Why Does Data About Your Gym Members Matter?
Running a gym can be a hectic, busy lifestyle. So crazy, in fact, that it can stop feeling like a business altogether. For most gym owners, in order to survive, gyms must run like businesses – and today’s companies rely on numbers. Having access to the right data and metrics can help gym owners make better decisions, have transparency into day-to-day operations, and truly understand their member base.
Now, you might be wondering why member data even matters. Every decision you make as a gym owner should be towards the goal of either bringing in new members or satisfying your current members. Without knowing how your members are actually engaging with your services or finding your gym, how can you confidently make these decisions to grow and expand your business?
Here are five critical member metrics you should be tracking to keep your gym on track:
- What classes they’re attending
If your gym offers classes, sessions, or one-on-one personal training appointments, you need to know which ones members are actually going to. There are really two metrics to understand here: your class attendance rates and individual member attendance rates. For class attendance rates, this will tell your team how popular a yoga class is, for example, versus a zumba class. Then, you can update your schedule and class offerings to accurately reflect the popularity of certain classes.
You should also be tracking individual member attendance rates and choices. This will help your team personalize your member offerings and tailor them to specific membership profiles. Maybe you realize that your 6am boot camp class is especially popular among women between 24 and 28 years old. This is a pretty specific demographic, but you can use this information to influence marketing efforts and overall messaging.
- How long they’ve been a member
Knowing how long your members have been involved with your gym can help inform turnover rates and member churn. Are most of your members new within the last year, even though you’ve been open for a while? This probably means your members leave frequently and don’t stick around. If this is the case, it might be time to re-evaluate your offerings and your staff. If your average membership length is years, however, it shows that people are loyal to your gym and continue to renew their membership year after year. Well done!
- Their utilization rates
Utilization rates help you understand how often your members are coming to your gym. If you have hundreds of members, for example, but your classes are constantly under-filled, this is low utilization. If you have only a few dozen members and your classes are continuously filled, this is high utilization. Utilization rates are important when it comes to monitoring the long-term success of your gym. Simply put, if your members aren’t working out on a regular basis, you need to re-think your overall strategy. Knowing member utilization rates can also help your team update your class offerings and gym messaging.
- How engaged they are with your brand outside the gym
If your gym has social pages (and you definitely should!) make sure you try to connect with as many of your members as possible across Facebook, Instagram, and others. This is especially important for local and smaller gyms, as it helps create a real sense of community and conversation. Take pictures and videos of workouts and post regularly, tagging members if you can. Then, on the backend, track how engaged your members are with your brand. This can tell you how involved members are in the gym lifestyle, which can help you determine if they will renew their membership or not.
Tracking engagement is also important for all events and social activities outside a gym, not just on social media. Does your gym host (or sponsor) fundraisers or community days? What about costume classes or pitch-in dinners after evening classes? Understanding how engaged your members are with these types of events can help you get a better understanding of how engaged your members are overall and what types of events they’re looking for in a gym.
- How they found your gym in the first place
This metric should be a no-brainer, but it’s an incredibly important piece of member data that can help inform serious business decisions in the long-run. In your gym management platform, you should be tracking exactly how your members found your gym and how they applied for a membership. This will give visibility into where leads are coming from and how to direct marketing initiatives to bring in more members. If you can actually track that more members are coming through referrals than online search, then you can implement new referral incentives and perks for your current members.
