"Number of successful payments increased massively"

Interview with Thomas Rüttimann. Photos by Esther Haug, Turnverein Weiningen

 

 

What is your organization’s mission?

The Weiningen Gymnastics Club was founded in 1915 and has about 65 active and 200 passive members today. The highlight of the season is participating in the Swiss Championships in club apparatus gymnastics and team aerobics, as well as in individual apparatus gymnastics. We aim to be in the top ranks, and thus train intensively two to three times per week in the different disciplines.

In addition to the competitions, there are also social events on the program, such as a ski weekend or mini-golf. These shared experiences strengthen our team spirit. In addition, the Chränzli is an important event in Weiningen. Here, the gymnastics clubs and youth squads enjoy showing what they have to offer in terms of gymnastics and dance.

 

What challenges led you to RaiseNow?

Some time ago, several of our younger members asked if we could use TWINT as a payment method for collecting membership fees. At the time, we first asked our bank if we could process TWINT payments through them, but that wasn't possible and there was no interest shown in enabling this type of payment processing. Afterwards, I was informed of a new solution. I then googled "twint for clubs" and came across RaiseNow.

 

Which RaiseNow TWINT QR solutions do you use?

We use RaiseNow TWINT QR Pay for payments at events and Pay Plus for collecting membership fees. We don't use Donate because we don't collect donations yet.

 

Can you share some examples?

To collect membership fees, we send the payment request with the QR code by email or by letter with a printed QR code. When our members scan the QR code, we ask for their first and last name in order to allocate the amount to the right person. In addition, we also confirm their email address again, as sometimes we have outdated addresses, which we can then update.

 

We have deliberately created separate QR codes for the different membership fees. This way, everyone simply scans the QR code in the amount of their respective membership fee, which makes it very easy and error-free.

 

We pass on the RaiseNow fees to our members, by adding the costs involved to the membership fee amount. It goes without saying that we communicate this clearly beforehand, and most of our members support this. Alternatively, those who do not wish to do so can still pay by bank transfer or payment slip.

We will definitely use RaiseNow TWINT QR codes as a payment method for membership fees in the long term, because the number of successful payments has increased massively as a result!
By the way, among our younger club members email as a communication channel is almost becoming obsolete, so we will be looking for new channels to reach them.

 

Read more after the photos  ↓

Have you already used RaiseNow TWINT at events?

Yes. For example, we benefitted largely from using QR code payments at our Chränzli 2021. Attendees were happy to pay with TWINT and used the RaiseNow TWINT Pay QR codes extensively. It was very convenient that different QR codes could be used for the bar, goods and services, and the raffle, which made billing very easy for us later on. 

 

We simply exported the payments to Excel and filtered them there. This way we could check how much money cash register 1, cash register 2, etc. took in. This provided insightful data for our internal accounting team on the best-performing items at the event.

 

What were the challenges you faced?

As part of collecting membership fees, some members commented that QR codes sent via email had to be opened on a separate screen before you could scan them with your phone and the TWINT app. This was a bit awkward, but still worked well. In the future, we will use PayLinks (also generated by RaiseNow for the same QR codes) for this. Overall, about a third of our members have already paid via TWINT.

 

What do you like about RaiseNow?

Everything works very well and the user interface is easy to understand. The dashboard gives a great overview of the incoming payments, and the payouts through RaiseNow arrive quickly into our bank account.

 

Do you have any more tips for other clubs?

If you’re in the process of assessing whether using RaiseNow TWINT is worth it, it helps to compare the RaiseNow fees with the administration costs you otherwise have (e.g. postage costs), and the benefits of eliminating all other hassles (eg. cash withdrawals, counting cash registers, depositing cash).

 

To get started, it is best to test the application of RaiseNow TWINT at a small event. This way, you can gather some experience without added stress.

 

For us, using the "Campaign ID" and "Sub ID" fields have simplified our accounting processes.

 

What do you have planned as the next big project or campaign where you will use RaiseNow TWINT QR?

In 2022, we will again organize our annual Turnerchränzli and our internal spring festival.

 

 

Thomas, we thank you very much for your success story and wish you and your club continued success!

 

   Interviewee Thomas Rüttimann