How to Better Retain Your Gym Members

As a gym owner or manager, you know first hand just how competitive the health club and fitness industry actually is. In fact, Forbes even said, “You must be insane to want to be in the fitness business.” If that doesn’t raise some eyebrows, look at it this way – every day, there are new gyms popping up all over the place, catering to specific needs or niche exercises. Why should customers choose your gym?

This is the major question most gym owners are asking themselves, and it’s a good representation of today’s fitness industry as a whole. Gym owners must be able to not only find new members but also retain these members to continue to succeed and operate profitably in today’s economic climate. But retaining gym members is another story altogether.  On average, over 67% of gym memberships go unused. This means that more than half of your memberships aren’t being used, which means that most of the member outreach and member-focused events your team is hosting are probably not having the desired impact.

Here are 3 high-impact ways your team can retain your gym members:

1. Set up a high-touch drip campaign promoting your events and specials

Does your team have some great campaigns running but it seems like nobody knows about them? Are your membership numbers steadily declining but you don’t know why? It might be because members just don’t know what else you’re offering. If you’re running campaigns like ‘Bring a friend for free night’ or ‘Late night yoga’, you need to let your members know. They aren’t just going to magically show up without you telling them.

The best way to do this is by setting up a high-touch drip campaign or nurture program through your marketing automation solution. This way, your team can create marketing emails in advance promoting whatever you want, and then send them out to your member database on a set schedule (say, every 4 days or so) to ensure messages are constantly being received. This way, your members are always in the loop and attending more events.

2. Know your customers and establish personal connections

While it’s true that people join gyms to work on their health and fitness, they also join gyms for the sense of community. Your team must be able to establish strong connections with your members (preferably early on in the customer lifecycle) to ensure they have this sense of community with your organization. If they don’t they’ll look for this community in one of your competitors.

Establishing personal connections, while important, also require some sort of knowledge transfer. To truly know your customers, make sure you’re tracking all membership details in a gym-specific management solution, starting from the first conversation. Did a member mention a personal anecdote during a phone call? Have your employees jot it down. Compiling small pieces of information like this in a single spot can help your team forge better relationships and ensure your members feel like part of a community – a community they’ll want to belong to for a long time.

3. Deliver better customer service from the beginning

Finally, retaining gym members is comparable to every other industry – customer retention is all about service. If you’re delivering amazing customer experiences to your members, they won’t want to leave. Think about how your team can go the extra mile. What types of services can you deliver to your customers that other gyms can’t? Dig deep to find that extra oomph that will push your brand forward.

Some practical ways to retain customers through better customer service include asking customers what types of classes they want to see (and delivering them), including more ‘perks’ and member-only giveaways to your schedule, and ensuring that all the behind-the-scenes logistics (like payment processing, membership agreements, and more) are handled securely and efficiently –with no manual work or confusion on the members’ side.

Now that you know some real-world ways to retain customers, it’s time to get started. Click here to schedule your personal call to learn more.