How AHOU transformed member experience and saved hours weekly with ReadyMembership

About AHOU

The Association of Home Office Underwriters (AHOU) is a US-based professional association dedicated to advancing the underwriting profession in the life insurance industry. Their mission centers on three key strategic initiatives: Networking, Education, and Engagement. They provide Continuing Education Credits towards underwriting credentials and support underwriters in furthering their understanding of mortality, morbidity, and risk management to advance their careers.

With a membership base of life insurance underwriters and professionals, AHOU engages members through monthly educational webinars, an annual conference, a growing mentoring programme, and partnerships with sponsors providing underwriting technology and services.

The challenge: Ready for purpose-built technology

When Rheanna Smith, Director of Operations at AHOU, began looking for a new technology platform in early 2025, the organisation had reached a turning point in its growth journey.

"Our previous system wasn't an association management system," Rheanna explains. "AHOU was the first association to use it, so it was built based on what we needed. But it was not user-friendly and there were a lot of manual processes."

The spreadsheet challenge

Managing company memberships (a crucial part of AHOU's business model) required significant manual effort. Company plans allow organisations to purchase memberships for up to 200 employees, but the existing system required staff intervention at every step.

"Managing company memberships was really cumbersome. It was always a process of uploading a spreadsheet," Rheanna recalls. "If a new company joined, we would give them a spreadsheet to fill out and it was very detailed, everything had to be in the specific place on the spreadsheet and all their members had to be listed. They couldn't do any uploading or make changes their membership. We had to handle it all."

The process created several challenges:

Time-intensive workflows: Company administrators couldn't see their own rosters (they had to email AHOU staff, wait for a response, review the list, make changes, and email it back)

Limited member access: While members could log in and manage their own information and memberships. Company representatives were not able to log in and manage company memberships.

Multi-step registration: Members had to log in twice to register for a webinar (once to access their account, then again to actually register)

Manual administrative work: AHOU staff spent hours each week on administrative tasks that could have been automated

Workarounds for core functions: Committees, the Executive Council, the mentoring programme, and special interest groups all had to be managed outside the system using separate tools like Smartsheet

As AHOU continued to grow, they needed a purpose-built membership platform (with a non-negotiable November 2025 deadline for their membership renewal cycle).

The decision: Why ReadyMembership stood out

AHOU conducted a thorough RFP process, evaluating multiple platforms. ReadyMembership emerged as one of only two platforms that could fulfill all their requirements (and it went further, delivering wishlist items they hadn't expected to achieve).

The requirements that mattered most

"ReadyMembership really checked all the boxes of everything we required," Rheanna says. "We were looking for a way to have our video resource library that would be really user-friendly and only for members, and they fulfilled that. We were looking for an integration from the platform to GoToWebinar, because that's what we need to use for our webinars, and our previous platform didn't have that integration. ReadyMembership said, yes, we can do it, and they did it."

Beyond core functionality, AHOU needed:

• Flexible membership structures supporting individual, corporate/company plans, and affiliate memberships
• Self-service for company administrators to manage their own rosters
• Bulk upload capability for company plan contacts
• Events management for monthly webinars and their annual conference
• Groups functionality for committees, mentoring, and special interest groups
• Member directory searchable by multiple criteria
• Email marketing capabilities with personalization
• US-specific requirements: date formats, phone number formats, EDT timezone

What gave them confidence

The decision wasn't just about features, it was about the people and process behind them.

"The whole RFP process: the proposal from ReadyMembership, and then the meetings and demos, it all just was very professional and seemed easy. It wasn't stressful. It was a good process from our first contact with ReadyMembership," Rheanna reflects.

There was one concern: the UK-US time difference. But the Pixl8 team addressed it proactively, setting up meetings that worked for both time zones. "It really never turned out to be a problem," Rheanna confirms.

Out-of-the-box power with custom flexibility

What ultimately sealed the decision was ReadyMembership's combination of powerful standard features with the flexibility to customize for AHOU's specific needs.

"One of the things that really stuck out to me is, it is an out-of-box product, so it functions the way it functions. But through the RFP and proposal process, Pixl8 was able to say, this is the base, but we can make it this way for you because that's your requirement and what you were looking for. Having something that you can use with its features right out of the box is great, but then being able to have that customisation for our individual needs as an association goes above and beyond our other options."  

The implementation: Delivering to a critical deadline

With a fixed November 2025 deadline for their membership renewal cycle, there was no room for delays. The project kicked off on 2 January 2025, running through UAT from 14 August to 17 October, and going live on 19 November 2025 – hitting the deadline perfectly.

A smooth process with strong support

"Implementation was great. There were small hiccups along the way, but it was nothing that wasn't dealt with or handled," Rheanna says. "I particularly liked the weekly check-ins with our implementation team, they were super responsive when we had questions."

The training sessions proved invaluable, especially because they were recorded. "I still revert back to the videos where I know we were shown how to do something."

The UAT environment gave AHOU the opportunity to test and explore the platform before going live. "UAT is great, and to still have it to mock up how something will look is really helpful."

The features they were most excited about

During implementation, two features stood out:

 

The results: Transforming member experience and operational efficiency

Since launching ReadyMembership in November 2025, AHOU has experienced significant improvements across member satisfaction, operational efficiency, and platform engagement. While the organisation is still in the early stages (with their first major annual conference and full groups rollout yet to come), the results to date demonstrate the transformative impact of the new platform.

Company administrator self-service: A game-changer

The transformation of the company plan administrator experience has been one of the most celebrated improvements. Company admins now have full visibility and control over their membership rosters.

What company admins can now do themselves:

• View their membership rosters in real-time: No more emailing AHOU staff to request current lists
• Add and remove members: Immediate changes without spreadsheet uploads or back-and-forth emails
• Manage renewals: Update their member rosters independently during the renewal period
• Process changes instantly: What previously required multiple email exchanges now happens in minutes

Time Savings: AHOU estimates they're currently each saving a couple of hours per week just in back-and-forth communication with company administrators (and this is during the initial transition period when many admins are still learning they can self-serve). As awareness grows, these time savings are expected to increase significantly.

Streamlined event registration and webinar integration

The GoToWebinar integration has eliminated a significant friction point in the member experience. The seamless integration means members stay logged in throughout the registration process, creating a smooth, frustration-free experience.

"We have received a lot of compliments on how easy it is now to register for the monthly webinars," Smith reports.

Enhanced member communications

AHOU's monthly newsletter now arrives in members' inboxes looking dramatically better, and the backend experience for staff has improved equally.

Hannah Webster, Member Services Administrator, reports that building out newsletters is much easier with the new widget system. The ability to use conditional content widgets means members receive personalised communications based on their status:

• Members who haven't renewed see renewal reminders
• Members who have renewed don't see unnecessary renewal prompts
• Targeted messaging for conference registration, new content, and more

"Members are commenting on the communications that they're getting," Smith notes – a positive signal that members are noticing and appreciating the improved experience.

No training required: The ultimate usability win

Perhaps the most striking validation of ReadyMembership's user experience came when AHOU prepared to launch.

"I was prepared to write out all these instructions and maybe even have a training session so members could ask questions about the new system," Smith explains. "When I asked if Pixl8 had examples of what other clients have given to their members we were told 'You don't need that. Because it's such a user-friendly platform, the idea is that your members are going to be able to go in and see what they need to do, and it's going to be there.'"

This surprised even AHOU's board of directors, who wanted to help train members on the new site. Being able to say "we're not going to need that; it's not the old site, it's so much easier to navigate and use" represented a fundamental shift in expectations.

The result: Members are discovering features and completing tasks independently, with minimal support queries.

Staff experience: More power at their fingertips

For AHOU's internal team, the new platform has brought a welcome sense of calm efficiency.

"My team loves it, and finds it very easy to use."

Operational improvements for staff:

• Minimal training needed: The intuitive interface means staff can find what they need without constant guidance
• Reduced support volume: Members and admins solving their own problems means fewer interruptions
• Easier content management: Building newsletters, updating content, and managing communications takes less time
• Better visibility: Staff can see what members are doing and respond proactively

Conference planning: Building for the future

AHOU is currently building out their annual conference in the new events module, with registrations opening in January-February 2026. While the full impact won't be measurable until after the event, early signs are promising.

Hannah Webster has built out the conference webpage, and the team is now finalizing the schedule. "I anticipate that'll be a much easier process," Smith says. "In the old system, it was very tedious. It was more like you were building a website to build out a conference schedule. You were creating posts for each session, and it was not easy to connect speaker bios and headshots and connecting everything together."

The new system is expected to make building out the conference schedule "faster and easier than in the past." AHOU is also looking forward to using the platform's personalised widgets to show targeted messages to members who haven't registered for the conference when they log in.

Looking ahead: For next year's conference, AHOU plans to use the platform from the beginning of the planning process, including building out sponsorship opportunities, a feature they didn't get to fully utilize this year since conference planning had already started in the old system.