How to Process 89% Renewals in 3 weeks
DONCASTER GOLF CLUB
The annual subscription renewal process is a challenging time for golf club administrators, with a range of membership categories and additional charges, and various payment options.
While our membership system was well established, these variations created a significant administrative burden both for the issue of invoices and processing of payments, further complicated in our case by the lack of on-line payment options. In addition to the load this was placing on the office, it was also inconvenient for members wishing to pay by credit or debit cards or via bank transactions. It was clear that something needed to change.
The service offered by nooQ was immediately attractive with their system offering us:
- A direct interface with our membership system
- Automated issue of membership invoices and payment reminders,
- Options to pay either as a single payment or two 6 monthly payments. This also included voluntary payment options such as staff gratuities.
- Various on-line payment options, including an automated phone line option
- A bank reconciliation process that recognises those payments made by bank transfer
- Automated reconciliation of payments received with our membership system
- A range of reporting tools to assist in progressing payment and generating data for accounting purposes.
All of the above offer significant benefits to both ourselves as administrators and our members.
As a result we processed 89% of membership renewals in 3 weeks, handsfree which left us with only minor manual cleaning up. We are looking forward to an easier future, without the complexity of Covid insurance optional rebates, so expect that we will be in a even better place for future renewals.
incredibly flexible & easy to work with
We took the decision to use nooQ six months before our next full membership cycle, enabling them to become familiar with our specific requirements and offer advice on how these could best be presented to our members. Throughout this period, they were incredibly flexible and easy to work with.
They clearly understand that every Club will have differences in the way they manage their membership process and appear able to accommodate such differences with relative ease.
We launched this new system on time and members appeared to have no difficulty in adapting to the on-line payment options now available to them.
While we inevitably encountered a few teething problems, it was clear that the system was working well and once embedded, will provide the benefits we anticipate. Throughout this first cycle, nooQ continued to be very supportive and easy to work with. I am confident that as we become more familiar with all the features the nooQ service offers we will see a real improvement in how we deal with membership renewals, both in terms of administration and member satisfaction.
Raising Over £5000 for Junior Foundation
Donations & Gratuities now available to all clubs
One of the best club initiatives we have seen and most successful, all came from the idea Doncaster had. They wanted to add optional membership donation to staff gratuities and/or junior foundation.
We added optional items onto the checkout process, so that members can view their bill and optionally add a donation.
Doncaster wants to encourage local juniors to play and learn golf; additionally they want to support those juniors who are progressing towards elite level.
This fantastic initiative managed to raise over £5k to support juniors and as it is such a great idea that we included it for free into our product for all other clubs to use.
Financial Reports for Committee
Numbers you can trust
We learned a lot working with Doncaster, it was a great project to work on and their ideas have shaped several product features and improvements including accounting and improving our Financial reports so they automatically show the right data for monthly committee reports.
It can be challenging to get all payments and accounting data from all payment methods, the improvements suggested from Doncaster and will make it simpler to present accurate information to committees on exactly the financial position.