Grady Hinchman is the franchisee of ATP Florida, a five-park franchise group at Altitude Trampoline Parks. After transitioning from a career in professional sports to the fitness industry, Grady quickly rose through the ranks at Planet Fitness before seizing the opportunity to invest with Altitude after seeing the high returns operators were experiencing in the family entertainment industry. Today, his parks in Florida are known for their strong membership base, and the success of this membership-focused sales model, supported by ROLLER, has enabled him to open four parks in four years.

The path to building a strong membership base

Grady’s experience at Planet Fitness, renowned for its successful membership model, inspired his innovative approach at his Altitude Parks. Grady knew that developing a loyal base of members from the outset was critical to sustainable revenue growth. “The recurring revenue model is very attractive for so many reasons. We put it in place, and it took off like crazy,” he says.

Grady’s strategy focused on creating a compelling membership offering that could attract and retain customers, driving long-term revenue. So how has ATP Florida achieved such impressive growth in such a short time?

 Customizing the offering to the audience

Grady stresses the importance of customizing your offering to suit local demographics and discretionary income. “You need to consider the market you're in and the economic level of that market. In certain cities, you can have a higher price point than in other cities; you need to fit the wallet of your guests,” he explains.

“We offer a three-tiered approach, three different price structures to give you three different amounts of jump time. The higher the tier, the more benefits and bells and whistles that go with it. It gives people options to fit their budget,” Grady adds. Despite variances in spending between locations, many guests see the value in upgrading. “I was expecting our middle tier membership to be the strongest, but our highest tier ended up having the highest number of joins,” says Grady.

He had previously trialed a single, lower-priced membership tier but found this to be less profitable overall. 

Flexible, easy-to-use software

ROLLER’s flexible membership software helps operators like Grady build their membership offering to suit their audience, whether that’s multiple tiers, different price levels per tier, one-off memberships, or recurring monthly or annual packages. When guests sign up for a membership, ROLLER captures payment information up front, serves up the digital membership agreement for the guest to sign, and then the system does the rest.

In turn, this makes it easy to purchase a membership online or sell it through the point of sale. “ROLLER is very simple. It’s very user-friendly, and the checkout process is super easy,” comments Grady. “Our team are young people in their first jobs. We do not want an overcomplicated process to learn the point of sale or redemption process.”

However, finding a platform that would suit their business took some trial and error. Before discovering ROLLER, Grady’s team faced significant challenges with other systems. Switching to ROLLER provided the seamless, user-friendly experience Grady’s team needed. It was clear from the outset that the relationship between ROLLER and Altitude would be collaborative and supportive. “ROLLER is willing to listen and have a two-way conversation with us. They allow customers to impact what the roadmap of development looks like; I think that’s awesome,” says Grady.

Retaining membership revenue with Smart Dunning

ROLLER has an automated process called Smart Dunning to reduce failed membership payments caused by insufficient funds, expired payment information, or a lost or stolen card. Smart Dunning uses machine learning to automatically re-try those transactions at the optimal time so that this membership revenue can be retained.

Grady’s parks have benefited from additional membership revenue thanks to Smart Dunning, which would’ve otherwise been lost.

Delighting members with exclusive promotions 

Seasonality is a significant factor in the success of the business. Grady focuses on continually driving value for his members with offers at specific times of the year, including the start of the school year when budgets are tight. “We make sure we always offer surprise and delights to our members to keep that line of communication open, like events or half-price pizza nights,” says Grady.

ROLLER helps automate the process of sending these offers to maximize engagement and member visitation rates. “I like how ROLLER has the ability to segment out exactly who we want to market to,” Grady adds.

By leveraging ROLLER’s platform, ATP Florida has created a seamless, efficient, and highly profitable membership program that caters to a diverse customer base. As Grady looks to the future and plans to open several more locations, ROLLER will continue to play a vital role as a strategic partner for Altitude Trampoline Parks.