8 Ways Jonas Club Software is Helping Clubs Thrive in 2020

Every year there are new applications and enhancements that we release to help your club provide the best possible experience for your members. From the Dining Room to the Tennis Court, the Golf Course to the Management Office, there are tools we want you to know about. In 2020 we want to help your club thrive by:

1.

Streamlining Membership Marketing Through an Integrated CRM 

Attracting and retaining members is becoming more important as competition from outside the club industry increases. Today, with so many competing interests for your members time, it's more important than ever to provide a personalized experience and respond to requests/inquiries quickly and efficiently. In order to accomplish this, Managers and Membership Directors have had to resort to tracking communications, follow ups and to-do lists with rudimentary tools such as spreadsheets, or even their ever trusty notebook and pen. This need for advanced organization and scheduling had driven the charge toward full featured CRM (customer relationship management) systems becoming widely accepted throughout the club industry. With features like to-do lists, automated follow up reminders, and plugins that directly connect your email inbox with contacts in the system, the CRM is quickly becoming the busy Membership Director's new best friend.

2.

Making Staff Scheduling Simple and Easy to Modify 

Combining the seasonal nature of the club industry, the variety of club positions and variability in hours, results in a lot of time, money and effort spent managing a club’s workforce. A majority of that effort is spent on staff scheduling, which for those who have done it, makes high school algebra feel accessible. Math becomes a lot easier with a calculator and scheduling your staff can be less time-consuming and more predictable with the proper software tools. Enter Shift Manager, the complete solution for easy scheduling, tracking and communicating with your employees. It was demonstrated at the CMAA 2020 World Conference and is expected to fundamentally change how clubs manage staffing. Completely web-based, the platform has a powerful schedule builder that forecasts your weekly staffing costs, allows for shift swapping requests, and offers a mobile app for both club managers and staff.

       

3.

Providing Analytics for Club Specific KPIs 

There will always be a place for gut instinct, but as our world and the systems within it become more complex, there is an ever increasing need for data based business decisions. “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data,” Sherlock Holmes stated in A Study in Scarlett, but what made Holmes brilliant was how he connected the dots, or data, to solve the unsolvable mystery. A club has an incredible data set at its disposable, nearly overwhelming to the point that one could be paralyzed to even begin mining for insights. MetricsFirst brings the data into one place, in an easy to understand set of analytics, so that you can monitor the day to day performance of your club. Whether the data is coming from club management software, social media, or your club marketing efforts, MetricsFirst integrates with over 25 platforms. This enables you to spot trends in real-time, influence decision-making and improve the member experience.

4.

Connecting You with Your Members in a Digital World

As the demographics of club members change, so do the mediums of engagement. We have seen in less than 10 years, a cellphone go from a convenient way to make phone calls on the go, to a necessary way to connect with the world around us. A club member today might be more inclined to browse Instagram for club updates than waiting for a monthly newsletter. Clubs are seeing a growing need for more interactive tools, to keep members engaged and provide an avenue for two way communication. If a member has feedback, are you willing to let them wait until the next annual survey to share it with club management? Automated surveys triggered by club interactions would avoid that delay. Push notifications get timely messages into the members’ hands through a club mobile app, and online reservations for events, lessons, dining and more provide convenience that is the new expectation. The modern club member is still looking for community and connection like they always have. You just might have to provide a different set of tools to help them.

5.

Modernizing Kitchen Workflows with Kitchen Display Units

The “club food” concept has undergone significant changes recently. The Farm to Table movement coupled with celebrity chef fanfare have put greater demand on clubs to both localize, and diversify their menus. Today, one club can find themselves offering various dining options that range from Formal, to Upscale Casual, and even member to-go ordering. This increase in demand stretches existing resources and puts more strain on already busy kitchen staff, so more and more clubs are looking for tools to automate. Enter Kitchen Display Units which have been in use for years in large/high demand F&B operations and are now making their way into the club industry. With features such as item timing, order alerts, and advanced reporting options, this area of kitchen automation and management is sure to see continued growth over the next year.

       

6.

Putting the Club Experience in the Palm of Your Members' Hands

In the past few years, you’d be hard pressed not to see a phone in someone’s hand almost everywhere you go. And with this change, comes more and more pressure for clubs to adapt or fall behind. Online tech site, The Business of Apps, reports that by 2021 the total number of app downloads will jump to a stunning 352 billion. Today, we live in a mobile world, where speed is a factor for everything we do. And as the number of mobile user grows so does the number of mobile app users. Clubs are increasingly connected with members through a mobile app, and over 200 Jonas Club Software clients have already made the leap into the wide world of app based member engagement. With the ability to send targeted messages, automated confirmation notifications, make integrated bookings, and publish club content, more and more clubs will implement their own app in 2020.

7.

Building Industry Leading Integrated Websites

The latest marketing trends may come and go, but one thing that remains essential is the need to attract visitors to your website and keep them coming back. HostingFacts.com   reports that over 3.5 billion Google Searches are made every day, and is just one of the reasons that your website could become your most valuable spokesperson. But is it?Putting your best foot forward is essential to attract new members, but member service is often an overlooked necessity of a club website. New members are often eager to ingrain themselves in club culture, but if your website doesn't offer members a reason to become a repeat visitor, then opportunities for cross promotion and up-sells are missed. Integrating features like booking a tee time, making a dining reservation, or ordering food from your club’s website all enhance member service and keep them coming back so they never miss out on important club news or an upcoming event.

8.

Enhancing the Member Dining Experience with Table Side Ordering

Excellent service is table stakes when it comes to private club membership, but as we mentioned earlier, the expectations around food service at private clubs are changing significantly, with expanded F&B operations and higher demand on existing staff. With many clubs venturing into larger restaurant facilities and outdoor spaces such as serviced patios and decks, F&B staff are exploring new ways increase efficiency. The new wave of optimized service seems to be coming in the form of tablet Point of Sale units, allowing servers to eliminate the time spent running back and forth between standalone Point of Sale stations. The iPad or Android tablets are usually small enough that they can easily slip into an apron pocket, allowing servers to easily navigate the dining room even with trays full of drinks and food. Servers can even maintain fine dining standards by keeping the tablet pocketed while taking orders, and simply entering the order discreetly on their way to the next table full of expectant members.