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The Evolution of Club Communications: A Manager’s Perspective

A number of years ago I was on a plane and struck up a conversation with a woman sitting next to me. After a bit she asked me what I did for a living. I told her I managed a member-owned private country club. Curiously, she asked me what my biggest challenge was managing a private club. Thinking for a moment I replied, communications. Communicating with members who are at the club, communicating with members who are away from the club, communicating with my department heads, with the club’s front line staff, communicating with the club’s 11 standing committees and especially with the club president and the board. This was before everyone had smartphones and used e-mail, social media and texting, which in my mind has both complicated and advanced success.

Past Communications Methods

At that time, our club’s main communication channels were a printed and mailed monthly newsletter, a website that we couldn’t seem to keep fully updated, and a plethora of posters and flyers plastered seemingly in every vestibule throughout the clubhouse shouting out what’s going on at the club. Additionally, every other month a “Manager’s Update” memo was stuffed in the mailed monthly statements advertising club events and special programs. Of course, “face time” with members at the 11 monthly committee meetings also helped spread the word about upcoming club events. I felt good about my efforts thinking I had communications covered pretty adequately. However, it continuously amazed me when feedback from members who missed club events and programs stated they had not heard about or were unaware of what was going on at their club.  

The member feedback as to why they were not in the know seemed fickle at first. Some members stated they don’t read the newsletter. Others said their monthly statements go to the office and their secretary pays the club bill so they don’t see the “Manager Updates.” A number of them said they hate the unsightly clutter of the Times Square-look in the vestibules of the club so they walk by without notice, and still others said they only use the club for the particular amenity they enjoy, thus really aren’t concerned about all the other activities the club has to offer.

This was all very frustrating. Aren’t communications a partnership, a bilateral process? Wouldn’t you think when someone spends a considerable amount of money to belong to something, they would make the effort to know what’s going on at their club?

In the past, the system for communicating with members was for each department head to be responsible for promoting the activities and events in their individual departments. Templates listing criteria to be included in all posters, flyers and communiques sent out to members or posted at the club were provided as well as a list of selected vendors authorized to publish and/or print the communiques. Additionally, I attempted to audit and approve everything going out and elicited the help of my executive assistant. We did our best to pre-approve everything, but the reality of procrastination and best attempts at being timely allowed many posters and flyers to be sent out without an approved thumb print on them. The bottom line was—though I thought I had a handle on club communications—the reality was there was enormous room for improvement if reaching the majority of our membership was the goal with accurate, timely, branded information.

To complicate things further, smartphones had now surfaced; Facebook began to permeate all aspects of people’s lives, both social and professional. People/members are now establishing their own online personal communities. Where communications seemingly are becoming more public, they actually would become more private and personalized.

So, what’s a club manager to do? This era of continuous communication incorporating everyone’s own PDA (personal digital assistant) into club life was the dawn of the personalization of club communications.

This was beginning to look complicated. I needed a new approach to figure out how to be successful with all these variables now in play—so I began “googling” for some help. That is where I found Courtney Hunt, PhD, digital era thinker, strategist, communications tactician and coach. She was instrumental in helping me rethink methods for communicating with club members. The lights turned on and I could see that effective communications is like a successful game of catch. Communications can’t be thrown into the air hoping someone might be in the vicinity to catch it; they have to be aimed at a particular target. The sender has to have an idea of the receiver’s ability to retrieve the message before sending it. The other side of this equation is, all the information the club sends out about calendars, programs, events, etc., needs to be catalogued and constantly updated in one place where all members can go, to quickly and easily retrieve it upon demand.  

Thinking Strategically

With this new focus, I took a few steps back and reevaluated my communication process and successes. I unfortunately had to admit my approach to communications was a Gatling gun method: Fire enough bullets and you’re bound to hit a few targets. The success ratios were low, unfocused and undeterminable and the cost and energy levels were high per successful communication. There had to be a better/smarter way.

I decided to use the 11 standing committees at the club as focus groups to determine how they preferred receiving club information, including general information about the club and specific information about the particular amenities and programs of interest to them. What I learned first was eye opening. The importance of the club in the personal lives of our members was different for each of them. For some members, the club was the first thing on their mind and in their life. Every communication the club sent was looked at and filed away. For others, the particular amenity they were passionate about was first, but general club information was farther down the list, so don’t bother me with anything that’s not of direct interest to me. For even other members, the club is tertiary in all regards: “I use the club when the A and B events in my life cancel out—the club is my safe bail out place.” This group disregards most club news until they want to know and will either call the club receptionist (who’s expected to know everything about everything going on at the club) or go to the website.

Up until this time I had not thought about this nuance and recognized this adds another layer to the dynamic of the communication process. To bring some clarity and attempt to understand what I have now learned: There are some members who clamor to receive different or personalized information from their favored medium of communication at different times of the day, week, or month, who will then view them or not with different priority levels in their personal lives.

Also, this initiative motivated me to list the different number of media consistently used to connect with members. To my surprise there were more than 20.

Communication Media:

Club website                                                   Quarterly club news magazine                                  

Annual calendar                                              Summer youth activities mailer

Weekly e-mail blast                                        Mini beacon for youth

One-off e-mail blasts                                      Website calendar

Posters                                                            Mailed event invitations

Mailed flyers                                                   Phone on-hold messages

Letters from club leaders                               Membership brochures

Menu advertising                                            Banquet menus/information

Table tents                                                      Surveys/feedback

Social media (Facebook/Twitter/YouTube)    Smartphone apps/push media/texting

Daily updates to club staff                              Bulletin boards

Word of mouth                                               Club promo DVD

These media were used differently to convey a wide range of information to a variety of groups whether for general announcements of calendars, events, programs and activities to the membership at large or as timely reminders or updates to a specific group within the club. The problem with adding new technology/communication channels is our inability to relinquish the older more traditional media from the list. Those channels were still prominent in the overall mix of club communications.

Hunt helped me to develop a communications matrix to help organize and plan what club information will be communicated, on what channel(s), when and how often. This spread sheet is prepared annually and then updated constantly as club events come and go. It is brought to monthly department head meetings for club-wide coordination and greatly assists in formulating a club’s communications annual budget.

The Communications Director

To achieve successful club communications, it is imperative the club hire a trained specialist solely in charge of the club’s communications. Clubs not moving in this direction are missing opportunities in maximizing their greatest potentials and are underserving their members.

The goal of the communications director is to provide the club with a single conduit for all club communications to pass through that will be managed and produced consistently and on a timely basis. The communiques will contain complete and accurate information, be appropriately branded and conveyed through the appropriate channel to a targeted membership segment seeking a predetermined result.

Communication’s Strategic Plan
To achieve this goal, it is necessary for the club to create a Communication’s Strategic Plan. This document is the guiding rudder for a
systematic process for all club communication going forward. It translates the communication vision, defines goals and objectives, and the steps to achieve them.

 This living document states:

·         Mission and Purpose Statement

·         Goals and Objectives

·         Audiences/Member Markets

·         Delegation of Responsibility

·         Internal Process and Procedures

·         Communications Media

·         Standards of Communications

·         Club Branding Templates

Smartphones and Member Relationships

Now that we are in the era of the smartphone and tablets with no turning back, all but a few of our members are connected in one fashion or another via digital social media. Every aspect of our members’ lives are guided, directed, timed, charged and informed through their smartphones. Most clubs now provide club-wide Wi-Fi and allow non-voice use of members’ devices throughout the club. Knowing we are in the relationship business, developing a relationship with these inanimate smartphones may seem odd today but it will be the next missed opportunity if we don’t take appropriate measures to keep pace today. For many of our members their smartphones are the last thing they look at before going to sleep and are the first things looked at in the morning.

With communications mediums and new technologies ever evolving at a rapid pace, club policies, procedure and traditions must evolve also in order to provide our members the most up-to-date access to club information.

Unified Messaging

The Times Square looking vestibules are gone. There is greater consistency in the timeliness of club communications. All targeted posters and flyers are consistently branded, and the club website is continuously updated so it is now a truly reliable go-to source for immediate, accurate club information on demand. Events become fully subscribed more often and fewer members state that they are “not informed.” Better yet, some members take ownership for not being informed. Enhancing club communications has enhanced the club’s relationship with its members. And we all know, happy members stay members.

Club Trends 2016

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