Is your club management software built for the 3 reasons new members join?
By Srishti Singh
When a club looks at its software, it’s natural to ask, “Does this serve the club’s needs?” But is that really the most important question you should be asking? It’s easy to look inward. And in doing so, it could cause you to deprioritize your club management software’s ability to serve the desires of members. Most crucially, the desires of the new, younger breed of prospective members.
The eye-opening math
As the winter 2022 edition of Club Director points out, “Annual member attrition of 4–7% is normal, which means over the next decade you will need to replace more than 50% of your membership. Given that the average age of new members joining a club is 42, the profiles of those new members will be very different than the profiles of those departing.”
When you consider this reality, it changes the way you look at what your system needs to do in order to cater to this rising segment at all clubs.
The 3 reasons younger members choose your club
Younger members view the club differently than the generations that preceded them. Not every club is set up to cater to their desires. But as the data shows, it’s becoming imperative.
In order to rise to the challenge, it is important to understand the reasons why younger members choose a club and how your club management software can help you position yourself to attract this group.
Reason 1: Understand me
More than ever, prospective members want to feel like the club understands them. There is an expectation that you’ll leverage data to cater to their personal preferences. That’s possible when your club management software connects to all parts of your club and operates on one database. That level of technology puts individual members’ preferences and tendencies at your employees’ fingertips, allowing them to anticipate the member’s needs.
Additionally, these prospects expect you to mine all that data to adjust the offering at the club to fit their evolving needs. Again, robust club management software will include the data analysis capabilities to understand member behavior and to make data-driven decisions on new offerings – from programs to events to menus.
Reason 2: It’s a social thing (but not in an old-school way)
This may sound like an old-school reason to join the club, but your younger prospects have expectations that give this a new twist. They expect the club to be able to extend social connectivity beyond the club’s physical facility. They want to connect with their club friends online. They want to get a group together to go to an event at the club right from their smartphones. They want to put together a foursome for a round of golf right from the app. They want the same kind of communication and interaction that they find in their favorite social media apps.
Your club management software must be ready to offer the functionality that serves this new paradigm of social connectivity if your club hopes to fulfill the expectations of these prospects.
Reason 3: Treat yourself
This is a group that likes to indulge themselves (after all, this is the generation that brought brunch back as a thing). They expect the technology to help them reward themselves. That means using the app to easily set up drinks with friends at the club or a round of golf with buddies. Or, planning an escape to the club with the family.
They expect a technological concierge that connects them with all parts of the club. Your club management software should enable a robust app that intuitively empowers them to connect with friends, make reservations, and even pay from their smartphones.
Generations have always been a bit different from one to the next. But there is something else at work today that clubs need to pay attention to. Your younger prospects expect an experience augmented by technology. Technology that personalizes experiences, enables the connectivity they expect, and makes it easy for them to reward themselves. These are the factors that can help you assess your club’s offering and evaluate club management software to help deliver the next generation of club experience.
If you’d like a closer look at a club management software solution that helps you evolve your offering, request a demo of the Northstar system. You’ll discover a complete solution built on one database to help you deliver the optimal member experience today and tomorrow. Request a demo, today.