Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Many float center memberships provide a discount on floats that’s contingent on an agreement of a membership fee that has a contract that extends for a certain period of time, usually at least 3 months. What do you do if after the first month, the members credit card is declined? Graham and Ashkahn meander through this concept, while discussing some of the differences of memberships that many float centers offer.
Show Resources
FTS Blog – Float Memberships and Packages
HelmBot – Scheduling and Management Software for Your Center
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Today’s question is, “What is your process for handling members whose credit card renewals don’t go through?”
Ashkahn: Members whose credit cards don’t go through?
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: That’s, well, so, the nice thing is they come in to float at your place. It’s not like they get the service sent to them digitally or something. They have to come into your shop to be able to get any floats, to actually float in a float tank, right?
Graham: So, if the renewal’s not going through, then they’re not paying money, which means they’re not getting floats, which means at some point if they want to come in and actually utilize your services and float again, they’re gonna have to get ahold of you.
Ashkahn: So, there’s two outcomes here. It’s basically they’re gonna come in to float and you’re gonna be like, “Hey, you don’t have a working credit card on your account. We need to fix that before you can go in,” and then they’re gonna fix their credit card. Or, they’re not gonna come in to float for a long time, and that probably means they weren’t really an active member at your place. If a member’s not coming in to float on any regular basis, that’s not really someone who probably should have a membership at your business.
Graham: So, we do things a little bit differently at Float On than a lot of businesses do, as well, which is that we actively go through and make sure that our members are using their memberships and their floats. So, if anyone goes for more than a couple months without using any of the floats on their account, they’ll get a phone call from Float On asking if they want to keep their membership and saying, “Hey, just so you know, you have these unused floats on your account,” and so on.
Not everyone does that, right? So, there’s the scenario where people are actually almost monetarily relying on these inactive members who still are getting charged every month. Again, much more like a standard gym model or something like that. So, that’s sort of a different scenario.
In that case, you do want their credit card to be updated because you want their money and you’re not as worried about them back piling floats on their account, right?
Ashkahn: But what can you really do? You can email them, sent an auto-email if their credit card fails.
Graham: Yup.
Ashkahn: You can call them. What, you gonna mail them a letter? How else are you gonna try to finally get, what other means can you even use to go about trying to get someone to update their credit card?
Graham: Yup. So, again, we don’t even really reach out to people to contact them or try to harass them or anything like that. Again, because we know that they’ll be coming back in to use their floats, or they were an inactive membership and we didn’t want them to be a member anyway, if they’re not using floats, so that kind of makes our situation maybe a little easier than some float centers, as well.
But again, definitely not harassing them, I would say.
Ashkahn: I mean, send an email, or maybe your software sends an email automatically.
Graham: Yup, the Helm has an option to just auto send an email when a membership fails, for example.
Ashkahn: If you notice it, give them a call.
Graham: Yup. I guess there’s also, what if they’re in a contract, right? Now they’re one month in to a three month contract, and now their credit card fails.
Ashkahn: I see. Well, there’s still really not much else you can do, right?
Graham: Reach out-
Ashkahn: It’s not like you have that many other options.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: Just wait until they get back to you, and then deal with it then and charge them for another two months.
Graham: Hire a private detective to trail them and find out their routines, corner them someday in the coffee shop.
Ashkahn: At some point, I think you just need to be like, okay. Fine. And give up. If someone has a three month contract and they do one month and then their card gets canceled and they don’t respond to your emails and they don’t respond to your phone calls, that’s the point where I’d just be like, “okay, I’m done dealing with this person. I’m not gonna bother myself over it or hunt them down. They obviously didn’t want to be a part of this anymore.”
At what point, if that is really the case, someone gamed your system and used a card that expired or whatever, they really don’t want to come back to your business. So, forcing them to, or … it’s just not great. None of it sounds fun or really worth your time or energy, unless this is 80% of your memberships, I just don’t see this being a super frequent thing that happens.
Graham: Yeah, definitely. Again, I think the worst thing you can do is really act as though they’re trying to dodge their float bill and get on their case and start harassing them or something. That’s probably the best way to ensure that they don’t stay members with you after their contract, or if it’s already up, that they don’t actually give you a new credit card.
So, assuming that it’s an innocent mistake, not harassing people who don’t get back to you, and at least for us, kind of recognizing the best time to take care of this is actually when people come in for their next appointment and they’re in the shop right there is a really easy time to have this conversation. Just have them pull out their wallet with another card in it.
Ashkahn: Yeah, just take it easy.
Graham: Just mellow, man.
Ashkahn: You’re a relaxation business. You can’t be too uptight. It’s gonna look bad.
Graham: All right. If you have any other questions, go to-
Ashkahn: Floattanksolutions.com/podcast
Recent Podcast Episodes
How to get your Water Tested – DSP 359
Every once in a while during float industry events, during this podcast, or talks given by health department professionals and the like, they’ll say something like “if you get your water tested and…”. But how does a float center do that? Where should they look? Is there just a lab that they can send their float solution to? Are all labs the same? How much does it cost?
Ashkahn and Graham take on the difficult task of making sense of microbiology testing laboratories, regulatory institutions, and acronyms, all so you don’t have to.
A Few of Our Favorite Things – DSP 358
Graham and Ashkahn take a break from all the doom and gloom of the float world to talk about the amazing things that floating has brought them. What they love, the things that surprised them, and the many ways in which they’re inspired to stick with it and pioneer in this wild and crazy industry.
Learning to Trust Your Gut in Business – DSP 357
Sometimes, the hardest part of starting any project is to just take the leap of faith complete step one.
With some words of encouragement and caution, Graham & Ashkahn channel their inner Tony Robbins and encourage a highly knowledgeable aspiring float center owner, to trust their gut and start their float center.
How Long to Run a Filter Between Floats – DSP 356
How long should you run the filtration system for between floats? It’s an eternal question that has plagued float center owners since the dawn of time (Or at least until 1978 when the first float center opened up).
Ashkahn and Graham break down the science behind why you should filter for as long as you do and how to properly plan for it. This densely packed episode is filled to the brim with a summary of knowledge on water dilution, filtration, flow meters, and water sanitation brought over to float tanks from the pool and spa world. Take notes as you listen, there’s a lot to assess.
How to Reward your Employees – DSP 355
Recognizing that your employees rock is one of the most valuable traits an employer can have, but only as long as said employer is able to properly acknowledge that appreciation.
Graham and Ashkahn share their take on rewarding employees for their hard work and how to make it count when you want to give them a gift. The duo has no shortage of examples of how they’ve shown their appreciation at Float On, and this episode is dense with examples of nice gifts and rewards to provide staff, from the practical to the symbolic.
Latest Blog Posts
B-Gray’s School on Nothing
I Got Nothing to Say! Okay, so here’s the thing. Floating is often associated with meditation and ultimately achieving this state of void, commonly and perhaps glibly referred to as “Nothing” by salty tank proprietors everywhere. And listen, I’m totally on board with...
The Daily Solutions Podcast – Our Top 5 Episodes for October
October was a hell of a floaty month. Between the float conference non-profit, Float On’s birthday, Ashkahn’s birthday, and Halloween, let’s just be a little grateful that the ol’ Grashkahmn duo didn’t miss a day on here. Especially since these episodes are so killer....
When (and how) Salt Attacks!
This post was spurred on by work that I did illustrating hundreds of pages for our Construction Packet. As an illustrator, I spend extra time nailing down details, just to eliminate potential sources of confusion. While looking into salt weathering, I came across some...
The Daily Solutions Podcast – Our Top 5 Episodes from September
September came and went like a flash, while everyone was recovering from the whirlwind that was the Float Conference, Graham and Ashkahn were fielding questions about all things great and small in the industry. Here’s a handful of our favorites. When is the Best Time...
