The easy-peasy way to increase membership sales and improve retention

Please raise your hand if you've ever been daunted by maintaining steady membership sales growth...

Ok thanks.

Now raise your hand if you've ever been daunted by the prospect of coming up with a scheme that will aide your retention...

I see.

Phrases that spring to mind are time consuming, administration, resource and budget. Fear not. We have a solution; Member Rewards.

What is Member Rewards?

Member Rewards is a unique referral scheme developed and administrated by ClubWise. It enables you to offer your members a set amount of money off their annual or direct debit membership fee every month as a thank you for referring their friends and family.

Why does this help with sales?

It's free marketing, and it's powerful marketing.

Research has shown that 92% of consumers say word of mouth is their top determinant in making a purchase decision. Recommendations from a loyal member are worth 100 advertising campaigns. Why do you think large enterprises spend so much time and effort on survey programmes like NPS (Net promoter score)? It's a basic determination of whether a customer would recommend you - and it's important!

So surely it's sensible to make sure your members are recommending? And surely it makes sense to not only thank them, but incentivise them?

Now, there are many ways to promote working out with friends. It's more fun, it's motivational, it sparks your competitive edge... These combined with a financial benefit are a great way to capture your member's attention, and get them thinking about the experience of working out with friends as a whole.

Why does this help with retention?

Quite simply, if a person's friends are at your club, the chances are that they will remain a member at your club so they can continue to workout together.

Also, never underestimate the pull of the discount. Where else are your members going to get a discounted membership? This makes your club super-competitive without having to miss out on revenue, because your member has already brought the additional business in to make up for their discount. And the more people your member refers, the more money they get off their membership, and the less likely they are to leave...

How do I make sure my members aren't rewarded for their friends that leave?

We understand that whilst you want to invest in a great member experience, you don't want to spend money for nothing. The ClubWise system links members with their referrals, so their membership reduction is only applied for as long as their friend is a member of the club. If the friend leaves, they lose their reduction. And if they like their reduction, and miss having a workout buddy, then they are likely to refer again.

How would I let my members know about this?

There are 2 ways you can do this. You can send them ad-hoc emails or texts via campaign manager, or alternatively, you can use the Active CRM system within ClubWise. Active CRM allows you to plan communications to your members and prospects at any given point in their journey. When it comes to Member Rewards, you may want to send them an initial introduction to the scheme within 30-40 days of joining (this gives them the opportunity to use all of the facilities and get into a routine to base their recommendation upon). Thereafter, you can schedule monthly or perhaps quarterly reminders by email, SMS or even automatically schedule a call to them in the CRM task list.

Member Rewards comes as standard with your ClubWise solution. For more information on how our unique marketing tools can help you to grow your business and retain members, please get in touch with our friendly team!