Three Keys to Attracting and Retaining Private Club Members
How to determine if your club is relevant to members and prospects.
Toronto, Ontario – Survival in the modern club economy hinges on your club’s ability to remain relevant, both to existing members and prospective ones. While building relevance is often the easy part, sustaining it is trickier. If left unmonitored, relevance diminishes as the years pass and the club’s value proposition suffers alongside member retention and satisfaction.
“A relevant club is closely connected to members’ lifestyles and appropriate to their wants and needs,” commented Global Golf Advisor Manger Ben Hopkinson. “It’s a simple equation. The more relevant you are, or become, the better placed your club is to achieve high levels of member satisfaction, retention, and recruitment.”
Hopkinson has created the Top Three Keys to Maintaining Relevancy, which are as follow:
1. Gain a deep understanding of your market and membership
The first step to becoming more relevant is knowing your members and prospects fully and dispassionately. A thorough understanding of your membership’s demographic, psychographic, and emotional characteristics allows for a tailored Club experience.
You must also understand your club in the context of the marketplace to establish your competitive advantages and points of differentiation. Leveraging that knowledge, you can enhance or develop your club’s strategy around demand and where it has room to grow.
2. Focus on enhancing individuals’ lives (and the lives of their families)
Once you understand your members and the marketplace, the next key is to be focused on services to enhance the overall Club experience. Just a few of the successful shifts in the approach of clubs across North America in a bid to enhance what they offer include:
• Developing one-of-a-kind experiences
• Offering clubs-within-the club
• Creating diverse wellness programming
• Providing amenities to support year-round use and lifestyle
3. Measure, evaluate and act
Soliciting member feedback tightens the connection between the club (as an organization) and its members (as individuals). Member feedback generates actionable insights to improve all aspects of the club experience, while also helping to isolate which are most critical to their wants and needs.
Think about relevance on a spectrum. The objective should be to find your club’s sweet spot on this spectrum. Higher relevance = higher levels of member satisfaction, retention and recruitment, so find and occupy a position which is relevant to as many stakeholders as possible. This, ultimately, will be your club’s gateway to longevity.
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About Global Golf Advisors
Global Golf Advisors (GGA) has provided industry-leading advisory services to more than 3,000 clients worldwide including private clubs, hotels, resorts, residential golf communities, developers, homebuilders, government agencies and municipalities, financial institutions, investors and lenders. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario with offices in the United States and Ireland, GGA is a highly specialized consulting firm focused on club and leisure related assets with a professional services heritage as the KPMG Golf Industry Practice. The firm’s expertise lies in its ability to effectively meld club management and operational expertise with highly capable professional strategists and experienced business analysts. GGA personnel include former club managers with experience leading exceptional clubs, along with alumni of Arthur Anderson, Deloitte, KPMG, Pulte Homes, PwC, and Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets. www.globalgolfadvisors.com
For additional information, contact
Derek Johnston, Partner at Global Golf Advisors
djohnston@globalgolfadvisors.com
905-726-0701
