24
November
2022
As the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite, clubs must decide their membership pricing strategy, but in a GCMA Insights podcast, experts discussed whether members may need to meet their club halfway. Do members need to “do their bit” to help clubs through the cost-of-living crisis? That was the question posed on the latest GCMA Insights podcast as a panel of experts considered how to get the sport through a tricky upcoming membership renewals season. Host Leighton Walker was joined by GCMA chief executive Tom Brooke, Inicio Solutions managing director Simon Jones, PlayMoreGolf relationship director Brad Chard, and Fairway Credit’s sales and support director Nigel Stewart to look at membership pricing. The quartet considered the tools clubs could use to minimise the stress amid a background of high inflation and a squeeze on leisure budgets. “That's leaving golf club managers and golf clubs now with some incredibly difficult planning ahead in terms of what they do with their business modelling and, in particular, membership pricing,” Brooke said. “There are so many considerations. Do you increase your pricing in line with inflation and to keep up with cost of living and utility bills at golf clubs and risk higher than anticipated, or higher than planned, attrition rates or do you hold your pricing - going lower - and hope for higher than planned retention but then risk not being able to cover your costs?” Walker said a club’s relationship with their members was key and asked the panel whether they needed them to “share the pain”. “It’s all very well that members want to keep their subs down but, perhaps in these times, they’ve got to kick in and do their little bit as well?”. Listen now: For the full Golf Club Talk UK library, click here. Please LOGIN to read the full article.
Not a member? Please click here to join today.
