Do you get cable TV?

I do, along with about 51% of Americans. Even with satellite and Internet TV, encroaching on its turf, Cable Television makes up one of the largest paid memberships in the U.S.

Religiously, and for as long as I can remember, I have been paying for their membership privileges, to the tune of around one hundred dollars a month, even though I rarely have time to watch it.

I too, have many of the same complaints as everyone – hundreds of channels yet nothing on!

Still, I marvel at the genius behind this “behemoth of a membership model” and have poked around in its history for any lessons that can be learned and applied to memberships being created today.

Where did Cable TV come from?

Well, it was originally created almost by accident…

History can get a little muddled at times, and like most inventions, many people seem to come up with the same idea, almost at the same time, but most people tend to attribute John Walson as the father of modern Cable TV.

As the story goes, back in 1947 Walson and his wife were trying to make a living selling appliances in Mahanoy valley, outside of Philadelphia.  He sold TV’s in his electric appliance store there, for around 500 dollars. The 12 and a half-inch black and white beauties, netted him a nice profit, when he could sell them, but he was experiencing a few problems.

Television had been around for about two decades by then, but they just weren’t catching on quick in Mahoney.

John’s biggest problem was that the nearest TV station was in Philadelphia and when he’d turn on his floor model, to show folks this new fangled picture tube, all you could see was static.

It wasn’t that he was too far away, it was just that the TV signals didn’t travel down into the valley where his store was, as was the trouble with most of the surrounding area.

You would think this guy didn’t have a prayer, but old John was a go-getter. People say that he set up an antenna on the hillside and if you were really interested in buying a set, he’d gladly lug you and a TV up to
the antenna, for the show of your life.

They say, “necessity is the mother of invention”, and this must have been what got John Walson’s creative juices flowing, because eventually he found some Army surplus wire and managed to run a line from that antenna right down to his store.

People then would stand on the sidewalk from miles around, to gawk at the flickering pictures and crackling sounds, emanating from his shiny new floor models.

Yes sir, those were some big doings, back in the day.

Well, as you can imagine, televisions started flying off the showroom floor soon after, but many of the residents of Mahanoy and the surrounding boroughs weren’t as keen about hauling there TV’s up to Johns antenna on the hill to watch them, as he had been.

Wall plugs were somewhat scarce up there, and most of them had envisioned enjoying their new TV’s from their living rooms, like the big city fellas in Philadelphia.

John Walson being the, go getting businessman that he was, struck upon a new idea in 1948.

“Why not run wires to everyone’s house off of his antenna.”

That’s what he did.

For one hundred dollars, he’d run a cable to your house for you to use, as long as you paid him two dollars in membership dues per month! His idea garnered him national attention.

Cable TV was born!

He probably later went on to become the CEO of the largest Cable TV Corporation in the world!

Right?

Nope, you’d be wrong on that account.

So, what happened to Mr. John Walson, our 1948 Membership Mogul of the year?

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This month it may sound like I want to back up a bit, to talk a little about the software that we use to create and manage the membership itself, but…

Really, I’m not.

From time-to-time, membership software is a good topic to revisit.

It doesn’t matter if you purchased your software from us, or somebody else, what I want to get across to you, is pretty standard and universal to all memberships.

It should also be universal to any software platform in general that you use. So, I hope you’ll find it helpful no matter what framework your membership is built on.

In this month’s post, we will describe the potential you already have sitting under your fingertips, and may not even realize.

Even if you have been using a specific software to manage your membership for a while, and feel like you know it like the back of your hand, there is a strong chance that the company providing your software has updated their platform, to stay competitive, address the latest trends and conditions. Or simply to go above and beyond, gratuitously showing off, what their programmers can accomplish, like we do! J

Some people subscribe to the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mantra, and to-a-point, that is good advice. However, this attitude provides little wiggle room for the innovation that possibly your competitors are providing and using to lure away customers from your fold.

I know we have said more than once that decisions about making changes to your membership should be focused on input that you receive from your current customers or exit interviews, (although some exit interviews should be taken with a grain of salt, due to freeloaders making up reasons to come in, grab value and then quit.)

However by it’s nature, simply responding to current and past customer’s feedback isn’t the forward thinking that provides the groundbreaking incentives that helps you outpace your competition.

You still need to be careful and never change for “change’s sake”.  Every change that you do institute should be phased-in gradually (if at all possible). You always want to keep your current clientele in the loop, and make sure they never feel as though new features have been “sprung upon them”.

That said; let’s discuss some of the features that you may already possess in the software that manages your membership site, or those that may have been recently added or updated.

This will give you a better sense of the power you possess and the potential opportunities you can leverage.

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