How Sarnia Riding Club Simplified Operations and Elevated Member Experience With Clubspot
By Fritz Baldauf
Sarnia Riding Club partnered with Clubspot in order to streamline their operations, simplify billing, and deliver a modern member experience.
For more than a century, the Sarnia Riding Club (SRC) has been a cornerstone of private club life in Sarnia, Ontario. Founded in 1908, the club has evolved into a modern, family-focused swim and racquet club known for its strong community, active membership, and highly social atmosphere.
As expectations around convenience, transparency, and mobile access increased, SRC reached a point where its systems needed to evolve to match the experience it wanted to deliver.
The Problem
Sarnia Riding Club’s biggest operational challenge came down to billing. For Executive Director Kim Jackson and her team, the process was time-consuming and overly manual.
“For us, it’s direct billing. That’s a big thing. That takes up a lot of time for me and our Rec and Events Coordinator, Cayleigh. The direct member billing is key. Having everything integrated into accounting software. I also do the financials here. Billing was a big one. The biggest thing is definitely the billing though. It used to take hours.”
Alongside billing inefficiencies, SRC was managing systems that did not communicate well with each other. This lack of integration limited visibility for both staff and members and created unnecessary friction in day-to-day operations. Members could not easily see detailed charges or manage their accounts, and staff had to spend additional time reconciling information across systems.
The Solution
SRC selected Clubspot to replace its disconnected systems with a single platform that could support the full scope of club operations.
“It was all in one, and we didn’t need anyone else. Also, it’s one payment for the year. That was a big thing. We looked at four different softwares, and our Board of Directors wanted to have one payment no matter what. Anytime Clubspot has upgrades, we don’t need to worry about [paying more]. Having one check to write is really nice. We know what we pay and we don’t have to worry about it.”
The decision was not just about improving one function. It was about simplifying the entire operation while giving leadership clarity and predictability. Just as important was the onboarding experience and ongoing support, which helped the team feel confident throughout the transition.
“Tucker [Hersam] was fabulous. He was so good. Amazing. He sold us. Cayleigh and I did a lot of the meetings with the different companies, and he was really good. Reed [Porter] has been great too with the onboarding. Of course there are little things that we need help with every now and then that take time to learn, but the support has been outstanding.”
The Results
With Clubspot in place, Sarnia Riding Club transformed both its internal operations and the member experience, starting with billing. What once took hours is now streamlined, and members have full visibility into their accounts.
“Members love to see the itemized billing. Before, they weren’t able to see exactly what they bought. They had an amount, but they weren’t able to drill in and see what the items were. Now they can see it instantly, which is great.”
That transparency has extended across the entire club experience. Members can easily navigate their accounts, make changes, and stay connected through the platform, while staff benefit from more efficient day-to-day workflows.
“Having all of our membership information forward-facing is great. It’s been great for the members' experience, as members are able to navigate their accounts easily and change things if they want to. On the admin side it’s great for the members to be able to manage their own accounts easily. The app is amazing. Everyone loves the app.”
Operational improvements are also visible in food and beverage and event participation. Staff can make updates more easily, and members are engaging more with club programming.
“Our new point of sale makes it a lot easier. It’s much easier for our Food and Beverage Director to add items, change things, and do all of that stuff.”
“The Calendar of Events is super accessible, which is great. We’ve noticed that with members being able to register easily now, we’re having more people attend events.”
Sarnia Riding Club has moved from a fragmented, manual system to a unified platform that supports both staff efficiency and member satisfaction. The result is a more connected, more transparent, and more engaging club experience.
Want to bring your club’s software operations into the present day (and the future) like Sarnia Riding Club did? Book a demo.
