If you are currently offering memberships to your guests, or considering it, you likely already know why they have become so popular among Zoo’s, Waterparks, Adventure Parks and other attractions and activity providers.
People in our busy society tend to prefer memberships simply for the convenience alone – not to mention the ongoing value. But, the benefits don’t just stop at the customer; from recurring income and targeted marketing, to the strengthening of your relationships, and community, membership programs provide significant benefits that can grow revenue.
If you are running a membership program, you likely have some headaches that go along with it. Especially as they grow, these programs are not always easy to manage. On a basic level, membership management requires the ability to track membership information, communicate with members and prospects, and plan events. To collect dues, and fees, and to process payments, you also need some bits of accounting software thrown in.
Here are the top 5 headaches we’ve heard and how Flybook membership program resolve them.
It takes too long to sell a membership for walk-ups & affects our throughput: Here’s the scene: it’s a busy Saturday. You have a long line of customers waiting to get access to your attraction. You are hustling through the line of people, collecting their money, giving them tickets. Then, the dreaded request: can I sign up for a membership program? Sure, in these 19 easy steps, we’ll get you going in 30 minutes. Ok, that may be exaggerating, but the sentiment tends to be very true. You want more members, but, it slows down your throughput tremendously.
Selling Membership in Flybook: should take less than 5 minutes and just a few clicks. Here are the steps:
- Create the new membership (see visual)
- Optional: Take their picture and print a membership card
- Collect payment and mark it as recurring
I can’t sell memberships online: This is pretty straightforward. Selling memberships online isn’t a nice-to-have. Your customers need to be able to buy online. It will grow the total number of memberships, reduce the friction at check-in host stations and ultimately improve your guest experience.
It takes too long/too hard to validate the member when they arrive: Simply being able to store a photo with a member and/or a reservation, eliminates this headache all together. And, if you want, you can print physical cards that your member can present when they check in.
I want membership to automatically renew, and communication to automatically go out: Hours and hours can be burned trying to manage membership renewals. The beauty of your membership program is likely the recurring revenue. But, if you find that it’s impossible to stay on top of, or requires teams of people to manage, the margins start shrinking pretty quickly. The Flybook will take care of all of this based on how you’ve defined the parameters. A given membership is capable of monthly or annual recurring payment collection. You can also manage communications around the payments and / or the membership renewal from the system in an automated way.
Have members bring their paying friends! In addition to recurring revenue, one of the other benefits of a membership program is that a member is not likely to come alone. They are going to drag their paying friends along. To encourage them to do this, you need a membership program capable of discounting their friends' tickets or booking online for their entire party and the reservation being intelligent enough to know how to handle these.