Due to all of the current internet scams and clickbait, consumers are wary of signing up for anything that requires a credit card. Even in person, signing up for recurring memberships can be daunting for consumers. As a business owner, it is important to focus on customer experience and loyalty.
Here are some best practices to follow to make sure you are optimizing recurring memberships for a steady income flow:
Gain Trust from the Start, Recurring Memberships can be daunting.
From the signup process to the cancellation policy, make sure the membership details and terms are clearly outlined. The terms of the membership should be concise and easy to understand. Confusing your customers will just lead to them questioning your sales tactics.
It is important to be very transparent about automatic renewals. Consumers will lose trust for you if they get the sense they are being signed up for charges in the dark. Use features in your membership software to cover all bases.
RhinoTip: RhinoSign can be used to add the terms of your renewals or cancellations to your waivers and required the user to sign off on the terms. Whether in house, on the app, or integrated to your website, Membership Setup can include a description of the renewal behavior or cancellation terms.
Get a Clear “Yes!”
Make sure the system you use, does not allow for an ambiguous agreement of the terms. Nothing is worse to a consumer than feeling like they were tricked or scammed. If the offer is clearly presented, and there is a clear-cut acceptance, then there is little room for buyer’s remorse.
Gym membership management software can be used to achieve and record this agreement.
Once you have them, Keep them!
If your members are not engaged in their memberships, recurring billing can get overlooked for months. Once the customers realize they have been paying for something they don’t use, regardless if they followed the policy to cancel or not, they aren’t happy members! To avoid getting bad reviews or chargebacks, make sure to communicate with your members often. Sending periodic E-newsletters, Happy Birthday emails, and Thank You emails are effective ways of keeping your members involved!
RhinoTip: Automations and Emails are valuable to set up under the Communication menu. Emails and Text messages are sent to members for various account events and can be fully customized, automatically pulling the personalized data from your members account.
Events and giveaways will keep your members participating and your reputation growing. Offer events that remind your members of the atmosphere that convinced them to sign up in the first place. Not only will your members be engaged, but they are likely to bring friends and family. Word of mouth is great for promoting your business and the best part is that it is free!
RhinoTip: Events can be set up with customized announcements and communication with your members. Another great benefit is that the events can be integrated into your Google Calendar. Go to Calendar > Events to set up events and send out invites.
Overall, recurring memberships bring in revenue that may have been left behind. If the best practices described above are used, you are sure to grow revenue.
