At Gym Master, we know that you’re in the health and fitness business for the great lifestyle and the huge business potential, so based on the feedback we have had from our members we have decided to put together some tips for getting the most out of both sides of this business. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be discussing topics that should be of vital interest to any fitness club owner. Today’s topic is member retention. Did you know… It’s much easier to retain an existing member than it is to attract new members to a fitness club? Of course you did. And even though it might be obvious, but it doesn’t make it easy! For a lot of fitness and health clubs the recruitment part is a piece of cake, but they just don’t have the knack for getting members to stick around or renew their contracts. (Others are awesome at retention, but fall down on recruitment. But that’s a topic for another day!) So you’ve spent all this time, money and effort getting your prospect to sign on the dotted line. How can you keep them coming back for more? Here’s some of our top tips for improving gym member retention.
Retention Tip #1: The key to member retention is INVOLVEMENT.
Here’s a painful truth: No matter how impressive your equipment or facilities, the truth is that it’s just equipment. Your members have no particular attachment to it. What keeps members coming back is a high degree of INVOLVEMENT in your club. They might have a class they take regularly, or an instructor they love, or a good relationship with a personal trainer who just “gets” them. All those things are “involvement”. They’re what makes your club unique and irreplaceable, and it’s what will keep them from running away to another club. Try to find ways to get your members “involved” in your club. Get them loving you for your personality, not just your pretty face! Have a good week and stay tuned for TIP #2
Retention Tip #2: Encourage socialization between members.
Did you know that the type of fitness clubs with (anecdotally) the highest member retention rate are tennis clubs? To be more specific… contract tennis clubs where members are given a fixed time to practice, and play against the same people each week. Why? Well, the secret is in the socialization. Working out becomes an excuse to see friends, shoot the breeze, and perhaps enjoy a coffee or drink afterwards. When you’ve got friends at a particular club, you’re much less likely to cancel your membership or move to a different club, since you would lose that social aspect. Makes sense, doesn’t it? So have a think about ways to boost interaction between your members. Maybe run semi-personal training sessions with small groups, so that group members all get to know each other. Maybe run social tournaments (ping-pong anyone?), or simply have a “happy hour” at the cafe. You can also use special promotions to encourage members to get their friends to join. One of the ways Gym Master membership software enables encouragement of socialization is via our email facility. Firstly a user can select a number of different customer types via our extensive reporting tool. This could be users that have not been to the gym in a while, members of a similar age group or people that like to attend the same classes. On running the report you then get the option to send out an email where you could invite these members to a social event or attend a new class or small group training session. All great ways to build new friendships and strengthen current relationships. Stay tuned for next weeks tip on improving customer retention. For more information or to download our free demo of Gym Master lite go to www.treshna.com/gym
Retention Tip #3: Watch for red flags.
A sure-fire sign that a member is at risk of cancelling their membership is when they stop attending your club as often as they used to. By keeping tabs on attendance rates, you can spot at-risk members and see if you can find ways to stop them running away. Perhaps you could offer a free personal training session to get them motivated, or a discounted massage if they attend 3 times a week for the next month. It might be something as simple as an email, just to say “hey, is there something we can do to help?” (FYI: Gym Master can keep track of member attendance for you, and even send out automated emails depending on a member’s activity, so keeping an eye on “at-risk” members is actually much easier than it sounds!) If you want to demo the lite version of Gym Master go to www.treshna.com/gym today, or alternatively for a free online demonstration of the full version software which includes direct debit facility, SMS, door access, point of sale etc, send an email to info@gymmaster.co.nz
Retention Tip #3: Get members to try it all!
A member who only comes into the club to use the treadmill is harder to retain than a member who uses the exercise equipment, the personal trainer, the group fitness classes, and who enjoys a smoothie at the cafe. These extra activities encourage involvement, and remember: involvement is the key to retention. Try to find ways to get your members involved in all aspects of the gym. Promote fitness classes to the die-hard machine users. Offer discount vouchers for your other services, or perhaps provide packages that combine services at a discounted rate. A client told me that using Gym Master has really aided him in encouraging members to give everything a go at the club. He used a mixture of sms and emails automatically generated from the system targeting members that continue to use only one aspect of the club. It only took a couple of minutes to write his own template and then simply a matter of pressing send. He found some systems restrictive in the way you can discount or offer a promotion and was pleased with gymmaster’s flexibility especially when it allowed him to be more creative in his approach rather than being restricted to a unexciting traditional method. The immediate results were fantastic with an initial big uptake in a variety of activities and found he lost fewer customers in these months than he did this time last year. If you want to know more, flick an email to info@gymmaster.com and get someone to assist in a free one to one demo.
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