As we come to the end of the year, this is the time when everyone tends to get a little bit thoughtful and reflective…

Looking back on what's been achieved over the past 12 months and planning for the coming year.

For more established membership owners the year ahead might be fully mapped out so they know what to expect.

But for those new to the membership world, what lies ahead is largely unknown…

And a little bit scary! 

While we don't have a crystal ball to tell you exactly what's going to happen over the next 12 months…

We can try our best to prepare you for some of the things you're likely to discover in your first year of running a membership site.

So if you've recently become a membership owner or are about to launch your website, read on…

Good customer service is paramount

Nothing ever goes 100% smoothly…

That’s just life… 

The key is how you deal with things when issues do arise.

If you drop the ball on something, how do you make up for that?

If a member is unhappy with your membership, how can you correct that?

Most things can be salvaged with good management…

And possibly a glass or barrel of wine.

The main thing is to handle customer service as efficiently as possible…

If in doubt when it comes to addressing any issues with customer service, think about what you would want to happen if roles were reversed…

If you were in the customer's shoes.

Good customer service can be the difference between losing a member and burning your bridges, and leaving someone with a positive impression who is likely to recommend you to others.

Hopefully this will be you and many of your members…

But this is something that is essentially a trial by fire…

You only really hone your customer service skills once your membership is up and running…

And once you start to see the plethora of different questions, queries and problems that may arise.

Proper onboarding makes everything easier

It’s no secret that we're big advocates for fantastic member onboarding…

Not only does it make everything easier, but it’s one of the best ways to help your members to make the most of your membership…

And avoid issues such as overwhelm in the initial days, weeks and months of them being part of your community.

When you have a good onboarding process in place, your members are happier, your engagement increases, retention improves…

And you have far less customer service issues to deal with.

That’s pretty much a win for everyone!

It can take a little time to refine your onboarding process, to get it working well when you first start your membership…

But continuing to make tweaks to it, especially as your membership evolves, is definitely time well spent.

Making money while you sleep never gets old

I’m not going to lie…

Waking up to notifications of new members joining our site or payment of money received while we've been sleeping is one of my favourite things.

It’s something that even after years of managing Membership Academy, we still truly appreciate…

Especially after spending so long in our businesses having to chase customer invoices to get paid  for client services. 

Whilst money shouldn’t be the sole reason you create a membership site, we can't deny that recurring revenue is one of the best things about this business model.

And even though running a membership site can be hard work…

The freedom, the flexibility and the fulfilment that typically comes from recurring revenue and making money while you sleep…

Which (if you do things right) will generally increase month after month, can really can make a huge difference to your life…

And your stress levels!

The novelty of waking up to those Paypal notifications never gets old.

You can’t please everybody

This is something you'll probably learn early on in your membership journey…

No matter how good your membership site is, there will always be someone who isn’t a fan or who doesn’t see the value in what you’re offering.

And that hurts.

It can also make you doubt yourself and your membership.

But the sooner you realise that you can’t please everybody, and your membership won’t be the right fit for everyone, the better your life as a membership owner will be.

You can't please everyone…

If you have 99 happy members who love what you’re doing, but have 1 unhappy member, you need to learn to focus on the 99 – those guys aren’t all wrong!

If negative feedback is valid then obviously do what you can to fix the situation…

But otherwise listen to those who are getting value and enjoying your membership.

In other words, don't obsess over that one person that you can't please!

Similarly, one of the most important lessons you can learn is to not take cancellations personally…

Or even to view them as an inherently bad thing!

People cancel for a number of reasons and can still return later or recommend your site to others.

Cancellation is NOT condemnation and it doesn't necessarily mean that they're unhappy…

But even if that is the case, remember you can't please everyone.

You’re probably making a bigger difference than you realise

Something that may come as a surprise as your membership site grows is that you'll get to a place where you won’t know all of your members anymore…

In fact, you won't know the majority of them!

While it’s easy to focus on the members in your community that are vocal, you will find that there will be a large proportion of members who join but quietly consume your content and never actively engage with you.

That's just par for the course…

You might never hear from them or even forget they exist…

That is until the day they send you an email telling you how much your membership has changed their life, or made their business easier…

And how they are so happy they found you.

We can forget quite how many people we’re impacting with our membership.

Don’t take someone’s silence as a sign that they aren’t getting value from what you’re offering...

You're probably making a much bigger difference than you realize… 

And watching your members get results is even better than getting them yourself.

So if you're new to life as a membership owner, you have all of this to look forward to…

But even if you've been running your membership for a while, hopefully this is striking a chord with you…

Maybe it's given you some renewed appreciation for all of the wonderful things that this world of memberships enables us to enjoy.

The points outlined above are definitely things you only really learn once your membership is up and running…

When you get those first members through your door and start managing your site day-to-day…

And when this time comes, you'll learn these lessons very quickly.

Thank You For Listening

We really appreciate you chosing to listen to us and for supporting the podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

We would also be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show in iTunes. They're extremely helpful when it comes to reaching our audience and we read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes to make sure that you never miss an episode