Digital Membership Cards

Tara Keblish

Hi, We are thinking of switching to digital membership cards. Has anyone used Museum Anywhere or CUSEUM; if so, what has been your experience?  It seems the Museum 

Anywhere App offers additional functionality, including a link where members can print out their own membership card. (This is important because our audience skews older. We will still mail cards upon request.. Since we send a separate tax letter, I am in the process of figuring out e-Acknowledgements too!) 


For those that have switched to digital cards, did you find that an all or nothing approach worked, where all members were expected to transition right away? Or was it somehow phased in, say by level? In that case, how was that segmentation implemented?  Would certain levels get a separate Print Membership Card process? I am not sure how to keep the print card process from getting clogged with cards that will not need to be mailed.Thanks

Barbara Basten

Hey Tara,

We use the eMembership App through Museum Anywhere and were one of the first users of it when it was developed in 2017.  For the first year, we let our guests know it was available to use, but did not require it and still sent cards.  The next year, we started letting our members know in their renewal letters that cards would not be sent for the following year.  In 2019, we went fully digital and send an email to all members letting them know that we only mail membership cards to those who request it and to gift recipients.  We have this information everywhere on our website, on the membership order page, in their acknowledgement emails and in hand-out instructions for guests who become members while at the zoo.  We also send out an additional email after the membership has been processed (verified that their isn't duplicate memberships, check that info matches in the system, etc.) that reminds members that they have to download their app and cards and instructions on how to do it.


It has been great since the whole pandemic started.  We have been able to communicate to members through their push notification module (additional $300 a year for this) to let our members know about extending their memberships, reopening, member only day, when we have features that have re-opened, etc.  There is also a menu within the app that members can use to review what their benefits are as well as check out FAQ's which has helped getting guests/members ready to visit.


I would encourage you to go either really slowly, like we did, or full-stop and do it starting on a specific date to make it easy to tell members when you changed.  Now is actually a great time as everyone is expecting things to change with the pandemic and are willing to make those changes to be able to visit the places they were able to visit prior to all this.  Feel free to get a hold of me on how working with them has been (super easy) and if I can help in any way.  I have saved so much time by using this feature and transitioning our facility out of old, non-digital behaviors to the new technology that I can work on more beneficial projects.


Barbara B.

NEW Zoo & Adventure Park