EmpathiQ helps clubs connect employee and member feedback to identify practical opportunities for improvement and growth.
Clubs across NSW are operating in an environment of rising costs, workforce pressure and member expectations that continue to evolve. Leaders are also being asked to improve service, retain good staff, increase visitation and manage operating costs without adding significant new resources.
Most clubs already have access to valuable information through member feedback, employee surveys and operational data. The difficulty is that these sources are often considered separately. A member satisfaction score may identify that something is wrong, while an employee survey may reveal a workforce concern, but the connection between the two can easily be missed.
The challenge is that the cause of an operational problem is not always obvious. A decline in member satisfaction in a bar, bistro or gaming area may appear to be a product or venue issue, when the real cause is something quite different — staffing levels, training, communication, recognition, management visibility or the way a process has been designed.
That is where connecting employee and member feedback becomes particularly valuable.
In one recent club analysis, for example, employee advocacy in the gaming area was significantly negative, with an employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) of -45.5. Member advocacy for the same area was also negative, with an NPS of -16.7. In contrast, the bar and beverage area recorded positive employee and member advocacy scores of +25.0 and +28.6 respectively.
The value of these figures is not simply in the scores themselves. Looking at employee and member experience together helps club leaders identify where an issue may be operational, where it may be affecting the customer experience, and where management attention is most likely to produce a measurable result.
EmpathiQ, a new ClubsNSW Corporate Partner, has been developed to help clubs make these connections. Rather than operating as a simple customer or employee survey tool, EmpathiQ links employee satisfaction to customer satisfaction and, ultimately, to revenue and profitability.
It combines employee and member insight with a club-specific intelligence library of observations, actions, benchmarking and recommendations. The aim is to move beyond reporting what people think and provide management with a practical roadmap for what to do next.
That roadmap can include immediate easy wins, low-cost operational improvements, medium-term priorities and longer-term strategic opportunities. Importantly, the first response to a problem does not always need to be major capital expenditure. Quite often the strongest return can come from relatively simple changes to communication, training, recognition, service processes or management practices.
This approach can also help identify avoidable costs. Poor employee engagement can contribute to turnover, absenteeism, recruitment and onboarding costs, while inconsistent service can affect member satisfaction, visitation and spend. By looking at these areas together, clubs can better prioritise the changes most likely to improve overall financial performance.
For club leaders, three useful questions to consider are:
- Do we know which employee issues are having the greatest impact on the member experience?
- Are we collecting member feedback in a way that helps us identify the operational causes behind the scores?
- When an issue is identified, do we have a clear process for deciding which actions will deliver the strongest return for the least cost and effort?
EmpathiQ is designed to help clubs answer those questions and turn feedback into practical action.
To learn more, club leaders can visit the EmpathiQ information page and complete the form to arrange an introductory discussion about how EmpathiQ could support their club.
