A quick story to illustrate: Several years ago I got a call from an irate client who was very perturbed that one of our trainers remarked to him that his Controller probably only understood 40% of what the system does. He was very upset and pointed out that my company had trained this person. His point being that we must have done a poor job if she understands so little about the system.

In researching this particular club, the club had never invested one dollar in training since they installed the system more than 5 years previous! Additionally, as far as my records indicate, the club staff had not taken advantage of any of the free training and inexpensive user groups offered either.

During this time period, there had been 5 major new releases of the software incorporating thousands of enhancements. Taking this into consideration, it is a wonder the Controller understood as much as she did.

The moral of the story is we reap what we sow. The more we invest in knowing how our software can work for our clubs and how to use it, the more we can leverage it to help us. Investing in ongoing training in the club’s technology has a very high return on investment.

Excellent article! Many clubs can learn from this article, with your recommendations on the continual process of improvement. In particular during these difficult economic times, clubs all over the country need to practice what this article addresses.

Again, well written article,
Don
Don E. Vance, CCM