Looking for innovative ways to entice prospective members to come through their doors, Ridge Pickleball Club (Ridge Club), located in Acton, Massachusetts, offers trial passes for those interested in potentially joining the club. They hope these passes are a useful tool to encourage local pickleball players to come and get to know the identity of the club in an engaging and personalized manner.
Situated within the Quail Ridge Country Club, Ridge Club is a members-only club featuring 11 dedicated pickleball courts, two of which are stadium-courts. They opened in June 2022 and already had 500 members by the end of the year. The facility also has both indoor and outdoor lounge areas, a pro shop, and other amenities including food and beverage service. Because the club is housed within the local country club, pickleball members are able to add additional activities, such as golf and use of the gym, a la carte.
The initial impetus to offer trial passes was their desire to grow their membership base. As such, they began by hosting monthly trial nights at the club. These consisted of a 1.5 hour event, during which prospective members could take a tour of the facility and learn the basic rules of the game. From there, the staff would work to convert those participants to members. While this system initially worked and they were able to garner significant enrollments from the trial nights, they soon found that their local pickleball community was more diverse than they originally realized and they needed to find a way to account for the variations within their prospective member base.
Ridge Club’s solution was to offer two different types of trial passes–one for novice players who have never played before and one for more experienced players. When a prospective member completes the online form requesting a trial pass, it triggers a Ridge Club coordinator to connect with the individual and provide them with additional information on the trial pass. For those who have never played pickleball before, they are able to attend a “weekly 1.5 hour learn-to-play” trial, while prospective members who are familiar with the game can use their trial pass to attend an open play session, says Kevin Curley, owner of Ridge Club. When they began segregating prospective members based on skill level to enhance their experience with the trial pass, they “found [they] had a huge influx of younger, more athletic players coming in, [which]… changed things for [them].” Always looking to improve on the way they do things, Ridge Club began to offer self-rated and DUPR rated open play to further ensure prospective members have the opportunity to experience play at the club within their skill level. Further, they started offering DUPR events for local players to attend and get their DUPR rating, making it easier for trial pass holders to gauge what open play session to attend. Starting out in the pickleball world himself, Curley notes that “pickleball is so new that [they are] doing a lot of things [they] did in the tennis world” to help grow the sport.
Ridge Club’s trial pass offers prospective members a unique opportunity to get a taste of the club’s identity through a hands-on experience. “The beauty of a trial pass if you are new to the game is you are going to meet with [their] coordinator who runs learn-to play,” highlights Curley. Because these players are complete novices, the coordinators understand they will be the person who introduces the sport to the trial pass holder as well as giving them a tour of the facility. For those with experience, they are able to learn what Ridge Club’s open play feels like, the rhythm of their rotations, and other things that can only be learned via a first hand experience with the club.
As a coordinator at Ridge Club, you would be running the trial pass experiences. Additionally, coordinators help organize and promote club events, clinics, and other programs. Curley looks for those with a background in hospitality who are experienced in working with others as potential good candidates for coordinators. For this position, the training can be a bit more rigorous as they are responsible for prospective members’ first impressions of the club.
Ridge Club’s target audience for the trial pass is “always in a state of flux” as their community’s demographic are wide ranging and ever changing. One day they could have a high school tennis player looking to join the club to get experience with pickleball and the next day it could be grandparents looking for ways to stay active as they age. This is one of the reasons Curley found, through trial and error, it crucial to have a variety of options for open play and learn-to play sessions for the different types of people signing up for the trial passes. From Curley’s perspective, Ridge Club converts trial pass holders to members exceptionally well as “most of [their] leads via trial passes [are] convert[ed]” to members who will get to experience the full benefits the club has to offer.
Trial passes offer significant benefits to not only prospective members, but also the club itself. “In order for the game to be successful, you need people,” says Curley. The offer of a trial pass experience invites more people into Ridge Club without the concerns of long term commitment. As a members-only club, Ridge Club aims to be as intentional with their programming as possible in order to cultivate the best experience for members possible. This messaging is important for Ridge Club coordinators to communicate during a trial pass experience with a prospective member in order to help them understand the personality and values of the club. Through the trial pass, Ridge Club is able to increase their membership base and offer local players the opportunity to get a peak behind the curtain and share their identity.
