How to make your members feel valued

• Keep your club and clubhouse neat and tidy: If you leave rubbish lying around, people are far more likely to drop their own litter as they can see an effort hasn’t been made. Rubbish bins and bin liners show that you care about your club and members
• Send birthday cards to your members: You will have details of the birthdays of all your members and sending a greetings card shows that you care about your members

• Smile and be positive: The simplest and most effective way of making people feel good about you and your club

• Enourage feedback: Consult your members on new ideas and place suggestion boxes around your club. Hold club forums to ‘sense check’ new ideas and changes you want to make

What if someone leaves?

• Very few clubs actually get in touch with a member who has left, just to find out why they did leave.
• It is often taken for granted that people leave clubs because they are “too busy” but usually it is not found out whether the club had a part to play in them leaving.
• Make sure you take a couple of minutes to ask people who have left the club, to why they did.
• It may be a difficult conversation, but it could be the most valuable conversation you have all year.
• If you don’t have someone who feels comfortable making the phone call, think of creating and sending a questionnaire or an online survey – people may be more honest responding this way.

PLAYER RETENTION

Player retention is an important challenge in all sports and it's crucial for sustainable clubs and leagues.

It is also advised that your club registers on the Club Matters website, which can be used as a tool to interact with players and club members. In the main, your club members should be your first port of call in terms of retention.

They may have skills which can help sustain and develop the club. The key to long term success on the pitch is having a good coach who builds mutual respect and loyalty.

Another strong element to retention within the club is a buoyant social scene. A number of clubs have an annual calendar of social events, such as Open Days and volunteer events such as Engage With Your Club can assist in creating club spirit and promote ownership.

Questionnaires and surveys can be a useful way to 'check and challenge' that what you are doing as a club is actually what the members want, and could also be a way of identifying new volunteers.

IN ORDER TO BE SUSTAINABLE AND SUCCESSFUL...

Community clubs should consider the following:

• Ensure a club development plan is in place with a five year strategy and monitor throughout the period.
• Club ethos and philosophy is also a key component – all coaches and age groups need to buy into this.
• Upskill coaches with the relevant requirements for the age group they coach (e.g. Level 1, Level 2 award, Level 2 License)
• Link in with RFL initiatives such as Embed the Pathway and Primary RL.

What do your current members think?

It is useful to gauge what your current members think of your club, as they are likely to know your club better than anyone else.

It can be extremely beneficial to complete an annual survey to see which areas your members like about your club, and more importantly, what areas they think can be changed.

Our suggestion is to undertake a simple customer survey amongst your members, players and parents.

It is important that the survey is fairly simple and doesn’t take too long to fill in – this way, you are more likely to get a larger amount of replies from your members.

Alternatively, you could set up the survey on an online platform, such as Survey Monkey, and email the link to all club members.

Additionally, you could share this survey via your social media streams to boost responses from club members.

If you want to increase the number of club members and ultimately grow your club, you must cater for “tomorrow’s members” and recognise that they will probably have a different perspective and different needs.

The biggest threat to club growth is complacency – the way forward is to rejuvenate and introduce new thinking and behaviour – keep the fire burning and fight complacency.

Top tips to help rejuvenate your club

• Start the “movement” now – don’t procrastinate!
• Invite new people to your club and ask them what they think – act if they flag up any issues
• Keep going – some people at you club may initially oppose the changes but a time goes on, more and more people will support you and the momentum will grow
• Send people out to visit outstanding clubs, organisations and businesses and learn from them. Ask them about what they did to improve their surroundings
• Do not accept the “this is the way things are done around here” attitude – it will only hold you back
• Learn from your failures and successes and then your hit rate will improve. Gradually you will increase your knowledge and understanding and become more successful
• Be patient and persistent – as the old saying goes: Rome wasn’t built in a day

New Members

No club can grow without new members, so it is vitally important that you are sending out the right message to prospective new arrivals.

New visitors to clubs can often feel a little awkward when they walk through the door – they may be unsure of how to dress or act and may not know anybody at the club.

Therefore, it is very important to develop and maintain a culture where everybody talks to each other, whether they are a long-standing member or a new face coming through the door for the first time.

You do need to think about people as customers with differing needs and place greater emphasis on practising great customer service.

There are plenty of good examples of great clubs that are growing because they listen to people, speak their language and provide them with a service and experience they enjoy.

Club Welcome Packs

Do you hand out a Welcome Pack to potential new members to showcase the best of what your club has to offer?

That extra piece of information provided in this pack could be the difference as to whether the applicant decides to sign on at your club or walk away.

A Welcome Pack also helps them to find their way around and feel at home more quickly. It makes them feel valued and will help them to stay at the club.

A Welcome Pack could include:

• A welcome letter from the Chairperson, signed personally
• The club handbook or list of rules and advice
• Details of club training and matches, with dates, times and locations
• Information on special offers or discount vouchers from sponsors (if applicable)
• Voucher for a drink at the bar (if applicable to club and applicant)

Helping people hear about your club

• Is your website up-to-date with correct contact details and are they in an easy place to find?

• Can a potential new member easily find out when and where their age group trains?

• Is your club active on social media and does it have a regularly updated presence on Facebook and Twitter?

• Do these social media streams have positive postings from friendly members, telling stories and uploading photos of great experiences at your club?

• Social media is a huge shop window for potential members and is often the first point of contact with younger players who may be looking to get into Rugby League

Removing barriers for new members

• Ask new arrivals at your club about what their biggest concerns were when first joining the club

• Do they not know all of the rules, do they not have all of the correct kit, do they have any concerns of not knowing anyone or are they struggling for transport to get to training and matches?

First impressions – the three twos

• The first two seconds: First impressions are crucial – what do people first see when they come into your club? Do they see a broken lawn-mower standing outside the entrance or is the whole club well-kept and looking really tidy?

• The first two minutes: Is the potential new member standing there, not really knowing what to do? You must have a culture in your club where everybody feels it is natural to go and say hello to anyone who looks a bit lost or unsure

• The first two hours: The potential new member has now experienced their first training session but did they feel part of the team and did the coach pay particular attention to them?

Keeping in touch

• Have a simple form ready where people can leave their contact details: their name, a mobile number and email address, then a designated person can follow up and encourage them to return for a second session

• It is very important that one person within your club is responsible for maintaining an up-to-date database

• You could assign a buddy or mentor by getting an appropriate member of your current team to keep in touch with the new player. This is a great point of contact for the new member and they can ask any “silly” questions