A membership survey is one of the most effective ways to check on the satisfaction levels of your valued guests and ensure that your leisure and attractions business is constantly delivering an incredible experience.
Think of it as a real-time early indicator of any issues that need to be addressed to optimize your venue’s potential.
Insightful and timely feedback from your members (that is, your venue’s VIPs) is important to gauge, meet, and exceed your guests’ expectations.
The information gained can be utilized to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your business where it matters most and help pre-empt and even prevent an increase in complaints making it on public review sites before you’ve had a chance to act and a decline in guest numbers.
It’s important to know that all survey questions should lead to responses that lead to actionable insights, can assist your business in making informed decisions, and then increase guest satisfaction.
Read this next: 5 Ideas To Drive Memberships (Plus Best Practices)
Top 7 questions to ask in your membership survey
1. What is your favorite attraction?
This is a great way to get a snapshot of what’s popular at your venue, what’s working, and what’s not. The answers to this question could justify an increase in spending when looking to expand and where to cut back when restructuring.
2. How satisfied overall are you with our service?
Members delight in having their voices heard, and asking for feedback on your attraction’s service will provide valuable insight.
This question gets straight to the heart of the matter, and when conducting a membership survey, if you ask a direct question, you must be prepared for a direct response.
After all, the guest experience begins with buying a ticket and doesn’t always finish when the admission duration is up.
A guest’s interaction with a staff member may have been a highlight of their day, or on the other hand, a less than satisfactory service level could affect repeat business. Either way, you need to be aware of it.
3. How do you rate our facilities?
Another way of asking this question is: “Are your needs being met while attending our venue?”
A great guest experience can be enhanced by meeting expectations and exceeding them. Getting feedback on a leaky restroom, a broken air conditioner, or a poorly repaired attraction can be the difference between an increase in return visitation to your venue or not.
Guests' expectations are changing post-pandemic, and a speedy response to a maintenance problem shows your business is listening, understanding, and vigilant of the customers' opinions.
Read this next: How To Create An Effective Member Journey Map
4. Do we provide good value for money?
There are many methods for a business to calculate value-for-money when figuring out whether money has been well spent, including return on investment and financial results.
However, to a guest of your venue, the answer more often than not comes down to a ‘feeling’ or an ‘overall impression’ of value. That is, did the upfront cost of the ticket justify the perceived and real benefits?
Did your guests have an experience that was unique, joyful, and affordable? The answers to this question help maintain your venue’s optimal pricing strategy. The last thing you want is for your venue to be considered overpriced!
5. How do you rate the safety and cleanliness of our venue?
Providing a clean and safe venue is one of the key responsibilities of maintaining a successful leisure and attractions business.
These two factors to guests can indicate the overall state of your business and how well it's being run. Guests must feel at all times that they are being taken care of and there is no danger.
Covid-19 has had a real effect on the minimum safety expectations of guests (social distancing etc.), and your venue could reap the benefits of ensuring your guests feel protected.
A clean venue is a ‘must have’ and goes a long way to show you care.
Are the bathrooms fully stocked? Are your staff professionally presented? Are the floors clean? Is every attraction in tip-top condition?
Answers to this question can help manage maintenance schedules and improve efficiency. How your venue is perceived can influence word-of-mouth recommendations and affect guest attendance.
6. Could we have done something better?
Asking your guests an open-ended question such as this is a great way to gather negative and positive feedback. And all communication that enhances your guests’ experience is productive.
While analyzing the responses can be time-consuming, the insights can deliver effective change when striving to improve your guests’ experience.
Customer suggestions can be utilized when considering adding new attractions, maintaining and renovating current sites, and acquiring new ones. And it’s important that all feedback is considered to provide the best guest experience.
7. Would you recommend us to your friends?
This question effectively measures your guests’ satisfaction and can also indicate customer loyalty.
An indication to recommend your venue suggests your guests were happy with their experience and want their friends and family to share in a similar experience.
Word-of-mouth advocacy can also reinforce membership benefits while helping reduce customer churn rates.
Read this next: 5 Ways To Improve Your Member Experience At Little To No Cost
Why membership programs can help your business grow
For your venue, the positives of a well-running memberships program include a regular revenue stream, strong word-of-mouth endorsement, and solid community relationships.
Very importantly, your guests acknowledge the value of membership by visiting your attraction site repeatedly. It’s a mutually beneficial bond and one that’s worth nurturing, preserving, and, ultimately, saving.
A membership survey should be a regular part of your check-in with your membership base. It is a direct way of learning, first-hand, what is working and what is not at your leisure and entertainment venue.
Once you’ve decided on the questions that will provide your business with the greatest insight on enhancing the guest experience, some guard rails will help get the best result.
Memberships survey best practices
Have a clear goal
What do you want to learn? Are you looking to identify new opportunities? Are you looking for specific feedback on a particular attraction? Are you ready to implement the data when it's received?
Value your guests’ time
Your survey should be simple to understand, easy to execute, with a reason for conducting the survey and a thank-you for participating. Everyone’s time is precious, so it’s a great tip to acknowledge your guests' input.
Have a limited number of questions
The right questions framed in the right way should provide your business with actionable answers while maintaining and increasing member engagement.
And when you get fantastic feedback from your members, promote it! Share the great comments and results on your website and social media sites, or write a blog or targeted email to your guest base. There’s nothing quite like membership endorsement to leverage new participation. To learn more about collecting guest feedback more easily than ever before, check out the Guest Experience Score.
