What is car club management software and how can it help?

Will Jeffries

21 Sep 2022 • 3 min read

The UK has a thriving community of excellent car clubs which enables like minded enthusiasts to enjoy and share their passion for cars.

Car clubs are typically set up and run to help members maintain, restore and enjoy their vehicles and often focus on a particular brand such as Jaguar, or a particular model such as the E-type or a type of car such as American Muscle or HotRods.

Often run by small teams and volunteers, the running and managing of a car club takes a considerable amount of time and energy, especially the day to day administration such as processing membership applications, sending out renewals and chasing membership and event payments.

Some of the common challenges we hear from car clubs are:

Their membership income is decreasing year on year.
They are struggling to attract younger members.
They find the administration of their membership timely and frustrating.
Collecting and chasing payments is a challenge.
They are not comfortable with I.T.
They are still not GDPR compliant.
Car club politics! Although we won’t go there. 😂

The good news is that a good car club management platform can help solve these problems and help car clubs to grow by saving time, improving cash flow and delivering more value to members. Let's consider the features a good car club software should offer:

Members database
A secure database to record your members personal information including membership, event attendance and payments.
Vehicles database
A database for members to record their vehicle details and photos.
Membership
The ability for members to apply and renew their membership online or over the phone and make payment.
Payments
The ability to collect payments for both membership and events automatically by card or Direct Debit.
Events
An comprehensive events module will enable you to promote your events, sell tickets and record attendance for both national and regional car club events.
Regions, Registers, Sections etc.
Securely provide your regional leaders with the data and systems needed to run and manage their group. This can include micro websites, events, news and messaging.
Member’s area
A members area enables you to deliver private, member only content to your paying members such as digital magazines, member benefits and technical archives. This can also enable members to keep their contact information up to date.
Communication
Communication is key when it comes to engaging with your members. Car clubs often communicate with members via email, newsletter, text messages and sometimes by letter.
Reporting
Keep track of key car club data with reports covering membership, events, member demographics and finances.
Integrations
Most car clubs use a variety of tools to run and manage their membership such as websites, forums, newsletters, events, accounting software and others. It is therefore important your club software supports integrations with the tools you love to use.
Easy to use (very important)
Last but not least, car club software should be simple and easy to use for both your team and your members who sign up online. Very few clubs are lucky to have access to an I.T expert so most good systems will include technical support within their subscription fees.

If you are considering a new system for your car club, here is a selection of leading platforms you may wish to talk to:

sheepCRM are proud to support some of the UK’s leading car clubs including the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club, the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club and The Ferrari Owners Club. To find out more about sheepCRM’s car club software visit our dedicated car club page and book an informal call with our Will, our very own car enthusiast and sheepCRM expert.