Tracking key performance indicators is the first step towards making your business’s membership program more prosperous, the Entrepreneur.com article “How to Improve the Success of a Membership Program” explains. Start by taking a look at these areas:
Current Member Count: This one is fairly obvious – the more members the better. Keep this number, and the way it’s fluctuating, fresh in the minds of your team to ensure that they’re motivated to keep it moving in the right direction.
Number of Members Added/Dropped. Just because your current member count is improving doesn’t mean all is well. No matter how many new members you’re adding, if you’re losing a lot at the same time, you’ll need to look to make some changes. It costs more to add a member than it does to hold onto one, so make sure you’re not getting too caught up in reaching new clients and neglecting the current ones.
Member Churn Rate: This is the percentage of your members whom cancel your services. Losing 10 clients isn’t a huge deal if you have 1000 members (1% lost), but it definitely is if you only had 100 members to start (10% lost). Try setting a goal to motivating your team to work hard to get this number down.
Average Subscription Rate: How long, on average, do your members stay with you? If you pinpoint when clients tend to cancel, you can begin to identify why and work on retention strategies focused on this time period (i.e. a special gift or perk around this time).
Lifetime Membership Value: Knowing how much you will earn from a client throughout his or her membership is vital because it tells you how much it’s worth spending to acquire each new member. This will be a key metric for marketing efforts. If your lifetime membership value is $300, a promotion that cost you an average of $100 per new member gained was a success, but not so much if your lifetime value is only $150.