In the past several years, and at an exponential rate in 2020, more zoos and aquariums have decided to revamp and reinvigorate their membership programs by launching Digital Membership initiatives. What accounts for this growing trend of digital membership at zoos and aquariums?
To begin with, members are one of the most valuable assets for zoos and aquariums. Recent research has illuminated just how indispensable they are. Members are often the biggest advocates of zoos and aquariums, reporting significantly higher satisfaction rates than the average visitor. Additionally, the ten-year value of the average member is 4.5x greater than the average visitor.
Simultaneously, traditional membership processes have become increasingly time-consuming and daunting, taking time and resources away from strategic work like member retention, acquisition, and engagement, as well as other operational costs and animal care.
Producing and mailing physical membership cards and welcome packets, whether in-house or with an outside vendor, can be costly and slow. In the era of COVID-19, budget cuts and layoffs have exacerbated these challenges.
By June 2020, major institutions like the National Aquarium had already lost more than $8 million and furloughed one-third of its staff. According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, many organizations were forced to do the same, and “they are hemorrhaging money even as some partially reopen.” As a result, small teams of membership and development professionals are shouldering ever-increasing workloads and are tasked to do more with less.
In short, membership remains deeply important for zoos and aquariums, but oftentimes it relies on tedious processes that have become untenable for many institutions. Beyond that, consumers have adopted digital conveniences and contactless technology at astonishing rates in the past year, creating demand for these services in every aspect of their lives.
In response, zoos and aquariums nation-wide have chosen to launch Digital Membership Card initiatives with Cuseum. Just who has gone digital in recent years?
Check out a sample of the zoos and aquariums across the country that have launched Digital Membership Cards with Cuseum since 2019:
Why have so many zoos and aquariums chosen to go digital? Digital Membership Cards offer a host of benefits to these institutions and their members.
Streamline Membership Card Fulfillment. Membership fulfillment has historically been a highly manual and tedious process, relying on physical mailings and producing paper/plastic cards. To solve these problems, digital membership cards offer a no-print solution that drastically reduces the time and resources required to serve membership cards, streamlining the fulfillment process. Members can receive their card and membership information in record time. This is more important than ever in today’s “work from home” era, which has given rise to delays and interruptions performing membership processes that have traditionally been completed onsite.
Save Time & Money. Membership fulfillment typically requires significant staff time and resources, which is becoming less feasible amidst budgetary constraints and staff cuts. Additionally, membership professionals are increasingly being tasked to do more with less. Making the transition to Digital Membership Cards not only saves time, but also a number of avoidable costs like production, postage, staff labor, and printing. Going digital allows zoos and aquariums to devote limited funds and labor towards more strategic initiatives, like membership retention and engagement strategies. Pro tip: Check out Cuseum’s ROI Calculator to see how much you could save!
Save the Environment. Zoos and aquariums have been at the forefront of leading conservation initiatives and saving endangered species. Most are actively committed to these values in their mission statements. Switching to digital can save valuable paper and plastic resources and help zoos and aquariums further affirm their dedication to the environment by going green with membership. This type of green initiative also resonates deeply with members.
Drive Renewals. In a December 2020 survey of over 200 membership professionals in the cultural space, over 57% cited “decline in membership renewals” as a top challenge they’ve faced in 2020. With Digital Membership Cards in place, zoos and aquariums can combat the decrease in renewals by delivering push notification renewal reminders straight to their members’ mobile devices.
Drive Engagement. In 2020, on-site attendance numbers at zoos and aquariums decreased drastically due to lockdowns, travel restrictions, capacity limitations, and heightened risks associated with visiting. Even before the pandemic, most cultural organizations were doing the same or even worse in terms of onsite attendance than they were ten years ago. Digital Membership Cards can serve to remind members of their benefits, virtual offerings, special discounts, new exhibitions, and more through on-demand push notifications, and “back-of-card” text. This can drive member engagement on and offsite!
Enable New Conveniences, Like Contactless Entry
With Digital Membership Cards, members will never forget their card and it will automatically pop-up when they’re near your location. Digital cards also offer members a convenient and contactless way to enjoy the zoo. To enter touch-free, members can present their mobile phone at admissions and staff can easily scan their membership barcode as they enter. This enables a contactless experience, limiting unnecessary exchanges.
Zoos and aquariums are facing a number of unique and pressing challenges as they strive to improve their membership programs. For these institutions, visitors and members are vital to generating revenue. But while visitor counts have declined due to COVID-19, their costs have remained high due to the maintenance of their animals. For example, at the Denver Zoo it costs $1 million per month just to care for their 3,000 animals.
During these challenging times, Digital Membership Cards powered by Cuseum help solve many of the pain points that these organizations experience around membership card fulfillment, saving time and money, driving renewals and engagement, and offering new conveniences.
By the end of 2020, countless major zoos and aquariums had already made the switch to digital. From what we observe, this pattern is only accelerating in the years ahead - 2021 is the time to make the move!