It had been three years since our last membership survey. We wanted to know what our members wanted from the club and evaluate how the members use the club. Bruce Zahn GM La Quinta Country Club
Bend OR (PRWEB) July 31, 2014
By definition, a private club is an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal. Dig deeper and you will find private club members have similar lifestyles and life-stages with very different interests. Similarly, every private club is unique which makes it difficult to satisfy every member’s needs with a one-size fits all solution.
To remain relevant with the coveted dues-paying member, team-leaders, committees and board members collaborate to design programming, activities and amenities that meet the needs of the diverse and changing membership cohorts.
Unfortunately, most club managers do not have easy access to comprehensive real-time member usage data making it difficult to provide committees, board members and the club president with factual information they need to define strategic plans, justify operating budgets and propose capital improvements.
Bruce Zahn, General Manager and COO of La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, CA said, “It had been three years since our last membership survey. We wanted to know what our members wanted from the club and evaluate how the members use the club. Our current systems were not providing us with a holistic look at the member so we turned to the Club Member Index Snapshot Report and accompanying Interactive Worksheet which provided us with membership insights that in-turn allowed us to better define a custom member interest survey. We were quite surprised by the results and have begun to develop next year’s programming and activities based on the CMI and Member Interest Survey insights.“
Josh Tanner, General Manager of Ironwood Country Club chose the CMI for its simplicity and ease of use. According to Mr. Tanner, “the CMI provides us with a single number for each member so we don’t need to get bogged down in all the details, saving us time, resources and a lot of aggravation. The finance, membership, fitness and other committees will begin to receive concise and easy to understand data that will help them make better decisions and make for more effective management meetings.”
JD Cornutt, creator of the Club Member Index™, initially developed the CMI to help predict member resignations for a pacific northwest golf club. After two years, dozens of clubs, thousands of members and millions of transactions, the data revealed some interesting insights, for example we now know, 84% of member resignations come from members with a CMI Score of 40 or less the year before. JD explains, “Clubs are now able to reduce attrition as they are better able to predict which members are most likely to resign well in advance, thus allowing the club to be more proactive.”
Prior to the CMI, data-driven leaders delegated the controller or other staff members to cut and paste data from a handful of data systems (Point of Sale, tee-time and court reservations, manual sign-in sheets for tennis, pool, spa and fitness centers) to provide data to committees, board members and the board President.
Ironwood and La Quinta have joined a growing list of private clubs that have recently subscribed to the CMI for many reasons. Rick Ladendorf, co-founder of the Club Member Index, LLC and 20 year Loyalty Marketing expert explains, “The CMI provides data-drive leaders with the tools they need to be more proactive, effectively manage department heads, committees and the board by providing timely, accurate and easy to understand membership data.“
The fact is, no two private clubs are the same which on the surface would indicate there is no way to standardize or measure relevancy. However, there is one common denominator that all clubs share in common – membership usage, and the CMI simplifies the way in which clubs measure membership relevancy by evaluating every club interaction and dollar spent. Members are assigned a relevancy score from 1 to 100 each month.
While Loyalty and Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) programs have been used by hotels, airlines and other hospitality industries for decades, the private club industry is just starting to adopt some of the these basic loyalty and customer marketing principles to help retain and attract members.
About Club Member Index, LLC
Located in Bend Oregon, the Club Member Index, LLC is a partnership between DRC Research and Prevo Health Solutions and is the exclusive provider of the Club Member Index™ and Member Interest Survey™. http://www.clubmemberindex.com
About DRC Research
Located in Bend Oregon, DRC Research, is a survey and data management company founded in 1976. DRC Research has developed long-term clients within the health/fitness club market and private club industry. Within those sectors, DRC Research has conducted a variety of satisfaction surveys, community surveys, data management software, and predictive data modeling algorithms including the Club Member Index™. http://www.drcresearch.org.
About Prevo Health Solutions
Prevo Health Solutions, Inc. is the club industry’s premier wellness experts with expertise in workplace and member wellness. Our mission is to improve the overall health of the Private Club Industry through education and sharing of best practices. Our team consists of health professionals, certified nutrition and fitness experts, workplace wellness gurus and engagement specialists. We know what works in the workplace and we know the club industry. Prevo Health Solutions works with clubs of all sizes to develop and execute custom wellness strategies which maximize engagement and participation. http://www.prevohealth.com.