CORE COMPETENCY REF. Membership and marketing 
By Trevor Coughlan

Belonging to, or even visiting a club, comes with certain expectations. One of which is that an elevated level of service will be experienced. In order to deliver on this expectation, clubs are turning to sophisticated software systems not only to streamline tedious and time consuming tasks, but also to elevate the level of service offered.

As a whole, this is a good thing. Software automation can deliver much in the way of departmental performance as well as member facing service. However, a common problem for many businesses is the creation of Information Silos.

All too often, the many arms of a business develop their own way of storing, managing and relaying information. Eventually, when multiple business areas are left to operate with just their own unique set of requirements in mind, a breakdown in overall communication occurs.

Information Silos are a common issue within the business world and they can be caused, at least in part, when businesses choose to implement software applications with a non-unified approach. In other words, when clubs choose to implement multiple disparate systems. The breakdowns that result cause additional work for staff when information needs to be entered multiple times. Additionally, when staff don’t readily have access to information, this can have a negative impact on the service experience. For example, when a member asks for an itinerary of all their upcoming bookings, staff shouldn’t need to access multiple systems in order to fulfill the request. Or when a member is seated in the dining room, staff should automatically be alerted to that member’s preferences or even allergies.

An additional consideration, and one which is easily overlooked, is the potential business impact of seemingly straight forward software updates. When one vendor issues a product update, interfaces to other systems can encounter any number of issues, the worst of which could leave an area of your business disabled. In cases such as this, clubs often become the first line of quality assurance as vendors work to re-establish connections through their various interfaces.

Sometimes, in an effort to optimise performance within one area of our business, such as a pro shop or leisure centre, the impact to the club as a whole is overlooked. With an architecture where information flows freely and product updates are issued in a system wide manner – the model of a single integrated system – access to information remains consistent and as a result, staff have more time, and the knowledge needed, to provide outstanding service.