9 Ways To Increase Gym Member Retention
Gym member retention has always been a challenge for gym owners, and it's been made more difficult with factors like Covid-19. We're looking at gym member retention and 9 ways for you to increase gym member retention.
What is gym member retention?
Gym member retention is the number of members a gym can keep over a certain period, usually a month, six months, or a year. When we talk with gym owners, the one area always on their minds isn't getting more members. Instead, it's keeping the members they do have.
Member retention is one of the critical metrics gym owners need to keep on top to make sure their gym grows. Of course, it could be easy to focus on the constant acquisition of new members and let retention take care of itself. But this would be like the impossible task of trying to fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom – for everything you pour in, there will always be something leaking out.
As a gym owner, you may already realize the value of gym member retention. But if you don't, it's definitely something you need to focus on.
A study done by Helen Watts in 2012 showed that member retention could generate up to 80% of your revenue.
So, are you ready to focus on the consistency of your existing members and develop stronger relationships between them and your employees?
Here are 9 steps to increase your gym member retention.
Have a Captivating Vision
Go beyond simply providing a space where people can work out. Ask yourself, how will your gym or fitness center change peoples' lives?
Choose seven to ten words that sum up and describe what you're hoping to achieve. Write compelling mission, value, and vision statements that are focused on serving your customers and members.
Then, let that vision statement guide what you do, how you train your team, and how you interact with your members. Every day, your gym is changing people's lives.
Hire the Right Team
Whether you're looking for a trainer, a front desk assistant, or a business consultant to help launch your gym, you want to hire people who are motivated by your mission statement. The new hiree should be someone who upholds these statements. If team members aren't committed to seeing your vision fulfilled, then your member's experience may suffer.
Have regular hygiene schedules
Today everyone is health-conscious, so your gym member's hygiene and wellbeing should be a priority at all times. You should follow proper sanitization methods and ensure thorough cleaning occurs multiple times a day in your gym. In every part of the gym that you clean, you should show the cleaning checklist, so members can see when the gym was last cleaned and know that you have safe sanitation practices in place.
Build a community
As humans, we thrive in tribes and communities! So when people join a gym, they tend to feel like they're doing better and happier if they're part of a supportive and encouraging community.
So think of ways to strengthen the bond between your members to continue improving their retention. For example, you could run competitions, challenges, or add more group classes or offer group training that enables people to train with others at cheaper rates.
Share goals + progress
Gym members like to see results. And one way of keeping them from dropping out is by displaying metrics for their progress, so they can clearly see the progress they're making.
Try and find ways where your members can log data like their weight, measurements, and PRs and update them as your members progress to show how far they've come on their journey. When they see the impact the gym is making on their life or goals, members are more likely to stay!
Personalize their gym experience
It's crucial that you treat each client as a unique person and not just another number. If they get the sense you're just there to make a profit and don't care about their wellbeing, they may lose respect for you and your gym.
Take time to try and gather as much information as possible from members and use it to communicate with them. For instance, you could send them personalized happy birthday emails or messages to help them celebrate after meeting a specific goal they had.
Request feedback and reviews
Getting feedback and reviews for your gym is a win-win situation. You're receiving constructive criticism on the areas you could improve upon and praise for what you've done well.
The review and feedback process also allows your gym members to be heard. Their input can help you fix important points before customers drop out, thus saving your retention.
Use social media
Because of the pandemic, you might have some members who have their membership but don't actively attend. If you become active on social media by posting stories, videos, captions, and more, it might encourage people to come. Similarly, if you showcase your sanitization methods on social media, you can build confidence in your members and make them want to return to the gym.
Communication
Missing a week or two weeks of workouts is usually the first sign of a disengaged member. So if you notice members aren't coming by anymore, send out an email or phone call. Reaching out and communicating with them can help you understand why they haven't been coming to the gym and how you can help motivate them to come back.
Gym membership retention is crucial in the wellness industry. Retaining members is more cost-effective than constantly attracting new ones. Ready to build your gym and make it successful? Reach out to us today for a free consult to get started.