Case Study: Premium Cigar Association achieves new royalty revenue and boosts exhibitor sales with MemberSuite

Premium Cigar Association - Customer Case Study

The Premium Cigar Association (PCA), the largest U.S. trade association for premium tobacco retailers and partners with a staff of seven, was hampered by a limiting legacy AMS that constrained reporting, financials, website flexibility and member self-service—problems made more acute when the pandemic canceled their trade show and they needed new revenue and outreach options. PCA evaluated several vendors and selected MemberSuite for its configurable AMS, stronger reporting/financial functions, and implementation support.

MemberSuite was implemented just weeks before PCA’s annual renewal cycle (turned on November 18, with renewals beginning December 1), delivering a member portal with email-as-username, password self-service (avoiding what Greg Vickers estimates would have been ~75% of support calls), auto-populating fields, address validation, and improved data standards. With MemberSuite’s Customer Success Manager PCA also launched a members-only “PCA Exclusives” e-store for ~200 associate exhibitors to advertise show specials—helping exhibitors recoup sales, generating royalty revenue and goodwill for PCA, speeding renewals, reducing administrative work, and enabling PCA to plan bringing accounting back in-house.

Premium Cigar Association

Greg Vickers

Retail Membership Director