Retention: Through Your Members’ Eyes

One of the best ways to find new opportunities for improvement is to have conversations with other outstanding club operators and learn what they are doing to improve their business and their retention. Recently, one senior manager of an outstanding club discussed the importance of seeing what the member experiences every day when they visit your club. The official term for this is called “Journey Mapping,” where you use a GoPro to record all the steps a member takes and identify areas where improvements can be made to enhance the member experience.

I reviewed this concept with key staff members and we will be doing this analysis in each department. We will then review with each of the department’s team to identify gaps and areas for improvement. Some things can be remedied immediately, and others may require additional time and management approvals.

The process is simple. Each department will identify a member of their team that has the most member/customer interaction and they will map the journey of their members/clients from the time they enter the campus till they return to their car using a GoPro!

They will film their areas and then showcase their video to their group and their manager, with all the team’s input to identify areas where they can improve the daily experience of the member.

The Retention Game:

1. Buy a GoPro.
2. Identify a team videographer per department.
3. Have a departmental team meeting where all staff can identify gaps in the member experience.
4. Group identifies possible solutions that can be addressed immediately as, well as long-term projects and documents.
5. Department manager presents results to management group and action plan to improve their member/client experience each time they visit your club.

Retention Tip:

When you enhance the member/customer experience, you will improve your retention and your overall business. I would like to thank Cher Harris from The Houstonian Club for her tip on Journey Mapping.

If you have any questions, please email me at kevinm@theatlanticclub.com.