Membership Churn

Split From: šŸŒŸ We need an event for 2ļøāƒ£0ļøāƒ£0ļøāƒ£0ļøāƒ£ members

Iā€™m concerned about the churn. Donā€™t have the numbers in my head but something I read in one of @Photomancerā€™s reports was roughly 50-60 member churn per month while we capture 20-30 members long turn. Has this improved or gotten worse over time?

Are we doing a hard sell that people are backing away from after a month or two. Is it tool availability/training that is off putting?

Doesnā€™t seem to be either of these. Here are roughly two months of data. Canā€™t extrapolate this to anything - and I wonā€™t guarantee it isnā€™t 7 weeks, for instance. There are a lot of ā€œmovingā€ responses and many of these were students - which could be a seasonal thing.

I was surprised that one out of five says they are finished with their project and will rejoin when they have another need.

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I would 80%+ of the cancellation notices that I see are:

  • Iā€™ve moved or back to school will rejoin when back
  • Canā€™t afford (probably half+ say will rejoin when they can afford)
  • I donā€™t have time/too far away

The next group is maybe 5%: Project is done / Not working on anything now.

So 80% are things we as DMS can not control or change to enhance retention.

Very very rare is something that someone pissed off about, Iā€™d guess I see one every 60-90 days. Over a year ago, it was not uncommon to see some one bail and complain it was because they couldnā€™t get into Wood Shop basics. I donā€™t think Iā€™ve seen one of those 6+ months so that problem is gone. Good Wood Shop!!

One great thing that the folks working with Stan on metrics, is they will be able to see the change and average membership time. If I were guessing, vast majority is churn is around 6-9 months. After that Iā€™d guess after two year mark very low churn.

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Awesome, nothing like actual data! Is this the reason given in WHCMS or an exit interview/survey?

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Thanks Chris!

These are strictly customers, not members, and view DMS as just a cheap tool rental place. I think thatā€™s why some Spaces require an initial 3 month minimum when rejoining/re-joining. Have that here at DMS? I think if it were a single payment, would deter to many people. I do think having no commitment gets us more than we lose out with customers. People are willing to try and see - and we get longer term members. Maybe a ā€œre-join feeā€ might work better.

Only 6 out of 67 were Unhappy, Other, No Reason Given, so target is 9% of churn.

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The plan is to get a ā€œsquareā€ data set from the ā€œbeginning of timeā€ (Sept 2012 for our WHMCS) that shows every membership transition and date, including pricing, and hopefully historical data on each members RFID activity. We should be able to get all kinds of graphs and trends. My hope is to eventually have a set of graphs be generated daily and uploaded to some of the displays around the space. The graphs will show general data, individual member data will not be included in the output.

Things like transitions from monthly to yearly, or starving to monthly, etc., will not count as churn. Leaving for more than two weeks and coming back would count as churn. Family member addons create a very ā€œspecialā€ problem due to WHMCS being unsuitable for the way we do addons.

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Iā€™m not sure. I get an email on each cancellation request (so I can update the green dot, sigh). Since the words vary on each and every one, itā€™s clear that theyā€™re not selecting a multiple-choice response.

Suggestion: Give new members a financial incentive to continue.

At the Makerspace in Columbus, Ohio (The Idea Foundry) they charge new members $65 per month to join. Then, after the new member takes their 2 free Safety Training and Orientation classes they get a $5 reduction in monthly membership.

This does a few things for them:

  1. It is a financial incentive, the new member starts saving $5 per month.
  2. New members learn the process of signing up for classes.
  3. New Members learn to get involved.
  4. New members learn about personal safety.
  5. New members learn about every department.
  6. The training classes cover all basic safety features in every department.
  7. Eliminates each department from having their own unique safety training class.
  8. Even if they re-join, they are required to re-take the safety training classes again to get their $5 back. Perhaps an incentive to stay?
  9. . . . the list goes on.

If we are thinking about raising membership rates in January, this incentive could be used. Just add $5 to the cost of membership and let them earn their $5 back.

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There is a request on the cancellation form about why people are quitting.

I see the cancellation emails, in my inbox, and am pretty conscientious about reading the ā€œWhy I left.ā€

4 months ago there was lots of ā€œcannot get the class I want to do Xā€. Mostly around Wood Shop. Mark Salas and his team plugged that hole. Thank you. That is a rare complaint now. ā€œI am moving.ā€, ā€œI cannot afford it.ā€, ā€œQuitting for now.ā€, or ā€œFinished my project.ā€ are the most common reasons. So, there is very little retention opportunity.

Before I was elected to the BOD, I was concerned we were not reaching out to retain unhappy members. That is a rare opportunity. (There is very little to be said to retain them if they are moving away from the DFW area or are having financial constraints.)

Let me see if there is some way to get a list of cancellation reasons with dates. @StanSimmons

If I can, I will homogenize them into categories for a graph or two. The data is a free form field so people write whatever they want. The terminology is not off a dropdown list.

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We might could do something to help keep some of the project finished folkr

We would need to get they more involved somehow with the spae

That observation seems to be reinforced by the fact that most, if not all, of those ā€œrejoinā€ people did not have Talk IDā€™s. Not that a Talk ID is required, mind you, but it is one indicator of community involvement.

And before the firestorm starts - I acknowledge that itā€™s not the only indicator - itā€™s just one.

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I donā€™t see how this would be a good thing. You are still going to get people who join when they have a need for the space, but tacking on an additional charge to rejoin will turn some of those away. Do you truly think that more people will continue to pay for something they wonā€™t use for several months than those who will not rejoin because they are being charged a penalty fee for not staying members?

Right now if they cancel then rejoin after the 1/1 they are already going to pay $10 more a month. An additional fee would more incentive to just not rejoin.

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No. If one only joined to complete a project, and they havenā€™t gotten sucked into the general fabulousness during that project, they donā€™t see it as being worth $50/mo to them. They might be back when they think of something else to do. Theyā€™re just customers, and not part of our community.

Tell you what ā€“ we can let you talk to them. That should sort the chaff from the wheatā€¦

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I don t know if I would help suck them in or send themm away screaming !

Preciselyā€¦

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that still persists in a lot of other departments. But what can we do about that if that department only has 3-4 volunteers who are willing to teach a class? weā€™ve tried the ā€˜teach the teacherā€™ route which seems to last about a month then they are gone. the $50 honorarium doesnā€™t act as much as an incentive. I expect those few to burn out since there is no one else taking up the slack. and without backup weā€™ll continue to lose people because class X is not available to them.

Should we just remove the training required/safety requirements and just let the blood flow freely? showing someone how to use an easy/safe piece of equipment is easy. the dangerous one require specialized knowledge which while some may have the knowledge donā€™t want to teach since they didnā€™t join DMS to teach but to selfishly use the tool that class X generally shows.

What are some real suggestions? I really want to see us hold on to more people and grow some of my favorite departments.

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Actually, they could teach and use the honorarium towards membership dues. Thatā€™s a bit of retention opportunity and it would get them more involved in DMS.

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Unfortunately I believe that some people have quit teaching because they do all of the work and they donā€™t get paid if enough people fail to show up for a class. When they complain I have seen people tell them that ā€œhonorariums arenā€™t meant to help you pay your duesā€.

The wording should be ā€œhonorariums should not be relied on to pay your dues.ā€

If you have a class that members find valuable they will show up. Change up what you are doing, spread the word about what the class is about, and get your committee to help advertise it.

Raymond

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There are some teachers that are fed up w/ no-shows that donā€™t bother w/ the courtesy of cancelling in advance. They changed their class attendance to ā€œinstructor approvedā€.

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