Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance

Increased revenue (>21%), simpler for members to pay, greater control over beat bookings, improved member communications and saved time on admin

Founded in 1967, the Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance is one of Wales’ long-established fishing clubs. Over the past five decades, we have grown from strength to strength, but there was some room for improvement in the way we did things.

One of the side-effects of running a growing angling club is the increased amount of paperwork generated. Much of that is down to how we processed memberships and permits for anglers wishing to use various locations managed by us.

It was evident that we need to make some changes to improve how we did things here at the Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance. The first problem that needed addressing was how we accepted payments and processed memberships.

From our club’s inception, we had a very traditional method of processing payments. It involved asking anglers to send a cheque or postal order to use in the post and only to a PO box address.

There was no provision for debit or credit payments, and nothing was ever processed in real-time. Some people opted to buy permits from the tackle shop, but even that was a slow and inconvenient way of doing things when they only just wanted to go fishing.

Those methods were okay before card payments (and the internet!) became commonplace in the UK, but life has evolved since those days. We now live in a digital age, and it was clear that we needed to make life easier – both for our members and ourselves.

We decided to look at ways of how we could improve accepting payment from anglers and process memberships and permits. Of course, the cost was a consideration we needed to make, and some options didn’t meet our needs as a result.

There were all kinds of solutions available, but the one that stood out for us and was cost-effective was Clubmate. It makes it easy for us to accept online payments from debit and credit cards, and we can do all that 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Some of the anglers that buy permits from us aren’t from the local area, and so they can conveniently purchase a permit from the comfort of their homes ahead of their fishing trips. 

These days, most people buy goods and services online, so moving to Clubmate was a step in the right direction for us.

The Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance has been using Clubmate for just over a year now, and we’re still just as happy with things as we were from the first day. So, how has using Clubmate impacted what we do daily?

For a start, our membership has increased from approx 800 in 2019 to 1120 this year. That equates to around a 21% increase in income. Obviously, with people looking to spend more time outdoors due to Covid-19 has made a difference. However, Clubmate has made this possible. We also don’t have to walk people through the process of buying permits like we did before we started using Clubmate, so it’s a real time-saver too.

Would we recommend Clubmate to other fishing clubs? Absolutely, and with no hesitation!

If you’d like to learn more about Clubmate and how it could benefit your fishing club, please get in touch (we don’t bite!):

hello@clubmate.co.uk

0333 987 4677