Phil's 5 Association Website SSO Essentials
Phil unpacks the nebulous world of SSO and shares tips for maximizing the member’s experience online.
1
Send the user back to the page they originally requested.
Make sure that the SSO tracks the page that the user wanted to go to when they were asked to login. If you don’t send them back where they tried to go, it will reduce the number of people who complete their renewal / buy / donate and increase support calls.
2
Keep information consistent between the two systems
Members expect to see the same information across all of your systems. Decide which of the two systems is your centralized database and pull data from that system into your website for SSO. Avoid using SSO solutions that keep two separate profiles for users, as it will cause confusion for both members and staff. Instead, utilize self-service options that will directly update the centralized database.
3
Secure valuable pages using data-driven website roles
Premium online experiences have emerged as a leading benefit for member retention. SSO should support data-driven roles that can be used to secure content on your website. Ideally you will want to be able to secure different content to different types of members. Seek out solutions that provide some control over role mapping options.
4
Support the access-denied selling opportunity
Every closed door is an opportunity to upsell. When your users are logged in via SSO, and they don’t have access to a paid feature with their current role, make sure you tell them how to pay for the additional access. SSO workflows must be designed to incorporate a configurable access-denied page to provide instructions for next steps.
5
Log users out of both systems with a single action.
Since the user is logging into two systems, they must also be logged out of both systems with a single action. Your users are not going to close their browser and lose their tabs to heed a message that says “please close your browser to complete the logout”. The SSO solution needs to accomplish this with the simple click of the logout button or link.
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