As a membership development professional, it’s always exciting when a membership candidate becomes a club member. Once they make it through the membership process (nomination, approval by the membership committee, paying the initiation fee), it sometimes feels like a weight is being lifted off your shoulders. Unfortunately, that feeling of accomplishment and euphoria doesn’t mean that your work is done. Just as important as getting a new member to join is making sure that new member becomes a long-term member. Ensuring that new members stay with the club is a vital part of developing a healthy membership base—the real key to club success.
The Importance of Effective Member Engagement
The real work starts with member enrollment: the onboarding process for new members. A strong onboarding process helps to set the tone for the member’s future club experience—encouraging an ongoing level of satisfaction and comfort with the club culture and facilities. Member satisfaction can help to increase club use and member engagement, as well as the member’s overall perception of the value of their membership. These elements help pave the way for a long and happy tenure as a club member—and fostering long-standing club memberships is a crucial part of ensuring your club’s future.
A strong onboarding process is imperative to not only give the member a sense of pride in “belonging” to the club, but also to lay the groundwork for establishing a valuable rapport between the member and the club. Think of onboarding as the best possible use of your time, yielding large and lasting dividends for your club in the form of increased member engagement, club use and membership longevity.
When new members join the club, the goal should be to help them take advantage of every aspect of the club’s offerings that is important to them while fostering the perception that the club is a conduit to both engaging in fun activities and building personal relationships. The club should make members feel as if it is an integral part of leading a fulfilling life—one that they can’t (or don’t want to) live without—and make club membership the last “discretionary” spending item they would give up if financial times get tough.
True value in private clubs exists when there is something for everyone in the family; club membership builds value and becomes an integral part of the member’s everyday life. Helping new members understand how to gain maximum value for their monthly dues and precious time should be first and foremost in the minds of clubs, and one of the best ways to do that is through a strong onboarding process.
Another objective of the onboarding process is to reinforce the member’s pride in belonging to the club. This also leads to gaining the member’s support of and participation in the invitation process as a sponsor. Consider that new members will likely expose their friends and associates to the club during their first six months of membership, which is when the club will have the greatest opportunity to influence the member’s involvement in the sponsorship process.
How to Implement Onboarding
At a club, the onboarding of new members is everybody’s job, and there are some clear ways to involve the entire club in the onboarding process to create both instant and ongoing value in memberships:
- Invite the member and their family to an Onboarding Session. If holding a group Onboarding Session or New Member Welcome Reception, it is always helpful to invite the club’s board and membership committee, the new members’ sponsors and all club department heads.
- Create a checklist of items included in the Onboarding Session and produce a resource package as a take-away for future reference (For sample items, see sidebar).
- Respect their valuable time, and limit the session to less than 45 minutes. s Include the entire management team in the process, make introductions to key staff, and focus the session on the member’s specific needs and desired club use. s Create a strong bond with the new member as a “safe-harbor” for questions, concerns and/or direction.
- For a personalized new member experience, introduce an Ambassador Program (see sidebar on right).
Onboarding for Continuing Engagement
Consistent communication with members throughout their “First Year Introduction” ensures they are not only finding their way, but are thoroughly engaged in club life, and using the club facilities effectively. Periodic personal calls from the membership director, key staff members (based on their usage areas) and their club ambassador creates a sense of community, helps review the new member’s club usage, continuously encourages the new member to be engaged, and provides immediate answers and feedback on their initial experiences with the club.
Follow up on your outreach efforts. In my experience, four out of five clubs do not use technology to engage members or cross-market to them. Use the POS (point of sale) or a MRM (member relations management) tracking system with a member affinity survey to outline the activities and events of interest for each family member. This helps the club to increase participation with market-specific and cross-marketing activities. Also, many clubs provide the names of new members to Men’s and Ladies’ Golf Associations, as a way to engage new members more actively in golf activities.
Staff and committees often struggle to add new events and activities to the social schedule. Survey the members—especially new members—to determine what offerings they would most like to see, determine if it is feasible, and give it a try even if it is outside the scope of “traditional” club activities. One example of a club thinking outside the traditional: offering soccer clinics on the driving range to members’ children on Mondays.
Statistics show that a member with relatively low club usage within the first three to six months of membership is more likely to resign from the club because of lack of perceived value. When members don’t feel that the club is an integral part of their social and business lifestyles, they’re more likely to resign.
Though the offerings and landscape of private clubs have changed in recent years, one thing has not—a private club experience is all about building and sup- porting strong, lasting relationships. The Onboarding Session and constant attention to member wants and needs sets the stage for sound engagement, increased participation and increased member retention.
Beth Meister is president of Club Marketing and Communications. She can be reached at [email protected].