Revised title: How can the Saints retain members better?

[skeptic]

Simple. OP gets shot down in flames so changes the title.

For someone that has me blocked and repeatedly tells everyone that you don’t read my post, you spend a lot of time responding to them and talking about me.

So much so that you’ve completely missed the point of this thread

[bigred]

Who me?

I may have thrown around accusations of asshattery once or twice but that's about it.

[parkeysainter]

Members should be happy that they can just detach themselves from the reality of the real world for 3 hours every week for 22 rounds and hopefully finals every season. The Saints are putting on entertainment (good or bad) for every member and supporter every week during the footy season....surely that is enough and I will keep enjoying it however good or s*** it turns out!!

[skeptic]

Members should be happy that they can just detach themselves from the reality of the real world for 3 hours every week for 22 rounds and hopefully finals every season. The Saints are putting on entertainment (good or bad) for every member and supporter every week during the footy season....surely that is enough and I will keep enjoying it however good or s*** it turns out!!

But they clearly don’t

[skeptic]

Who me?

I may have thrown around accusations of asshattery once or twice but that's about it.

At least you play the ball

[parkeysainter]

Members should be happy that they can just detach themselves from the reality of the real world for 3 hours every week for 22 rounds and hopefully finals every season. The Saints are putting on entertainment (good or bad) for every member and supporter every week during the footy season....surely that is enough and I will keep enjoying it however good or s*** it turns out!!

But they clearly don’t

Its cheaper entertainment than Village Gold Class.

[Drake Huggins]

Penance. Paying a karmic debt from previous lives.

[saynta]

Members should be happy that they can just detach themselves from the reality of the real world for 3 hours every week for 22 rounds and hopefully finals every season. The Saints are putting on entertainment (good or bad) for every member and supporter every week during the footy season....surely that is enough and I will keep enjoying it however good or s*** it turns out!!

tick. Me too mate.

[skeptic]

Members should be happy that they can just detach themselves from the reality of the real world for 3 hours every week for 22 rounds and hopefully finals every season. The Saints are putting on entertainment (good or bad) for every member and supporter every week during the footy season....surely that is enough and I will keep enjoying it however good or s*** it turns out!!

But they clearly don’t

Its cheaper entertainment than Village Gold Class.

Sure.

The fact is that the extra membership dollars are really important to the club. Especially to our club with our shonky stadium deal.

It boggles my mind that so many seem to disagree with the very notion that the club should be doing everything it can to get and keep members.

I’d have thought it was commonsense. One of the business guys here can clarify the % for me but isn’t something like 3 times cheaper to keep a customer then get a new one?

[Drake Huggins]

And a disgruntled customer will, on average, tell 11 others about poor service. As the great Ron Barassi famously said, "The art of coaching is keeping the five blokes who hate you away from the ten who are undecided."

[skeptic]

The irony of this is the ‘super loyal’ supporters on this thread seem deadset against the notion of the club doing something extra to get/retain members

That’s freaking terrible advice.

Sure as hell hope that mentality of... ‘yeah let’s not do everything we can to keep members’ isn’t rife in our membership department

[parkeysainter]

Members should be happy that they can just detach themselves from the reality of the real world for 3 hours every week for 22 rounds and hopefully finals every season. The Saints are putting on entertainment (good or bad) for every member and supporter every week during the footy season....surely that is enough and I will keep enjoying it however good or s*** it turns out!!

But they clearly don’t

Its cheaper entertainment than Village Gold Class.

Sure.

The fact is that the extra membership dollars are really important to the club. Especially to our club with our shonky stadium deal.

It boggles my mind that so many seem to disagree with the very notion that the club should be doing everything it can to get and keep members.

I’d have thought it was commonsense. One of the business guys here can clarify the % for me but isn’t something like 3 times cheaper to keep a customer then get a new one?

I know what you're saying but the Saints have 40k+ members. They will probably reach 45k next year or maybe 50k dependent on the success onfield. I really don't know how the club can please every member more than what they are when you're talking tens and thousands of members. They can't invite every member into the rooms, organise a meet and greet with players and coaches, extra merchandise, etc. Maybe these extra things aren't simply logistically possible or affordable for the club.

Their best way for the club to retain members is to make finals and have a good side in place. It always has been and always will be.

[skeptic]

And we’re ranked 13th across the league. Ahead of North Melbourne, Brisbane, GC and GWS.

I agree that we obviously can’t gift every member a trip to the rooms or whatever, and heck many members (as evidenced in this thread) may not even appreciate more.

Surely the club could do more than nothing though - especially during the hard times.

Heck, Oxfam and Optus fight harder for their monthly payments then the Saints do

[BringBackMadDog]

And we’re ranked 13th across the league. Ahead of North Melbourne, Brisbane, GC and GWS.

I agree that we obviously can’t gift every member a trip to the rooms or whatever, and heck many members (as evidenced in this thread) may not even appreciate more.

Surely the club could do more than nothing though - especially during the hard times.

Heck, Oxfam and Optus fight harder for their monthly payments then the Saints do

Richmond had 70,000+ members, collingwood the same they do the same as we do for our members, they get a card that gives them cheaper entry into games and a reserved seat option and a shonky scarf or hat.
In fact, all clubs offer more or less the same.

[parkeysainter]

Just saying also that there are people that serve 20+ years in the military, coppers, paramedics, etc. and they might be lucky to get a framed certificate off their head honcho or boss at the end of their service. Just putting things in perspective a bit more.

[Spinner]

For the purpose of this thread, I want to disregard the concepts of loyalty, duty, tradition etc. For those of us that have been long term members, we’ll pbly continue to be so no matter what.

In the world of the AFL however, we are at best a middle of the range club... pbly top half of the lower half of all clubs.

Now ppl that sign up for new memberships usually do so to go to games of football. And that’s fine.

However, a season or two in for some people the novelty wears off. Or work/personal commitments change and it’s harder to get to games, or the Saints are trending down and ppl don’t want to us lose all the time.


So here’s my question: what does the St.Kilda FC do to keep members?

And from what I can see, the answer is not much. Did you know I’m a 20 year member and in all of that time, I’ve never so much as got a thank you call from the Saints. Not a thank you card. Not a single bit of correspondence that wasn’t trying to sell me something.

Can’t imagine it’s the same for members of the power clubs... maybe it is I don’t know.

So here’s my idea. Obviously we’re not a rich club... the idea that we’ll be gifted corporate box games and whatever is non-sensical but maybe the club can do a few more cost effective things to show the members they care and build some loyalty from more ambivalent members.
I always liked the idea of loyalty program... get stuff that rewards you for staying on.

Phone calls from players or coaches
Tour of Moorabbin, see the inner workings
The opportunity to help out at opportunity to get some merch signed
Exclusive to members on line sites, forums etc
How about once every 15 years or so, you get invited into the rooms on a match day... seriously how much could it really cost to let 1 or 2 ppl into the rooms and get them to keep out of sight?

Think I might write a letter to the club. Anybody else have any suggestions?

Nice one skeptic - let's hope this thread feeds directly into the club.

I got a call a couple of weeks ago asking for $100 to go into the draw, to get the chance to get invited into the change rooms... I said politely, given I'm a 30 year member how about you just invite me into the rooms anyways. I've never been and would love to. The bloke agreed, said he would like some appreciation from his club too.

This is multiplied by a family of 5. Not a thing over the time which is ok but sick of the money grabbing, especially how they've wasted so much of it over the times.

[Spinner]

Just saying also that there are people that serve 20+ years in the military, coppers, paramedics, etc. and they might be lucky to get a framed certificate off their head honcho or boss at the end of their service. Just putting things in perspective a bit more.

This is very true!

[Drake Huggins]

IIRC, there was a survey done several years ago that suggested we had somewhere in the order of 400,000 supporters nationwide. Our conversion rate into members, at that stage, was less than 10%, the worst in the AFL according to the research. Time to pop your CV into the membership department, skeptic.

[perfectionist]

Drop the membership fee to $2.67

[CQ SAINT]

Here is an idea:

At home games against interstate teams (make it Brisbane or GC to start) allocate 10000 spare seats to members who nominate a friend/s who doesnt have a team or membership with any other club. Maie sure ID is needed. No seat matching just get them in and seat them.
Give them a cap and scarf and a 10 discount on taking up a seat and membership.

For every nomination that signs up give the sponsor member an invite for 2 to an exclusive club function later in the year.

Might work? Or they could even sponsors a previous member who hasnt renewed in a while.

[Saints43]

When the tat that we receive in the membership pack arrives I'm not bothered by the quality of the lanyard...
I feel excited that once we get through the cricket season I will be spending more time with family members as it's the Saints that bring us together. They've given us memories and shared experiences for years of weekends we wouldn’t have otherwise spent together.
They give us something to talk about in quiet times. We’re comfortable opening up about hopes, dreams and concerns... Saints and otherwise.
I know that when March comes I'll start running into great people that I only know through going to the footy. Going from nodding acquaintances to real friends over the years through doing nothing more than regularly ending up in the same places on a regular basis with a similar interest.
I've had people at work go that extra mile for me because I'm a fellow Sainter.
I reckon we can sometimes overlook what we get from being a member of the club.
The best thing that we can do for the club is just to keep turning up. And the best thing we’ll get from the club is enjoying any success that may come our way with other Saints.
We are the marketing department.

[skeptic]

Here is an idea:

At home games against interstate teams (make it Brisbane or GC to start) allocate 10000 spare seats to members who nominate a friend/s who doesnt have a team or membership with any other club. Maie sure ID is needed. No seat matching just get them in and seat them.
Give them a cap and scarf and a 10 discount on taking up a seat and membership.

For every nomination that signs up give the sponsor member an invite for 2 to an exclusive club function later in the year.

Might work? Or they could even sponsors a previous member who hasnt renewed in a while.

I like that a lot

And what does that cost the club? Peanuts

[skeptic]

Just saying also that there are people that serve 20+ years in the military, coppers, paramedics, etc. and they might be lucky to get a framed certificate off their head honcho or boss at the end of their service. Just putting things in perspective a bit more.

That's fine but it's not exactly an apples to apple's comparison though is it..?

Those organisations don't rely on a degree of loyalty for service... more on things like work conditions, pay, professional development, career progression etc.

I think any organisation that promotes the concept that they are entitled to your loyalty without having earn it is barking up the wrong tree

And if all you're selling is 12 home games for $350 then you simply have to accept that if the team isn't playing good football, then ppl aren't going to pay.

That seems true enough for us at the moment

Personally I think the way to grow our membership base over an extended period of time is to make the experience bigger then just going to games. Sell the club, the history, the players, Moorabbin, training...
Special pins that acknowledge 5, 10, 15, 20 years of consecutive memberships
Get invited to training, get invited to a team meeting, get invited to be shown around the inner workings at Moorabbin or whatever
Actually throw in a reward for every member every 10 years or so

Sell people an experience they want to be a part of






Or we can just continue to sell tickets to games and nothing more.

Me personally, I buy a social club membership... have done so for 20 years and will continue to do so. Generally I work W/E. Haven't been to more than 4 games a year for the last 3-4 seasons. Answer honestly, if my commitment was wavering, what is there in the package to entice me to stay? As it stands I'm paying about $90 odd per game.
Now before ppl jump on and say you should expect nothing from the club and be happy with just going to the games... again the emphasis here is not on me. What is the enticement for someone in that circumstance to continue buying a membership as opposed to simply pocketing the money and buying four tickets a year at the gate, say premium tickets as opposed to general entry?

It's certainly not value for money

[bigred]

Good Idea above... but get rid of the ID part and just send tickets to lapsed members.

If they need or want more tickets, say to get the family in, provide a point of contact in the weeks leading up. Manage it and make it easy for the user.

By taking up the offer they agree to receive all membership propaganda ongoing. If we have premium seats available that most likely will not be sold. Then use these.

Also, they could afford to give some members access to the rooms each week. In a managed fashion. Behind the rope is not a big deal 20-50 per home game... be it pre game or post. This is a no brainer.

Lets cut the crap. These things are easily managed.

Reserved seating in my opinion needs a complete overhaul. It should have it's price significantly reduced with the aim to sell more of the product by making upgrades affordable.

Get rid of the exclusivity of all but the ultra premium product. Embrace the membership and make it a better option for the existing membership base. Give some value where it was not available previously.

We want to grow the membership as a whole, not make it an exclusive product that for a lot of families could be that luxury product that they cannot afford.

[Drake Huggins]

The true value of things you can't measure are the friendships and relationships you form through being a dedicated and passionate saints follower. I have friendships that have lasted over 40 years, that started with one common bond. The saints. I have casual acquaintances who I catch up with regularly in the footy season at games. The craic is always great. The highs are great. The lows are character building. If they'd won just one of the 5 GFs I've seen them in, then I could die a happy man. I'm still hopeful we can do a dogs, or tigers, but I feared that when the siren sounded at the end of the 2010 GF replay, that I would never see my beloved saints salute. I still agree with skeptic. In an ever more competitive market, we are no longer up against 9 other Victorian clubs. Soccer especially is a medium to long-term threat to our potential revenue pool. We have to start converting the fringe supporters into members. We need members, who will help bring sponsors, and filthy rich benefactors, or we will perish.