What is an Enhanced “Member Experience” And How Do You Create It?
Member experience is the way in which the club takes the member on a continuous journey that makes the member feel enthralled, satisfied, justified, respected, served and cared for according to his or her expectations and standards. The member experience occurs at every point of the member’s journey, from first contact and introduction into the community, all the way to the day-to-day interactions—offline and online—throughout the duration of the relationship.
Understanding your Member Experience Profile
In order to create your desired member experience, it is necessary to understand members to such an extent that you deliver designed, differentiated experiences that are so personalized and engaging that your members can’t help but have that “wow moment” regularly. To do this, you must establish a knowledge foundation that includes a “roadmap” of how your club and staff interact with your members, while also providing information about your members that your club and staff need to know. Additionally, it is essential to listen to your members.
- What do members say about their experience at the club?
- What do you want your members to say about their experience at your club?
- How does it feel to get the auto attendant when calling the club?
- To wait on hold on the phone?
- To open an email and not be certain how to follow the poorly translated instructions?
OR
- What’s it like to be remembered?
- To receive helpful suggestions?
- To get everything exactly as it was promised?
- To be confident that the information, answers and promotions you receive are the best ones for you?
Unique Service as an Amenity
Your club must have a clear and compelling definition and shared understanding of its unique services. Much like your key amenities, such as dining and golf, your club should understand what its members’ expectations are for unique service and personalized treatment so that you can use these expectations to enhance the member experience.
Take the time to identify the priority member service areas and key staff that are the front lines in those areas. Some examples of these areas might be the parking lot, locker rooms, bag drop and bar. Then, choreograph key service moments for members and their guests. This includes hiring superstar staff, scripting each interaction and standardizing, training and repeating these interactions. It is important to stress staff familiarity with the membership, which should include at least a member’s name and one key attribute.
Overdoing It? When is an Experience Too Much?
Even in an experience-driven world, there is still time when convenience and timeliness of an interaction or transaction mean more to members than anything else. For example, when you take a quick trip to the bank, you just want your checking account balance and a “convenient” experience, not necessarily anything “experiential.” That two-second interaction is just a small part of the relationship that you have with your bank. You don’t necessarily want to be asked how it was, or how it can be improved. You just want a number. You expect it to be there, accurate and ready when you want it—it’s the bank fulfilling their end of your relationship. This is simply content provided on-demand when needed. There is no context, no intent and no circumstances that surround it. This is not an “experiential” opportunity; instead, it’s an opportunity to enhance the experience by providing a convenient, non-disruptive and user-friendly way to access the information a member needs. Are your members feeling the “convenience love” on your club website?
What are the Expectations of an Experience?
There is a certain set of processes that can be transformed into an experience. If you want to open a new account with the same bank, you would expect an experience. You would expect context and intent, and you would expect more focused information to be provided. As part of this experience, you would expect different steps in the process to be delivered via different channels of your choosing, but the ultimate goal is to complete the set of transactions with the least effort on your part, with the best result and with a win-win for the bank and for yourself. The complex and intertwined processes the bank needs to undertake on the back-end to make this happen (providing the account, verifying your identity and credit-worthiness, giving you content to support your decision-making, interacting with you at different touchpoints, offering you specific products and solutions based on your needs, and more) will make this an end-to-end experience. But you—in this case, your member—won’t notice a thing … and that’s the beauty.
Designing Seamless Experiences for Your Club
To design a seamless member experience, ensure that your club speaks a common “language” so that members do not notice the handoff or transition between departments. You should strive for a culture of staff motivation and recognition so that staff is accountable for every interaction—and that interactions between staff and members are relevant and personal.
Consider the unique aspects that define your club’s personality and ensure that you are consistently delivering on these aspects. Some examples of these club personality traits include:
- Innovative uses of technology (such as providing iPads to view ever-changing wine lists)
- Music on premises
- Uniforms/dress
- Staff greetings
- Flowers in locker/washrooms
- Passion for service (learn from today what could be done better tomorrow)
Your members expect your club to deliver the unexpected. By designing the member experience with intentionality, you can continually surpass your members’ expectations and deliver a phenomenal member experience.
Maria Ready is Director of Client Services, VCT. She can be reached at 617.566.7055 ext. 220 or [email protected].