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Snap is an essential sales tool for all Health Clubs
Snap is a means of acquiring new members on line.
Until Harlands Group developed Snap over three years ago the only sales in the UK were being carried out in club with web sites being used to offer prospects information regarding the facilities and at best to register interest or book an appointment.
There are very few facilities that don't base there sales on getting the prospect into the site, on the assumption that this is a basic requirement. Repeatedly we would hear that the most difficult thing about joining a fitness facility is coming through the door. We are also so used to believing that all memberships must be sold and forget how many people do want to join our facilities and don't need to be sold the concept just presented with the opportunity.
It is clear from the growth of e commerce in numerous other industries and a huge year on year increase in online consumer spending as a whole that online sales of health club memberships cannot be immune to this same consumer demand. During 2007 more than a million more UK homes went online, according to research from National Statistics. 61% of homes, some 15.2 million UK households, are now connected to the internet, up from 54% in 2006 and this was expected to grow again in 2008. It is now the case that 84% of online households use a broadband connection speeding up all transactions and downloads.
Harlands Group identified this trend and we ensured that we were well placed to provide the Health and Fitness Industry with an affordable solution when operators started looking and we launched our first Snap site in 2006 and now have over 200 sites in the UK. Our systems have no doubt help drive the interest in this area and various copies exist but in most cases they are not BACS compliant or deal effectively with Office of Fair trading regulations.
The SNAP e-Survey
We have been able to attach an e survey to the end of the joining process and new members can voluntarily offer feedback on the joining process. Here are just a small sample of the results:
- 42% stated that they joined online because it was convenient.
- 12% are past members who didn't need to see staff.
- 32% joined having never been to the facility.
- 30% joined having first gone home to think about it.
- 100% would recommend the Snap join online system to a friend.
- 92% found the experience much more convenient than a paper application form.
- 41% joined having found the web site surfing online.
- Over 50% of all members joining online have indicated that the ability to join online was highly significant in them joining at all.
Since the launch of Snap we have been able to develop the product to the requirements of our clients and have recently launched a 3rd generation Snap system. Snap can now make use of promotional codes, is running on new faster servers, offers more cosmetic flexibility, branch selector (for multi-site operators), option for pro-rata payments, integration into club management software, "bolt-on" options, multi-product selector, bespoke design and more.
We have also identified the clear benefit of paperless sign up on premises and have recently produced a slightly different version which can be used on site. Snap for on site use allows you to do away with the traditional (and expensive) three part paper membership forms. Memberships can move immediately into our collections system - no more posting forms, and you have the security that new member bank details are verified when you sign them up. Snap in club has all the flexibility of 3rd generation Snap but data is entered on site by your staff. You can allocate user name and password in order to track which staff have sold memberships. At the end of the process you can print a PDF with all the members data merged into a membership agreement and still request a signature from the member.