Come and Try is how we will turn interest and curiosity into membership.

The five-minute video above walks through the whole system & here it is in writing, so the whole of croquet can know what the plan is.

It starts with an ad on Facebook & we find their local club

We will invite most people through a Facebook ad.

The ad sends them to comeandtrycroquet.com, where they put in their name, a few details, and their postcode.

The postcode helps us match the visitor to their closest club.

We show the Come and Try times on offer and the guest picks the one that suits them. They are booked in.

Someone can go from "that looks interesting/wouldn't mind doing that" to locked in for a session in under a minute.

We let the clubs know who is coming

Before a Come and Try day, CAQ will tell the club who has booked.

If nobody is coming, nobody has to drive down and wait on an empty lawn. If the session is booked out, call in a reserve host.

Keep the Come and Try session short and enjoyable

A Come and Try session only needs an hour to an hour and a half.

The aim is simple: help someone understand how to play, and enjoy it.

Show them the basics: holding the mallet, running a hoop, clearing a ball, and let them have a go.

Don't keep them too long.

From a coming to try to club days and membership

After Come and Try, invite them along to a club day.

Most people will come to one, two, or three club days before they are ready to join.

Somewhere between the Come and Try and their first club day, we can let them know what membership costs, so the number is no surprise.

Once they have enjoyed a few sessions and they know the member fee, joining is the natural next step.

CAQ looks after

The work splits in two.

1. Clubs turn up and show people how enjoyable croquet is.

2. CAQ handles everything around that, to keep it as simple as possible for our hosts.

The first is reminders. We send an SMS before the Come and Try day so people remember they signed up. If you tell us someone enjoyed it and wants to come back, we remind them about your club days too, the afternoon before or the morning of. If they ever get sick of hearing from us, they tell us to stop and we stop.

The second is keeping croquet interesting between visits. We email new people about the good parts of the game, everything from what hats and shoes work well, through to what World Championship croquet looks like, gala days, visiting other clubs, and the fact that it is a competitive sport with great cakes.

The short version of what happens

CAQ finds the guests, works out their closest club, lets the club know they are coming, and keeps them keen with reminders and a bit of croquet to look forward to.

Clubs do what they do best, create a welcome that has the guest wanting to join in and become a member.

Put the two together and there will be more people enjoying croquet.