Case Study: BSAVA member research

The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) is one of the UK's leading professional membership bodies for veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses. With a largely stable but complex membership structure, the Association recognised that it needed to better understand what its members and potential members truly value, and how it could evolve its offer to meet the changing needs of the profession.

BSAVA commissioned Insightful Research to deliver a comprehensive membership research programme. The Association was undergoing a period of significant internal review and change, and there were differing views among senior stakeholders about the right strategic direction for membership. Rather than continuing to rely solely on the perspectives of key volunteers and internal voices, BSAVA wanted robust, independent evidence from across the wider membership and from those outside the organisation.

Our Approach

We began by conducting internal stakeholder interviews to understand the full landscape of opinion within the organisation, mapping the key questions, tensions, and hypotheses that needed testing. This gave us a strong foundation from which to design the external research programme and ensured our work addressed the issues that mattered most.

The qualitative phase comprised 38 in-depth interviews with a carefully constructed sample that included current members, lapsed members, and non-members. We ensured representation across all career stages and from both veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses. Critically, we partnered with an external fieldwork company to recruit non-members, enabling us to reach individuals who were otherwise completely disengaged from the Association and whose perspectives would not typically be captured. This was essential for understanding barriers to membership.

We delivered an interim report after the qualitative phase, sharing emerging themes and early findings with the project team so they could begin to absorb the implications alongside us. We then designed and deployed a large-scale quantitative survey to test qualitative findings at scale and provide statistical confidence. Working with a specialist panel provider, we secured over 500 responses, including a substantial proportion of non-members recruited outside of BSAVA's own databases.

Throughout the entire programme, we met weekly with the BSAVA project team, building a strong working relationship and ensuring insights were shared progressively rather than held back for a single final presentation. This collaborative approach meant the team was well prepared for the conclusions and recommendations when the final report was delivered.

The Outcome

Our research provided BSAVA with a clear, comprehensive, and evidence-based understanding of the drivers of membership, the barriers preventing engagement, and the distinct needs of different professional groups within the veterinary community. The findings have given the Association the confidence to make informed strategic decisions about the future shape of their membership model, grounded in the views of the profession as a whole rather than internal assumption alone.