Unlock Your Club’s Value: Owning the Value Proposition

McMahon Group has surveyed hundreds of clubs and thousands of members and has generally landed on a single question that is especially revealing in diagnosing the overall financial health and well-being for a club. Respondents are asked to indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with this statement: “I receive good value for the cost of my club membership.” Perhaps surprisingly, less than one in four respondents (23%) in the McMahon Club Membership Database strongly agree with this statement.

Those who agree with this statement—and especially those who express strong agreement with it—are likely to remain members, attract new members and generally invest in the club’s future. For managers and club leaders, this concept of perceived member value should mark “true north” for managers and leaders to guide their clubs to a prosperous future.

It also raises a handful of key questions:

• Is the value proposition fully understood, endorsed and expanded upon by the members and staff? Do we own it?

• Is the club focused—strategically and programmatically— on how it creates and delivers value? Is it doing the right things?

• Is that value proposition clearly and credibly communicated to prospective members? Does the club create and grow membership by cultivating current members (and their legacy) as well as by removing barriers to bringing new members on board?

BE INTENTIONAL

General Manager Will Duthe, of the Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md., believes clubs must remain constantly in touch with the larger environment in which they operate and actively project their value proposition to both current and prospective members.

For many years, the Columbia Country Club existed with a railroad easement cutting through its property, bisecting the golf course into a north and south section. It was of little concern to the members as the old “coal line” was no longer in regular use by the rail industry and had been turned into a public hiking trail. This changed when the heavily used Washington Metrorail undertook to use this right-of-way in a major suburban expansion of the mass transit system. It signaled major construction and the likelihood of use that would now become a frequent fixture in the club’s visible landscape.

What would this mean for the club? How would it affect the quality of the golf experience and, more generally, the value of membership? The uncertainty of answers jolted the club into action. Rather than be paralyzed by an uncertain future, the club decided to take action to put its future under its control. As it turned out, the planned project was now an existential threat to the club.

The club developed a golf course master plan that addressed the course’s playability in conjunction with the Metrorail project. Once the plan was developed, the club coordinated its work on the course with the production of the metro line over a two-year period. At the conclusion of the update, Columbia’s membership was so excited that it provided extra momentum to make improvements on the course as a whole and secure the bid for the 2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior to celebrate their championship caliber course and the club’s 100th anniversary of hosting the 1921 U.S. Open.

The actions of Duthe and club leaders emboldened the entire membership to realize its image as a successful club, fully in charge of its destiny.

This insight resulted in a whole host of positive outcomes. Members were less likely to view membership as a strictly static institution, bound by the dictates of custom and tradition. It was their club and it would thrive or struggle largely on the basis of how it steered the club into the future.

The club’s response to this transit project signaled a pivot in the club’s approach to membership growth and how it offered its distinctive value as a private club. The club took a new more active, more confident and more transparent approach to membership than it had in the past.

Members were more vocal about their fun, family-oriented country club. Membership growth—Columbia has grown steadily and significantly over the past five years—became an organic process that flowed from membership satisfaction, a new assumption of responsibility and sense of how to provide the information potential members need to make the commitment to full-time active membership.

BE FOCUSED

Today’s club must offer a range of services, supported by premium facilities and a responsive staff. At the same time, offerings have expanded to reflect the changing role of women and provide a “lifestyle” package that integrates a range of requirements and expectations to serve all club members.

Clubs like Columbia and The Country Club of Virginia (see case study page 26), are taking strategic and operational steps to deliver indispensable and seamless support for the challenges of modern life. Here are a few more examples of how clubs have expanded their value proposition by better satisfying a range of modern needs:

Missouri Athletic Club (MAC): Once an old-school athletic club in the heart of St. Louis, the club has expanded with its suburban facility into an interesting array of facilities and offerings. This added tremendous value for many of its members who split time between business, professional and athletic pursuits in the city and then also raising a family, with its social and recreational needs in the suburban precincts. Now the MAC has undertaken a creative partnership with nearby Glen Echo Country Club that adds golf into the mix for its own members and a new range of valuable benefits for the Glen Echo members.

Palo Alto Hills: This club has a record of innovating in important ways that enhance the value of its membership. General Manager Josh Rumsey places emphasis on food and beverage offerings—which in the most recent quarter, reported food covers up 37% year-over-year. “We are making a very, very strong push on just adding value to the membership for our members,” says Rumsey, noting the club business is more relational and service oriented. In addition to the mainstays of exceptional dining—customized service and enticing menu variety—the club also offers honey from club hives, herbs from the garden, artisanal vinegars and club-branded craft brew. Providing great value to members and signature amenities help to cement membership loyalty. 

BE CLEAR

Club leaders are challenged to build value in club membership through strategic thinking that translates into making your club one that people want to join and share. The clear trend in the next decade will be to offer more value—especially for families. The target market for the next generation of club members will most likely be young people currently participating in club life. If their clubs become an indispensable part of their young lives, they will not escape the gravitational pull of the club appeal—and they will bring their friends with them.

Clubs must unlock value in their traditional offerings and expand into new types of value-generating services and facilities. They must also communicate these benefits and value in transparent, easily accessible and persuasive manner to current members—giving them the confidence and tools to be club ambassadors—and to potential members, who are often unaware about the value of club life.