Gregg Patterson: Feeding The Hungry

By Gregg Patterson  – Founder and President at Tribal Magic!!!

The Hunger

The Virus is with us.

People are hurting.  They’re scared.  Lonely.  Uncertain about the future…  And money’s tight.   

People are HUNGRY for the warm embrace.

They’re HUNGRY for a community of caring.

And CLUB is the meal that’s needed to feed The Hunger.

The Hungry

My wife and I were experiencing The Hunger Easter Sunday.  We knew we needed a big slice of CLUB.

So we ordered a To-Go dinner from The Club and drove to the coast for a pick-up mid-afternoon.  While turning left into the parking lot, we saw CLUB in action—and felt The Love.  The Manager, Assistant Manager and ALL the supervisors were there in the parking lot, waving and “smiling” through safety masks.  We were greeted enthusiastically with laughter, a personalized “Hello” and an animated pointing-out of the pick up location.  We jumped out of the car, keeping our “social distance”, smiling and joking and debriefing The Virus Madness with The Team.  The food was delivered pronto, bagged and warm.  But we lingered.  Hungering for connection.   Reluctantly we got in the car, tooted the horn, waved goodbye and exited, feeling nourished by The Pick-Up Experience.

We ate dinner that evening, glowing.  The food was good but we both agreed that it was The People who made the dinner both “flavorful” and memorable. The small gestures—the wave from the parking lot, the smiling hello from the team, the obvious joy in our visit—told us we’re known, liked, missed and cared for.   We experienced CLUB and CLUB fed us twice.

Food for the Famished

The Virus has provided managers, owners and staff an opportunity to emphasize the Strategic WHY of clubdom—that clubs exist to create relationships and community by delivering the goods, services, facilities, programs, experiences and PEOPLE needed to create relationships and community.  Post Virus, people will need—more than ever—people who CARE about them as people, who envelop them with an emotional embrace.

And CLUB done right will satisfy The Hunger.

The Corona Crisis is the perfect time for Managers, Boards and Owners to “shout out” that CLUB trumps clubhouse, people trump stuff, emotions trumps things, Eye-to-Eye trumps Screen-to-Screen and The Community of Caring trumps carpeting and woodwork.

Putting CLUB into clubhouse is the Strategic Why of clubdom—now and into the future.

Flavoring “The Stuff”

Social KPIs—the Social Key Performance Indicators, the measurable social metrics that create an emotional memory between people—matter now more than ever.  They’re not expensive.  They’re not big and dramatic.  But they have a powerful impact on loyalty, commitment and usage patterns because they tell people who you are and what the relationship means to them.

A club’s Social Key Performance Indicators are front-and-center whenever a member, guest or employee visits the club.   Social experiences are quantifiable—they can be counted and the emotional content measured.  A personal greeting.  A comment on something you love, have done or have recently experienced.  A quick response to a phone call or email.  A note to a sick member.  A hospital visit. A basket of food delivered by the chef.  Attendance at a member funeral.   A thank-you for attending an online demonstration.   These “flavorings” make the visit memorable.

Social KPIs are the “flavoring” of experience.  They tell people “we KNOW you, you’re IMPORTANT, you’re VALUABLE, we CARE for you and we will CONNECT you to The Tribe.”

And members, guests and staff will use these Measurable Metrics to evaluate The Club experience to determine if they join, stay, use and linger.

Food Done Right

Clubs that emphasize the social side of the club experience—that make Social KPIs a priority before, during and after reopening—will flourish.

Post Virus, the creative delivery of this “warm embrace” will matter more than ever.  Clubs that emphasize CLUB will provide a behavioral guarantee for every visit.  “We’ll do things that’ll make you feel GOOD.  We’ll welcome you, appreciate you and embrace you.  We’ll know your name. We’ll know your family. We’ll know what you do.  We’ll know what you love. We’ll help you escape the madness with goods, services, facilities and people that are right for YOU and your needs, wants and expectations. We’ll connect you with people to look at, listen to and talk to.  We’ll help you connect with others who’ve experienced The Madness and want to share their stories and give you their insights.   If you’re down, we’ll bring you UP.  If you’re feeling good, we’ll make you feel better.  We’ll give you reasons to linger longer, to connect more and to feel The Warm Embrace.  We’ll never forget why you’re hungry for CLUB—and we WILL deliver the people and the stuff needed to satisfy the hunger!”

There are hundreds of Social KPIs to flavor every member-member, staff-member and staff-staff encounter.  Finding the right ones for your members, your team and your club is the key to an enlarged and enriched club experience.

Renew and Recharge

Post Virus people will be HUNGRY for CLUB.  And clubs that do CLUB right with the right set of Social KPIs—will flourish.

The Virus Madness is an opportunity for clubs to reaffirm that caring matters—lots.  That relationships matter—lots.  And that lots done right will fill their Social Big Empty.

Clubs that deliver The Warm Embrace, that satisfy the emotional side of the club experience, that deliver lots of Social KPIs will attract and retain members, guests, and staff.

And clubs that do CLUB right and feed The Hunger—Post Virus—will flourish!

So be positive, be strategic, be creative, and………enjoy the journey!!!