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Family membership, couples, singles, seniors? Which should your pool offer?

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There’s really no standard for what membership types community pools offer. And like most things with neighborhood pools and tennis clubs, what came before is what goes forward. But your club can always reexamine its current offerings, and the board can vote in whatever changes it deems better for the club. And obviously, that should really be the biggest factor:  what is best for the club going forward (as opposed to only considering how things were done before). 

So let’s look at some various membership types.

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Family Membership

I’ve yet to run into a club that doesn’t offer family membership, so we probably don’t need to discuss this one much. But if you haven’t read our article on why you should define what a family membership is exactly, you should. Link here.

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Couples Membership

A Couples membership makes perfect sense to me. I suggest pricing it around $50-$100 less than the Family membership price.

Remember who you are selling this membership to – married couples in their 20’s or early 30’s. They grew up with Groupon, Overstock, discount apps, unlimited Movie Passes, etc.  So your deal-savvy millennials can feel like they got a deal and, in the long run, you gain anyway. Here’s why…

1. Many families don’t start a membership within the first two years of having a baby. So your window for getting them to join is before or after baby #1. Obviously, you want them BEFORE that first baby. 

2. Couples memberships turn into Family memberships eventually.  If they’ve already paid their initiation fee, most likely they won’t break that to skip a summer because of a new baby.

3. If they see “Family Membership” as the only option, they might think the pool is only for parents and kids. As most of us know, the pool is cool at any age. But we know that from experience. They might not.

Young couples ARE your future bread and butter for the pool. Do whatever you can to get them started.

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Singles Memberships

Most clubs offer one, but if your club doesn’t, maybe it’s time. Yes, I know in a typical pool community neighborhood you don’t have a lot of singles living in homes made for families, but even if you have just 15 single members join at $350 a person, that’s $5,250. And think about the potential members you are turning away…

• Divorcees in the neighborhood

• Friends of club members that come often enough that they should be joining (as most clubs have a rule about bringing the same guest too often)

• People that are more interested in tennis and just looking for guaranteed court time

• Cool, good-looking, young people! What club doesn’t want that?!

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Senior Memberships

I love the senior membership option. There are two ways of handling senior memberships if you use Pool Dues.

We can set up a Senior pricing option right off the bat, either for senior-aged Couples or Singles. Both options are available.

Or, you can use the same Couples or Single membership payment options that are available for all members, and then create discount coupons to reduce the price. Your Treasurer or other approved shop admin can create an unlimited number of coupons for a specific amount off or a percentage off.

Why do this? If your club doesn’t currently offer senior discounts but you want to make this option available to a select few members (i.e., those that ask for it), then you may want to go the discount code route.

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Something else to think about. I’ve seen clubs that reward 25-year members with a free lifetime membership after that. How brilliant is that! You might have members that are 20 years in, thinking, “Well, our kids don’t swim anymore, we only go 5 or 6 times a year, maybe we should cancel”…. But if they know that after 25 years it’s free, then maybe they hang in there for a while longer.

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