For private club management, member satisfaction is the number one priority. Giving members exceptional club experiences—both online and in person—is the ultimate goal.
When it comes to keeping your members satisfied, you need to keep them engaged. But what does member engagement actually mean—and how can management encourage it?
Depending on who you ask, you’ll likely get very different answers. Member engagement is defined differently for every organization, but at its core, it’s essentially a way to measure how members are utilizing your products and services.
For private golf clubs, yacht clubs, country clubs, and social clubs, there are a few critical metrics to measure to assess member engagement. Those include (but aren’t limited to) the following:
On-Site Activity
- Number of Visits
- Facility Usage
- Golf Facilities
- Boating Facilities
- Sports Facilities
- Gym Facilities
- Pool Facilities
- Recreational Facilities
- Dining Facilities
- Event Activity
- Event Registration
- Event Attendance
- Tournament Participation
- Race/Regatta Participation
- POS Products and Services
Membership Activity
- Member Dues
- Member Satisfaction Surveys
- Sponsorship History
- Committee Membership
Online Activity
- Email Opens
- Email Clicks
- Member Portal Log-Ins
- Website Visits
- Form Submissions
- Blog Views
Once you’ve established what engagement means for your private club, you can use these metrics to gain crucial insight into your members’ current level of engagement—and how to improve it.
How can you get members to stay engaged? Use your private club management software.
Here’s how an integrated club management platform can help drive member engagement.
Give Members an Online Platform
Private online portals are a must when it comes to modern member engagement. It’s important to create opportunities for members to interact with your private club both on-site and online—and giving them a members-only online platform is the perfect way to do so.
The best private club management systems give you the tools you need to create, manage, publish, and optimize fully responsive websites with built-in member portals. Members are granted secure log-in details to access their own personal member portal to manage their own account information.
From their personal portal, members can manage their account information and view/pay statements online. Built-in forums or bulletin board systems allow you to share news and announcements to members directly, ensuring they stay up to date on the latest from the club.
Conduct Member Surveys
The best way to gain insight into your membership’s experience is by asking them directly. Most private club management systems offer some kind of survey tool to help you gather member feedback.
For example, the Buz WebCommunicator offers a survey tool under the Buz CMS. It’s an easy-to-use tool for club management looking to gather member feedback quickly and efficiently.
By automating your member survey process, you can gather relevant, actionable data to see how engaged your members are. With direct member feedback, you can identify areas of opportunity throughout your club to maximize member engagement.
When you’re putting together your member survey, be sure to follow these seven fundamental steps:
- Receive Permission from Leadership
- Determine the Objective of Your Survey
- Draft an Initial List of Questions
- Refine Each Question to Prevent Ambiguity, Bias, and Oversimplification
- Consider the Format of the Survey
- Test the Survey on a Sample Group
- Maximize Response Rate
Annual member surveys can help your Board and management make specific improvements across amenity and service offerings.
Give Members More Personalized Service
Most importantly, these platforms allow you to engage with members personally. A sophisticated CMS will give you the ability to give members personalized service both at the club and online.
Integrated member data gives the entire team access to comprehensive information for every member of your private club. If your team makes the most of their private club management system, they can use this personal data to reinforce the exceptional, personalized experience you want to achieve at your club.
You can create more than stronger one-on-one connections with a comprehensive member database. One of the most effective member engagement strategies is identifying groups of members with similar interests or behavior, sometimes called member niches.
Most members gravitate toward a specific club service or amenity. Aggregate member data allows you to help identify smaller membership groups based on common interests, backgrounds, and experiences. Use your club management software to identify members who share common behavior and tailor your communications around them.
When you consider the broad range of amenities and services your club offers, there are countless opportunities to create custom content for these niche groups. Content marketing has been proven to help build positive public relations and improve overall member engagement.
Personalized service is one of your private club’s greatest assets—and your club management software can help strengthen those personal connections both online and offline.
Conclusion
Understanding how your members think, behave, and engage with your club is fundamentally important. If you can accurately measure member engagement, you can easily identify those members least likely to renew.
Maximizing member engagement can help you address and retain higher risk members. If you can head off attrition rates—which typically range between 5–15% for private clubs—these member engagement efforts will absolutely pay off.
With Buz Club Software’s fully integrated suite of club management solutions, you can maximize engagement across the board. See how we can help you stay connected to members both online and offline:
