Are You Focused on Decreasing Gym Member Churn? You Should Be.

When it comes to running a successful gym or health club, bringing in new members should always be a top priority. But there is another area of focus that shouldn’t be ignored: member churn. Although finding and engaging new members is a huge part of growing your business, it isn’t the only thing that ensures long term success. Gym owners must also pay attention to current gym member churn. 

In most industries, it is widely understood that it costs more to find a new customer than to keep the ones you have. This is also true in the fitness industry. Your current members have already made their choice. They joined your gym for a reason, which means something stood out to them about the culture, mentality, or values of your operation. The trick is understanding what these value drivers are and reminding members why they joined in the first place. 

Gyms and health clubs are notorious for member turnover. Depending on the types of memberships your gym offers, you might see members coming and going on a weekly basis. But just because churn is common in the industry doesn’t mean that it has to be commonplace. 

Here are three things gyms can do to address member churn:

Track exactly how many members are leaving. 

Sure, your team probably realized that there is a steady two-way stream of members coming and going each month. But can you pinpoint exactly how many members are leaving? Having a clear number helps gym management teams understand their business operations on a deeper level, and it also helps identify the financial implications of member churn. If a gym is losing more members than it’s gaining, for example, simply ramping up marketing efforts won’t save the business.

Understand why members are leaving. 

This is a big point when it comes to member churn because knowing why members are leaving means uncovering the roadblocks or pain points in a gym’s operations. When members decide to leave, ask them to take an exit survey or give feedback on what your gym could have done better. Soon, you’ll start to see trends emerge. Maybe it’s a lack of certain classes or offerings. Or maybe it’s the attitude of your trainers or staff. Either way, this gives your leadership team a jumping-off point of things to focus on for the future.

Proactively target at-risk members. 

Once you know how many members are leaving and why they’re leaving, your team can start to build a template of what an at-risk member looks like. Instead of just waiting around for these people to cancel their membership, teams can be more proactive in keeping them around. Maybe it’s a phone call or email survey to check in on their progress, or maybe it’s an in-person meeting after they’ve had a chance to try out a few class offerings. Establishing this on-going connection and asking for feedback from the very beginning can help stop member churn in its tracks. 

Want to learn more? Check out our solutions page to see how Paramount can help your team decrease member churn.