Every year members are asked to complete a Club Survey, giving all our adult and junior members the opportunity to let the Club Committee know what they like about the club and areas we could improve.

In 2023, 117 members responded (about 30% of our membership at that date).

Below are the key conclusions and key findings. In addition, members made comments and ideas on how we could further improve the club. These will be followed up with the relevant committee member and we’ll update you through the newsletters.

Key conclusions  

  • Overall appreciation for the club has increased further, off an already high base from last year. This appreciation is also reflected in the likelihood to renew, which is at an all-time high. And members are more willing than ever to help run events. The key reasons that members quote for liking the club, continue to be the friendly atmosphere, the great coaching staff & program, and the quality of the facilities
  • Even though we have made some headway in helping members find people to play at a similar level, this is still the biggest challenge members have.
  • Singles tennis is very popular
  • Our appeal to women is going from strength to strength, with a huge perceived improvement in our women’s offering, for the second year running
  • Availability of courts, coaching sessions, and organised opportunities to play have all improved to a satisfactory level
  • Our Communication is rated excellent, mostly because of the club newsletters, but the Whatsapp groups are also very widely used
  • Members have been very supportive of the club with their suggestions and offers to help – we received an incredible 75 offers to help the club at events throughout the year. Thank you.

Key findings

Finding Enough Opportunities to Play

  • Ease of finding a court was rated 7.5/10 and access to coaching sessions 7.6/10, both up from 7.0 last year.
  • The club seems to be putting in the right effort to create opportunities for social and competitive tennis. 61% of respondents says the amount that the club organises “is just right”, while just 23% would like more. No one wants less, and 16% is not interested in organised play.
  • Demand for court time is very evenly spread through the week and through the day, with only a 5% point difference between the most popular and the least popular time slots.
  • Even though we have improved, the club’s lowest score continue to be ‘ease of finding someone to play at a similar level’. Our rating went up from 6.3 last year to 6.8/10 this year. This improvement was driven by the Men, Juniors and First Timer categories. Men actually rated us 7.1/10, potentially driven by the Ladder competition and the higher numbers of men than women taking part in this. Women, Juniors and FT’s all scored us on average 6.4/10.

Type of tennis 

  • Doubles (same gender) is the most popular tennis at our club, with 70% of respondents saying they like to play it.
  • Next most popular is Singles, which is enjoyed by 55% of respondents, even though the club only organises hardly any singles events.  Mixed Doubles are least popular, but still enjoyed by 45% of female and 40% of male respondents. Coaching is enjoyed by 50%.

Coaching

  • Respondents have made many positive comments about the coaching staff and programme.
  • 50% of respondents use the coaches, but this is heavily skewed towards Juniors (84%)
  • 56% of the respondents feel that access to group coaching is just right, but 22% would like more sessions, especially at the beginner/improver level

Women’s Tennis

  • One third of our members are female, and a whopping 39/40 women feel that we have improved the tennis experience for women in the past year.
  • The most popular thing we can do for Women according to the 40 female respondents, is to organise female tennis-related fitness sessions like Cardio tennis, Tuesday Tennis Coffee, Zumba Tennis etc. This got 21/40 mentions.

Club Communications

  • Respondents gave us a rating of 8.4/10 in terms of being well informed, up from 7.9 last year.
  • Almost everyone (97%) feels the amount of communication is just right, and the vast majority (89%) uses the club emails as their main source of information.
  • Whatasapp has shot up from being used by just 4% of respondents in 2021, to 52% in 2022 … including all First Timers!
  • The club website, coaches and notice boards are consulted by 20-25% of the respondents.

Facilities

  • In spite of the limited space we have, our facilities are highly rated with a score of 4.1/5, and the nice facilities are often mentioned as a reason why people like the Club.
  • There is strong support (4.1/5) for our development plans next to courts 4 and 1.
  • The most mentioned spontaneous comment is about the desire for a ball machine or hitting wall (10).

Happy to renew

  • Overall, in 2022 members have been even happier than in 2021 or 2020, with the average rating of ‘happy with the club’ increasing to 8.6, from 8.3 in the previous years. This happiness is reflected in the likelihood to renew, which has gone up to 9.2/10, compared to 8.9 in previous years. These ratings are consistent across all subgroubs; Women, First Timers, and Juniors.
  • Only 2 respondents were unlikely to renew for personal reasons, even though they were very happy with the club.
  • The main reasons for liking the club still evolve around our friendly atmosphere, great coaching, and nice facilities.