How Trafford Leisure is improving the member journey through its partnership with DFC
Emma Thomas, Head of Development, Trafford Leisure
Major leisure operators Trafford Leisure have joined forces with DFC. Their goal? To simplify the digital journey for their members and standardise Direct Debits across the organisation.
The partnership is set to speed the online joining process up by an impressive eight-minutes. But they can also expect equally big benefits to in-house administration and customer service.
Who is Trafford Leisure?
Trafford Leisure manages the leisure facilities in the Trafford area on behalf of Trafford Council. They are a Community Interest Company (CIC), meaning their profits are reinvested into their facilities to benefit the wellbeing of their customers.
Since they began trading in 2015, Trafford Leisure has been a port of call for all those interested in indoor and outdoor activities like fitness, swimming, gymnastics and golf. With nine facilities over nearly 10 miles and 350 staff, Trafford Leisure attracts a wide demographic, from young adults to families and old age pensioners.
Joining forces
Twelve months ago, Trafford Leisure underwent a migration to Direct Debit for gymnastics, trampolining and swimming lessons. Since this move, Direct Debit has claimed responsibility for 60 per cent of Trafford Leisure’s total monthly income, leading the operators to outsource.
“We’d already looked at DFC three years earlier before continuing to manage this in-house. We chose to work with them at this point because they give us a really personable experience. Their values are really closely aligned to those of Trafford Leisure” - Emma Thomas, Head of Development, Trafford Leisure
Emma Thomas, head of development at Trafford Leisure, said: “Since moving our swimming lesson and gymnastics memberships across to Direct Debit, collections have almost doubled overnight so the time seemed right to think about contracting this resource out.
“We’d already looked at DFC three years earlier before continuing to manage this in-house. We chose to work with them because they give us a really personable experience. Their values are closely aligned to those of Trafford Leisure.”
Exciting plans ahead
Thomas continues: “Our primary goal is to speed up the buying time and improve the overall digital experience.
“Our previous online buying journey took 11-minutes from start to finish. Whereas DFC’s online joining portal, FastDD, takes just over three minutes.
“The process should become much more customer-friendly, with a number of additional communication avenues like My Payments and SMS in place as a way of reducing pain points”.
Trafford Leisure are also looking to clean up their cancellation process and reposition their membership offering for people considering leaving. They are now working with DFC partner, Leisure Net, to develop a cancellation portal.
Doing things differently
DFC is a leading revenue management solutions provider in the leisure industry. As Direct Debit experts, they take away all the hassle of collections for busy health and fitness organisations.
It’s their mission to help facilities improve customer relationships so that customers stay longer. They do this through a commitment to maximise income, streamline administration processes and reduce customer churn.
Find out more at: www.debitfinance.co.uk.