THEIR STORY

On January 21, 2021, we had the opportunity to speak to Sheryl Egan-Olaivar who operates and manages The Energy Club beside her husband Frank. The Energy Club is located in Long Beach, Mississippi and has been in operation for 30 years since 1989. The Energy Club has been through very turbulent times from Hurricane Katrina as Sherly explained. “Business has survived hurricane Katrina, Mississippi oil spills, 911, and the stock market crisis.” Sheryl and her team’s experience over the years has given her organization the chance to try out many strategies and products. Jonas Messaging proved to be a pivotal tool for them because although they are not the biggest organization, the integration brought qualities to their workflow that allowed them to scale.

DATA INTEGRITY AND ACCURACY WITH THE INTEGRATION

The Energy Club has been using Jonas Fitness software for their member management data hub. She told us that when she found out that they were offering an integrated text messaging solution she was really willing to give it a try because the tool she was using currently was too much for her and her team to manage. She told us, “I did have previous experience with another platform that had email and text to contact our members that we were using right when the pandemic started. The way that the platform worked was similar, but the issue was that it did not update every 24 hours.” The Energy Club eliminated two issues with the implementation. The first was managing the data integrity. Being in business for over 30 years and collecting data can be a bit tricky because as she told us, “If you think about it 31 years ago we didn’t have cell phones.” The second was keeping that data streamlined for accurate communication. The integration helped the Energy Club clean up a lot of data that was not usable such as landlines that were associated with member profiles.

GROWING THEIR MEMBERSHIP BASE

The integration’s support on retention and data integrity would eventually amount to momentum in their sales initiatives by boosting profitability. Sheryl and her team are definitely well versed with campaign strategy and the Jonas Messaging integration supplemented that evidently. The Energy Club hosted an open house referral campaign to bring the community together safely and let them know about updates that they have invested in their club. She told us, “Since we have been here so long, every year we renovate, update and add new things so some people who have been members 10 – 15 years ago, they have not seen the new layout and features.” They had a lot of opportunities that existed in their current membership database. Even though the effects of COVID have really changed consumer sentiment towards the club experience, she talked about how she used her text marketing strategy to explain their control measures and also offer a promotional incentive. The turnout was greater than she expected and told us, “We had 9-10 enrollments alone from one event and more membership sales in January than we have had in previous years!” The Jonas Messaging integration not only helped The Energy Club achieve its social targets for engagement but also surpass their growth target for enrollment and sales.