The Member Lifecycle Journey is a blueprint for improving the member experience and increasing club revenue.
Relationships are essential to every stage of the Member Lifecycle Journey, and technology supercharges these vital member engagement practices by saving club leaders and staff members valuable time. This blog post dives deeper into the Member Lifecycle Journey and explores how each stage can be strengthened by the right club management solution.
ATTRACT
Stage one of the Member Lifecycle Journey, Attract, is the tip of the spear for club sales. As the lead generation stage, the primary focus is to consistently attract qualified prospective members. Digital marketing and lead-optimized websites are the overarching themes and crucial for succeeding at this stage of the MemberLifecycle Journey.
For clubs to compete in today’s marketplace and attract the young-adult populations, websites must be beautifully designed, fast and responsive. To optimize for lead generation and conversion, websites must have embedded contact forms that feed directly to the club management solution. Importantly, clubs should have mobile-friendly websites that are simple to navigate, provide critical information and rank well on search engines.
The digital marketing aspect of the Attract stage can look many different ways.Some of the key elements of an effective club digital marketing strategy are search engine optimization, local listings and pay-per-click advertising. Search engine optimization is the process of making both onsite and offsite improvements to obtain better positioning within the search engine results.
Local listings link back to a club’s website by optimizing the organization’s presence on key directory sites like Yelp, Google and Facebook. Pay-per-click is a strategic way to send traffic to a club’s website through highly targeted advertising campaigns.
CONVERT
The Convert stage of the Member Lifecycle Journey is focused on consistently turning leads into member joins. In this stage, the concept of technology enabling more human interaction begins to emerge. That increased human interaction elevates lead conversion for clubs.
To master the Convert stage, a modern club management solution is imperative. Club management solutions should have reliable point-of-sale and online registration systems so prospects and members can easily make payments at home, on the go or at the front desk. Also, club management solutions create seamless first impressions during the tour, membership conversion and onboarding steps by leveraging technology to capture information and ensure a positive first interaction.
Communication is key during the lead conversion process. A club management solution should have the tools required to stay ahead of prospecting and member sales by setting up a task-based process to help teams keep track of lead communications, giving them more time on the floor.
In addition to these features, a personalized engagement platform is a must-have for any club striving to convert more leads into members. Through custom conversations, these modern engagement technologies improve member conversion rates, reengage lost members and improve upsell results. Simply put, the right technology stack can help clubs have more human conversations and maximize a team’s time.
MANAGE
As the handoff from lead conversion to new member sign-up and ongoing customer relationship management, the Manage stage encompasses the entire member experience. From front desk and account management to group fitness and program management, the key takeaway from this stage is to establish operational systems that alleviate operator frustrations.
To improve operational efficiencies across the board, a club management solution should address some basic business areas: front desk management, member management, scheduling, accounting, online services and reporting.
Clubs focused on filling a gap in the Manage stage should begin by auditing the power of their club management software. More specifically, a management solution should give operators the power to manage facility access for members, member check-ins, member account notifications and point-of-sale systems.
On top of that, clubs should have the ability to automate everyday tasks, build lists for email and SMS, manage contracts and centralize membership information. Like previously stated, the Manage stage of the Member Lifecycle Journey is focused on the complete member experience. Clubs should be able to improve the member experience through data-based decision making. With that, a club management solution should allow operators to create customized reports, save and export reports, easily send messages from reports and easily print lists from reports.
ENGAGE
Member engagement is an undeniable success factor for clubs. Without intentional engagement, it is difficult for clubs to advance past the Manage stage of the Member Lifecycle Journey. Club management solutions must enable and amplify member engagement to ensure long-term success.
Clubs can strengthen their Engage stage by leveraging a few features within a modern management solution. Personalized engagement platforms can be used beyond the sales process and help clubs engage with all of their members; they can even reengage lost members. Fully integrated mobile apps allow members to register for classes/ programs and to manage their accounts via mobile. SMS messaging enables clubs to communicate with program participants, general club communications, private lesson notifications and confirmed court time reservations.
DELIGHT
Good clubs become great clubs when they master the transition from Engage to Delight. This stage includes more of an emotional component and is more focused on nurturing long-term relationships. Whereas, the Engage stage is more focused on building traction, increasing attendance and upselling through personal and community engagement. The goal of Delight is to create raving fans who clubs not only retain, but who also act as a consistent source of referrals.
Delight strategies should be customized to fit each micro community with the club; for example, tennis groups, yoga circles and swimmers. This stage demands meaningful human interaction, especially from club leaders to both members and staff. Technology enables people in the club to have more interaction by savings owners, operators and staff time on admin work.
CONNECTING THE DOTS
When people join health clubs, they are seeking community. Each stage of the Member Lifecycle Journey is massively important to your club’s community. Without every stage, improving your club operations is an uphill battle. And, inefficient operations prevent your club from growing and nurturing a strong community.
To fully execute the Member Lifecycle Journey, an essential starting point is to have a modern membership software. At Club Automation, we’re reinventing health club management. Schedule a demo to see how.
