At the changeover of a season, keeping your club growing is always a key concern for many committees. A good basis for this growth is maintaining a good renewal rate. High turnover rates can be disruptive to the club’s performance, while a loyal and engaged membership base can contribute to a vibrant and thriving sports club culture. Here are five effective ways to avoid member drop-offs and keep your sports club members engaged and committed.
1. Recognise issues and act early on
Sports club members are more likely to stay on if they feel like their voices are being heard and addressed. However, sometimes club officials may not know what’s wrong until it’s too late. Make sure that your members know who to speak too and keep an open-door policy at your club that builds trust within your community. When you act on their concerns, do it in a timely manner, it shows your members you care and are listening to their concerns.
2. Get to know patterns
Recognising how your members behave and the pattern to member drop-offs can be a really great insight to allow coaches or committee members to intervene and gain some feedback to why certain members aren’t attending training.
Clubforce offers an in-depth reporting suite with attendance tracking and participation analytics to make recognising these patterns easier for sports clubs to increase member retention.
3. Have something members can look forward too
Plan out your year in advance so that it’s filled with a variety of activities tailored to different levels of skills and interests. Often, sports clubs with the highest levels of retention will have something for the entire family. From exciting programmes for all ages to organising seasonal camps, tournaments, workshops, guest speakers and social activities. These activities not only give members something to look forward too, but also fosters a strong sense of community that will help strengthen the bond between the club and its members.
4. Communicate regularly
With all your year-round activities going on, club communication must be kept a priority, so your members know what’s happening in your club. Send out weekly or monthly communications with updates on club activities, upcoming events and important announcements: making sure to tell your members when and where they can renew their memberships! You can do this through multiple channels like newsletters, social media, email and in-app notifications (if using a club management app like Clubforce Connect) to reach members through their preferred channels.
Clubforce Connect is a sports club management app designed to make communicating with your members a breeze with secure in-app messaging, push notifications, news articles, event reminders and group polls.
5. Recognise and reward members
Keep up morale as the season fires ahead by recognising and awarding members for their participation and achievements. Holding annual award ceremonies to recognise outstanding performance and contributions will lead to a sense of achievement for your members and will give them something to strive for. These acknowledgements look fantastic for a young member’s CV and is a fantastic way to build moral.
If you’re interested in how Clubforce can help with your club memberships, fill in this form to find out more!
