Let's Engage

Last week, we explored how to build a custom GPT for marketing—packed with ideas, content prompts, and strategy shortcuts. You can continue test our Marketing AI Assistant, click here and ask it any marketing question.

This week, we’re heading to the other side of the clubhouse: Membership.

What if you had an AI assistant that understood your member roster and could help you segment members, spot churn risk, flag upgrade candidates, and surface hidden patterns in member behavior?

You’re about to.

If you're tasked with managing member engagement, club sentiment, and targeting members for upsells, this will be helpful to you. In the next few weeks, I'll share a similar newsletter for Merchandising professionals.

If this isn't for you, I'd love it if you'd forward this newsletter to your Membership teammates.

And with that... Let's Grow Golf.

How to Get Started with Your Own Club Membership GPT

If you want to experiment with building your own custom GPT for your membership role, I've made it easy to use my test data first before you spend the time organizing your data.

Here's exactly what you need to do if you'd like to try building one on your own:

STEP 1: Download the Starter Files

I've built a sample dataset for an imaginary club (cleverly named Grow Golf Club) using my Grow Golf Data Checklist. You’ll use these files to practice and test a custom GPT before committing time to organizing your own club’s data.

📋 Download the Grow Golf Club Dataset
Use this spreadsheet as a guide to help you create a foundational club membership datasheet that you can update every month or quarter. I created a fictional—but realistic—membership database for a 450-member club. It includes:
- Event attendance
- Complaints
- Club App/Tech Usage
- Dining and pro shop spend
- Join dates and tenure
- Membership types and upgrade history
- Payment methods and late payment incidents
- Golf rounds, lessons, guest usage
👉 You can download the dataset here (Google Sheet, download as Excel/CSV)
📖 Download the Grow Golf Club Summary
This document includes member and club info (location, membership details, traditions). It helps GPT tailor responses like it "knows" your club like the name of official name of your dining room, the road that the club is on, or the types of trees that are prominent at your club. The more you can provide it, the more it can sprinkle the finder details into its responses.

👉 You can download the club summary here (Google Doc, download as Word/PDF)

STEP 2: Watch the Walkthrough Video

Once you've downloaded both files:

📹 Watch This Video Tutorial
I’ll show you step-by-step how to upload these files into ChatGPT, build your own GPT, and start using it for time-saving marketing tasks. Note: this is from last week's marketing walk-thru, but the same setup applies!

👉 Watch the walkthrough using OpenAI’s ChatGPT

STEP 3: Try It Yourself

💡Use the Files to Build Your GPT
Inside ChatGPT, selected "GPTs" from the left sidebar, and then select "Create GPT" in top right corner. Then watch my walk through! You'll follow some prompts and then upload your data and summary document. You'll see how GPT can answer questions, brainstorm ideas, or automate key membership analyses.
Private GPTs Require Subscription: To create a custom, private GPT (that doesn't allow Open AI to train off your data), it requires a subscription to ChatGPT ($20 a month). However, I think that once you view this tutorial, you'll quickly see the value and how you can save time to focus on the tasks you love most at your job.

Just Want To Use Mine?

If you’re not interested in building your own AI Membership Assistant but would still like to try one out and see how it works, you’re in luck! The Grow Golf Club GPT is currently available to the public. Feel free to ask it any questions—this is a great way to explore its features, whether you’re considering creating your own tool or recommending this one to your team. Click the button below and ask away!

Try Grow Golf Club's AI Membership Assistant

10 Prompts to Analyze and Act

Once you upload the files into ChatGPT or try the GPT I created, try these prompts:

1. Segment Your Members

“Segment Grow Golf Club members by tenure, activity level, and family involvement. Label each segment with a descriptive name and summarize their characteristics.”

2. Predict Churn Risk

“Analyze cancellation patterns and flag active members with similar traits who may be at risk of canceling within the next 12 months.”

3. Identify Upgrade Opportunities

“Which members with Social or Full memberships are good candidates for a Family upgrade based on guest usage and dining habits?”

4. Optimize Event Attendance

“What factors correlate most strongly with event attendance? Which segments are most and least engaged?”

5. Understand Pro Shop Spend

“Identify the top 20% of pro shop spenders. What traits do they share, and how can we encourage more members to shop like them?”

6. Boost Dining Engagement

“Analyze how dining days and family size relate to total dining spend. Suggest ideas to increase F&B revenue.”

7. Address Complaints Proactively

“Summarize common complaint topics and which member types are most likely to report them. Suggest proactive solutions.”

8. Reduce Late Payments

“Which payment methods are most associated with late payments? Recommend billing changes to improve on-time payments.”

9. Design Family Programming

“Which members have young families, and what facilities or activities do they use most? Recommend family-friendly additions, activities, or events I can host.”

10. Promote Digital Adoption

“Compare app users to non-users. What incentives could increase digital platform usage among less-engaged members?”

Conclusion

With the right data and a few smart prompts, you can turn routine member records into powerful insights that drive engagement, retention, and revenue. Whether you're trying to identify at-risk members, optimize programming, or better understand your club's diverse member base—tools like this can give you a major head start.

If you have questions, ideas, or want help building a Membership GPT for your club, feel free to reply to this email or reach out directly. I'd love to hear from you and help bring your data (and insights!) to life.

Thanks for reading,