Cycle Logistics. However, 31% of participants are not part of any Expert Group.
Figure 1: Participation rates in CIE Expert Groups
All CIE Members are allowed to take part in our Expert Groups and we strongly encourage Members to make the most of this valuable benefit to hear the latest industry updates, information on EU advocacy, and to leverage these groups to network.
When asked what CIE Members would like to hear about, the majority of respondents mentioned that Industry News was the most important, followed by EU Updates, Policy Developments and Member News.
Figure 2: Responses to the question “What would you like to hear about from CIE?”
When asked about our communications and outreach with Members, the overwhelming majority of respondents received updates from CIE’s LinkedIn account, our monthly newsletter and via their engagement in Expert Groups.
Figure 3: Responses to question “How do you follow CIE?”
Most important of all however were the comments on other areas CIE could focus on for Membership benefit. This included a greater emphasis on training and best practices (translation of Dutch design guidelines into other EU languages, study programmes for less bicycle-oriented countries on how to emulate the infrastructure of countries such as the Netherlands), greater engagement with the finance and insurance industries (potentially via an Expert Group), and the need to take a stronger lead in the discussions around data (data usage, sharing and standardisation).
CIE thanks all Members who participated in the survey and we will look to develop and build on our successes, as well as improve in the areas that matter most to our Members.