Best practices for membership hold policies
1. Suspension Fees
Many clubs charge their members a fee for suspending memberships. This is a good option to consider as a method for discouraging members from suspending memberships unless absolutely necessary. However, when it comes to suspension fees you must also consider the very alternative you’re trying to avoid by offering suspensions at all – cancellations. If you price your fees too high as an attempt to block unnecessary suspensions you may push these members towards cancelling instead of putting it on hold.2. Notify Members of Suspension Ending
There’s nothing worse for the member experience with your club than receiving unexpected payments. A great option to avoid having unhappy members is to create an automated task for notifying your members of the approaching end of their suspension. You can create a template and task within GymMaster to do this in the settings drop down. Unsure how to do this? book a training session with support.3. Membership Hold Payment Policies
When creating your membership hold policies you also must consider how you will approach payments for membership holds. Will you prorate your membership holds? e.g. If they pay on the 1st usually, but the hold begins on the 15th do they pay a half fee? A consistent plan for your membership hold payments can improve client satisfaction and save issues down the track.4. Annual Limits for Suspension
Another issue with membership holds is certain members seeing these as an opportunity to take advantage of your fitness club. For many clubs, organising suspensions of memberships are a time sink for staff and potential loss of income. To discourage and limit the potential risk of members over-using account suspension, many clubs have an annual limit per member for the number of times they can suspend their accounts.To see and edit the options available for your club’s membership holds, see:
Settings -> Advanced Configuration -> Member Holds
If you are Interested in finding out how to set up membership holds in GymMaster please feel free to book in a training session or reach out to our friendly support staff by emailing help@gymmaster.com.