Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
This year at the Float Conference, Derek hosted a marketing forum and took questions that he wanted to share with everyone here.
This episode focuses on how Float On handles memberships, including tiered memberships and how to gracefully transition from one type of membership to another.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode not currently available
Greg: So I’ve been using the tiered membership style since I opened two and a half years ago.
Derek: Okay.
Greg: Since about two years ago I’ve been wanting to switch down to the single type of membership, and just wondering if you, especially Derek since you guys did it after six years, can provide ideas on how to do that? I think I have an email from you guys from when you did that.
Derek: Right.
Greg: Yeah, just ideas for switching that.
Derek: Anytime you have to bring news to people, and this wasn’t necessarily bad news. This was news of, you’re not gonna have to pay $110 a month, you’re now gonna have to pay $54 a month. If it was bad news like a price hike or anything like that, that’s different. If you’re raising your membership prices, you really wanna try to spin it into a celebration because you’re gonna get upgrades and stuff like that. But if you’re actually just going to laterally move from breaking down what your lowest package is, let’s say, or maybe picking a price point that benefits the center. We made sure, when we picked our price point, if anybody was going to be paying more at that, we grandfathered them in.
So that was one of the key things that when we did this, it’s like, “Hey, we’re switching up our memberships.” We added some things we never added before, so it created this newness, this excitement. We call it unlock and limited. So it you float six times that month at your membership rate of $54 per float, you can float the rest of the month for free.
And so that was a key thing that people like, it kind of gamified it almost. It kind of made that like, we have a dozen people every month floating unlimited, and they’re loving it, and those are your best floaters and they’re actively talking about it. So creating little extra things is what we did. Again, making sure all of your existing members never pay a cent more. So grandfather the old rates in. Like, there’s some people still paying $35 a float for their membership. But we wanna take care of those people ’cause they’ve taken care of us.
There is some growing pain in it. I’m not gonna lie. You’re gonna watch these numbers, and you’re gonna watch this monthly recurring revenue of X number of dollars, dramatically dropped to if they all floated once a month. And then you’ll watch that grow back up as they continue their habits they’ve already had. And you’re gonna have more people excited. So yeah, some people may float less, but it’s offset by more people floating, and more people floating at your center, as we all know, is great for word of mouth.
Gloria or Cindy, you wanna add anything to what you would do in a situation where you have to go from one structure to another?
Gloria: Yeah, we did, again, fairly early on but we did have a handful of members in each tier. I would just say rip the Band-Aid off and give them grandfathered pricing and really, figure out how many does it affect. Most of the members are probably in the first year anyway, which is gonna be in line with whatever you probably stick with. So does that affect 30 members, 20 members. I mean, if it’s under 50 people, you might want to call every one of them. But if it’s thousands, then yeah, do a mass email. Right? But yeah, I’d say rip the Band-Aid off. It’s so much easier.
Greg: So did you guys just send the same email to your entire mailing list? Or did you have an email towards just your members?
Derek: Right.
Greg: Did you make phone calls to every member?
Derek: Right. We segmented out. So you’re gonna have a different conversation with the people that their lives are changing more, and then those customers who aren’t members, you’re gonna have a new, exciting conversation. Floating’s even more accessible than ever before.
Greg: Okay.
Derek: Right? And again, We did another thing that was actually, If anybody knows Float On culture, it’s super loosey goosey, easy, yeah, you can get whatever you want with us. We actually added a three month commitment to our membership. We’ve never had commitments. And we did the numbers. We’re numbers people. We looked at everything and we looked at a lot of our churn when we were on the tiered memberships, is couples floating that just wanna get a cheaper price so they sign up and cancel like, after their float. Right? They’re just signing up for membership, get the better rate, ’cause there was no commitment, and then they were never coming back. So we had a lot of churn people wanting to save on two floats or on four floats if they’re having a party.
So when we dropped it down to that one price point, we asked for a little bit of commitment. So people did drop off, but they were probably gonna drop off anyways. And then when the three month came around, we’re like, “Oh no.” Those people stayed. It actually did what we wanted to do. We were happily surprised.
Recent Podcast Episodes
What are UL Field Evaluations? – DSP 124
A UL Field evaluation is something that can be requested from your Health Department or regulator, often prior to opening. It’s designed to ensure a certain standard for electrical equipment in commercial businesses. Graham and Ashkahn break down the process of getting a UL Field evaluation, how much it’s likely to cost, and even some tips when discussing this with your health department.
What is HDPE? – DSP 123
So HDPE stands for High Density Polyethylene. It’s a type of plastic and it’s incredibly handy for float centers. Float On switched to using this any place they previously would’ve used wood in their building materials.
Graham and Ashkahn break down exactly what this miracle product is, where you can buy it, all the different uses it has in a float center, and some special tips and tricks of getting it just the way you need it.
Causes of Float Related Neck Tension – DSP 122
The good news is that it doesn’t seem to happen after the first float, the bad news is we’re not really sure why it happens, but we have some theories. This even happened to Ashkahn the first time he floated, so this is an issue very personal to his heart.
Thoughts on Attending Trade Shows – DSP 121
When you’re just starting out, you’ll try anything to get the word out. Trade shows are a fairly common way to generate interest in a new technology or practice, so why not floating?
Graham and Ashkahn have a few trade shows under their belt and they’ve had modest almost success at them. They lay out their experiences and challenges that float tanks face at a venue like this and what you should be prepared for if you decide to attend one.
When it’s Time to Fire Your Customers – DSP 120
This is one of those situations that’s never fun to be in, but it’s something that’s gotta be dealt with. A customer is rude, unpleasant, or makes the staff or other customers uncomfortable. It can start small and turn into a repeated and difficult problem. As the business owner, oftentimes, the buck stops with you and you have to figure out how to handle that situation.
Graham and Ashkahn share their experiences at Float On with their problematic customers and how they handled it while offering tidbits of advice.
Latest Blog Posts
Start-a-Center Giveaway 2013
While we wait for the next month of blog posts to roll in, I wanted to announce a thank you promotion we're putting out. We've had over 500 items downloaded from our site since we started just a couple months ago, which means the industry is growing. The feedback...
An Autobiography of Floataway
I was always interested in making things and taking things apart. So after A levels in Physics, Chemistry and Maths, I chose Mechanical Engineering at Bristol University, UK, My first floating experience was in an inflatable toy boat before I could swim, and it was...
An Introduction from Sweden
Anu Enok Looking back, I realize that I’ve been a ”seeker” most of my life. I have always ”wanted to know what to find around the next corner”, which means I have tried a lot of things. I have been mixing jobs and studies. I have studied different stuff like market...
A Little Past
In the late 1960's, I was a systems computer programmer. At one point, I was in a department with just two other people. If I went down to the cafeteria with one of them, I would talk. But if I went down with both of them, I was too shy, and I would be silent. In...
