New Member Orientations
February 24, 2012 – 10:30am
Overview
- Why New Member Orientation is Important
- Ideas for Creating a New Member Orientation that Best Suits Your Club Vibe
- Selecting Member Ambassadors to Assist in Process
- How to get Members to Attend and Participate in the Orientation
- Turning your New Recruits into your Recruiting Team
Goals of New Member Orientation
1. Make the New Members feel welcome and get them entrenched in the Club quickly (New Friends,
New Things) so they never want to leave the Club.
2. Teach them how to U$E the club. (The more you know about them the better. This starts during the
sales process.)
3. Referrals
Why New Member Orientation is Important
Increases Likelihood of Retention of the New Member
Retention rates exceed 80 percent for new members who are welcomed into the club, introduced to a
wide and diverse number of existing members and coached on how to best enjoy the club.
- Study by Global Golf Advisors
New Members, who feel that they have been made welcome, identify “new friendships” and “feeling
comfortable” as the primary reactions to being welcomed by the senior club executive and his or her
executive team.
- Study by Global Golf Advisors
Research shows that 25% of members who resigned did so within the first year of membership
95% of them, when surveyed, said they were satisfied with the Club.
- Study by Club Corp
3 Top Reasons Members Resign
1. More expensive than they anticipated
2. More time-consuming than they anticipated
3. Their lack of personal connection to the Club (7 in 10 site this reason)
Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs rates the social need for belonging as the most important human
need after air, food, water and safety.
Imagine that you are a student coming to a new school in the middle of a semester. It’s your first day. It
is lunch time. You enter the cafeteria and wonder where to sit, who to sit with, what to eat, how to
behave?
Beverly Schlegel of The Shenandoah Club
New Member Orientations – A Formula for Success
1. Make the New Member Enrollment (or Orientation) part of the Application Process.
a.) Our BOG requires each member to attend an enrollment prior to using the Club.
b.) Issue their membership number, membership card, locker selection and website log-in at the
Enrollment
2. Design the structure of the Orientation to be in line with your type of Club.
a.) National Clubs that new members visit once or twice a year – Discuss the difference
b.) A Club that brings in 20-30 New Members in a month (Group Enrollment with Private Enrollment
option if they cannot make the meeting)
c.) A large Club that has many different amenities may need to structure multiple sessions: one that is
more of a “Welcome Reception” that covers overall information, then private meetings with the
Managers of different areas or interests for the Member.
3.) Develop a Formula that Works
Example:
- Gathering information on the Prospect during the “sales cycle” to customize the orientation program.
Selling is a good time to listen.
- Prospect submits application and orientation is scheduled for the day after the BOG approval meeting.
- Your Membership Director sends out a detailed email bio to all Managers and Ambassadors on the
New Members (perfect time to ask them for a photo that you can use)
- Membership Director Prepares Power Point and Welcome Package
- Membership Director/GM Selects Ambassador for each new couple (PEP Team)
- Invitations sent via email to Ambassadors, New Members and Managers with date and time
- Each New Member is greeted warmly when they enter the Club by the General Manager the day of
the event
- Attendees get name tags and welcome packet. New Members have a gold star or the words “New
Member” under their name so that all staff and Ambassadors can tell them apart. Also, all staff wears
name tags.
- Photo is taken for staff recognition and to post online to welcome New Members. They may also
email a family photo or bring one with them.
- Enjoy some cocktails and chef’s small selections
- Short 30-minute presentation made by all department heads
- Tour of Club (go to areas and have them get locker, signed up for tennis clinics, etc.)
- Welcome Gift when they leave (Social Pass/Basket/Logo Items)
- Have the presentation and key points on your Members’ website for New Members to review
- 30/60/90 Follow up online and in person, GM and other key managers
If you are not bringing in five or more Members in one approval meeting then you may want to do oneon-one New Member Orientations. Have a quarterly welcome reception for them to attend and get to
know other Newbies!
The Process is the same but you are just meeting with the Membership Director or GM then visiting each
Manager while on the tour of the Club. Each Manager should know who is coming and have something
to talk about with that individual.
Audience Challenge: What are the most difficult policies to enforce or even to talk about with New
Members? Let the audience make a list and then discuss ways that Clubs have enforced or brought up
these rules with Members.
Learning Club Policies or Rules: - Ideas from Real Clubs for Educating New Members on “The Rules”.
Gregg Patterson – GM - The Beach Club in Santa Monica
New Member Orientation Quiz – Greg actually puts out a few drink tickets and takes them away for a
wrong answer. He makes it fun. Over 100 questions on the quiz and it addresses facts about the club as
well as the rules and regulations. Some examples of the questions he asks are:
Members may bring their dogs to the club as long as they weigh less than 100 pounds Monday
through Friday between 7 a.m. and 12 noon, but never on weekends.
False. Though the club loves its dogs, a dog’s place (unfortunately) must be at home as far as the club
community is concerned. True for weekdays and weekends, true for dogs weighing one pound to a
thousand pounds.
What is the average age of the ___________club membership?
Sixty-three! The reason − older members need “the warm embrace” even more once they’ve retired and
the family has scattered to the four corners of the earth. Seeing people you know, who care about you and
are interested in your life, is priceless and never more so than in old age.
What adult rules violations get members most excited?
Not signing in; talking on a cell phone in a “no cell phones” location; smoking anywhere but outside; and
walking in bare feet through the living room.
Since the ___________Club facilitates drinking, falling-down-drunk “public drunkenness” is not
considered “conduct unbecoming” unless witnessed by children or old people.
False. Public drunkenness is not condoned nor is it considered acceptable behavior for either members or
guests. Such behavior would be considered “conduct unbecoming” and would generate a formal
reprimand from the board and could lead to the suspension of membership privileges.
What is meant by “permitted, but not recommended?”
Some things are not specifically disallowed by the house rules (e.g., wearing t-shirts with obscene or
inappropriate images or printing on them; Mohawk hairdos; children unaccompanied by adults in the
living room; entering the lobby with a surfboard while the president’s daughter arrives in her wedding
dress) but it is strongly recommended that you do not do them. Members will look disapprovingly and
will comment. Remember that discretion is the better part of valor.
Scavenger or Trivia Hunt (this helps New Members get familiar with your Club – great for families)
Pair up the new-member family with an ambassador family and have a scavenger or trivia hunt at the
club. This is fun on slow evenings and it will get your new members very familiar with the club. Some
ideas for “scavenger” items:
How many children does the GM have? – They will have to go to his/her office and find photos on desk.
What is the largest size golf shoe currently stocked in the Golf Shop?
What is in the drink “California Tootsie Roll”? (or any drink that your club bartender likes to make)
Have a sample for each participant.
What type of tennis balls are in the club ball machine?
When you stand on the first tee box, how many items can you see that start with the letter “L”?
At the pool snack bar, does the club offer Skittles? If so, how many are in the packet? (Have packets
available for them. This is really fun if kids are involved.
In the Fitness Room, what trainers are featured on the bulletin board?
In the Men’s locker room, what is the highest number locker?
In the Ladies’ locker room is there a birdie tree? Who made the most birdies on the tree?
What dessert is the Chef known for? Have samples of this available to all.
Try to come up with as many different ideas as you can to get the new members to see each area of the
club and have fun along the way.
Why are we seeing a generation of members that don’t know “All about the Club” before they join? Most
new members are first-time members to a club or most importantly to your club. They did not grow up in
your club and they don’t know all of the protocol.
Audience Participation:
What clever ideas have you used to get people to attend or participate in your New-Member
Orientations? (We will need a microphone for the audience)
True Stories of Member Mishaps That Could Have Been Prevented
Member not explaining to guest the “no jeans in the clubhouse” rule.
Golf Carts need to remain on golf course/cart path.
Jacket Required
Shoes Required
Don’t forget to lock your Car.
Hello – Goodbye
Audience Challenge – Does anyone have a particularly interesting/funny/embarrassing situation that
could have been avoided that they would like to share with the audience? I will give them a few minutes
to think about this while we go through the next section – then I will open it up. (microphone needed for
the audience)
Keys to Turning Your New Recruits into Your Recruiting Team
1.) From the very beginning the more that you can enforce the privilege of membership sponsorship and
the approval process the more they realize that they need to help.
2.) Offer a special incentive to new recruits – Find us another new member within the first year of
joining and receive ________.
3.) Give them the tools to help you. Make sure members always know the cost, the process, etc. If you
have literature, video, photo galleries of fun at the club – feature it on your website. People are 85%
more likely to request information on your club website if they see a video on your homepage.
Turn it back to the Club Managers to share their stories. Also take questions from audience.
10 Things You Must Do to Survive in Today’s Membership Marketplace
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Have a Membership Director in place full time at your Club with a carefully defined job description
and a base plus commission compensation structure so they are motivated to make sales.
Make sure that the Membership Director has time to focus on selling. Utilize hourly staff to do email
campaigns, newsletters, confirm RSVP’s for events, etc.
Have Membership sales and relationship software that easily allows you to track all leads; sees your
current pipeline; identifies all communication with prospects and members from email, hard copy
letters and surveys; determines the ROI on every campaign and creates timely reports for management
and BOG. We recommend belongCRM – www.belongCRM.com
Motivate your entire Management team to participate in the sales and retention process. Focus on
retention should be just as strong as new sales.
Utilize minimal amounts of printed marketing pieces with the goal of guiding them to your website so
that you can use less expensive e-marketing pieces to communicate with them and gain the sale.
Make your Club website work for you. Use the free solution of Google Analytics
www.google.com/analytics to track your clicks and continually update it to maximize your homepage
and increase traffic. Your website is the first and sometimes the last impression of your Club.
Don’t get swept up in just emailing prospects. Pick up the phone and have contact with prospects.
Make a minimum of 30 calls per day – 10 prospects/10 members/10 other contacts for leads. At some
Clubs even more calls are needed.
Use a New Member Orientation to get your Members involved in the Club. Make sure that those that
have not visited the Club in the last 30-60 days are contacted to make sure they are doing well and
still feel that they are part of the Club family.
Meet with all Members that wish to resign and make sure there is nothing that can be done to save the
Membership. If appropriate, ask another Member that is close to them to help in the process.
Before launching any membership sales program, get your Members’ input in it. Make them feel they
created it.
Remain optimistic! Clubs that are perceived to be in trouble are in danger of extinction.
Each attendee is invited to a complimentary phone consult with Heidi Voss in March. Managers are
encouraged to get their Membership Director or Membership Chairperson involved in the process and to
review their recruiting and retention plans for 2012. To set up your complimentary consult email Heidi at
heidi@bauervoss.com