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Self-service club technologies: changing the member experience: part 1 of a 2-part series.

Article Excerpt
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Over the years, club operations have remained relatively unchanged while self-service applications in industries such as banking, travel, food service and lodging have rapidly evolved. Basically, clubs have avoided adopting member-operated innovative hardware, product delivery networks and creative settlement options, claiming members join a club to escape technology and therefore prefer personalized, customized interactions. In simpler terms, managers claim members favor a high-touch, not a high-tech environment, and as a result clubs historically have supported a highly labor-intensive service model.

Until recently, providing tailored services and buffered automated applications was the mantra of private membership clubs. The tipping point for significant change in the "member experience" appears to have originated when the majority of clubs began installing wireless hot spots (WiFi) with simplistic access and reliable support. By doing so, management initiated a demolition of the long-established and somewhat sacred barriers surrounding high-touch. After all, implementation and enforcement of a restrictive cell phone policy, PDA policy and the like had served as proof that the club should not be an extension of a member's business office.

Have club service technology barriers of the past been permanently removed? Should club management now orient itself to the potential benefits of self-service applications? Perhaps now is the time for clubs to consider a host of self-service...

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