How to Increase Gym Member Retention? 10 Best Strategies you Need to Know

Most gym owners struggle with gym member retention. Find out what your gym members want. Increase your gym’s retention rate with 10 powerful strategies.

Gym owners are always looking for ways to attract new members. But once they become a member, there’s a new problem i.e., gym member retention. Attracting new members is more effortless than retaining them.

What is Gym Member Retention?

Gym member retention is the number of members the gym can keep as their customers over a period of time (3 months, 6 months, 1 year). Gym retention rate is an important metric for measuring profits, and the value of your services.

According to Harvard Business Review, attracting new customers is five to twenty-five times more expensive than retaining an existing member. Save your time, money, and resources by focusing on keeping the existing members.

If you think that getting new members will make up for high drop-out rates, you’re wrong. Why? Because when you attract newer members, they’ll only increase your gym’s revenue if they stick around long enough.

Whereas, research conducted by Bain & Company showed that increasing the customer retention rate by 5% increases revenue by 25% to 95%. This statistic is one of the reasons why you need to dedicate time and resources to address the retention rates of your gym.

To increase your gym’s retention rate, you need to understand the reasons why members leave.

Reasons Why Gyms Struggle with Member Retention

There are many reasons why your gym might be losing memberships. They are as follows:

• Loss of Motivation
• Toxic Gym Culture
• Pricey Membership Rates
• Lack of Proper Attention
• Unsanitary Gym spaces
• Bad Customer Service

0 Strategies to Increase Your Gym’s Member Retention Rate

Now that we’ve covered talking about what is member retention and reasons why members drop-out, let’s discuss the strategies you can use to tackle this.

Improve your Gym’s Hygiene

giene is an important part of your gym’s customer experience. Bad hygiene is a contributing factor to your gym’s drop-out rate. After the pandemic, cleanliness and sanitization have become a high priority requirement in the service industry.

Gyms are one of the places people visit regularly, so it makes sense that members will leave if the space does not maintain a standard of cleanliness.

Address this issue by displaying a cleanliness and sanitization schedule. Make sure that your members can see the sanitization schedule and history. This strategy increases their confidence in the gym, making them feel safe to come regularly.

Focus on Member’s Experience

ne way to stand out from other gyms and retain your members is to personalize and improve their experience. A positive brand experience increases their satisfaction, improves their relationship with the gym and increases active commitment.

Use their sign-up information to communicate and provide them with memorable brand experiences. If they’ve added their birth date, send them a birthday message on the day; if they’ve added their fitness goals, check in with them during intervals and motivate them.

Ask for Feedback

Asking for feedback is beneficial for your business. It makes the customers’ experience better and tells them you value their opinions.

You can ask for feedback online or in person. After getting the feedback, make sure to follow up on their suggestions to improve the gym. This drives the message that you take their comments seriously and want to provide them with the best service.

Any positive feedback can be used for gym promotion on social media. Positive reviews help your business rank better on Google which means more clicks and more profits.

Use Social Media

Social media is a great tool to improve your brand image and engage with your members. According to research from Loyalty 360, 27% of businesses said that social media marketing has been the most effective channel for customer retention.

When you engage with your members online by addressing their concerns, reaching out to them, or replying to their messages, it creates customer loyalty. Create referral posts where customers get prizes or discounts when they bring in a new customer. Improving your social engagement will also positively affect the gym’s member retention rate.

Create a Buddy Workout Program

According to a study by the University of Aberdeen, people tend to exercise more when they have a gym buddy. With a gym buddy program, you can retain members who don’t enjoy working out alone, find gyms intimidating, are irregular, or need the motivation to exercise regularly.

You can ask members if they’d be interested in working out with a gym buddy. If they say yes, you can pair them up with a member. The buddy program provides motivation and socialization, both of which discourage a member from dropping out.

Offer Membership Discounts and Coupons

Gym memberships can be pretty pricey for many people. Offer various discounts and coupons from time to time to make sure your members stay committed to you. You can offer discounts on festive dates, membership renewal, couple’s membership, gym goodies, club memberships, and group workout classes.

To personalize your member’s experience, give them exclusive coupons on birthdays and anniversaries. When you offer discounts and coupons, members will be hesitant to drop out or switch to another gym.

Hire Quality Staff

staff members interact with gym members on a daily basis. An employee’s characteristics and job performance have an effect on customer satisfaction (Source: researchgate.net).

Hiring the right staff means looking for job-specific qualities in a person. For example, a receptionist is one of the first persons to greet your member. Hiring a dull introverted person for this position is a bad idea. You’d need to find someone who’s cheery and talkative, someone who’d greet members brightly.

Hiring a quality staff member means no need for micromanagement and you can rest easy knowing your staff is equipped to handle any issues.

Build Social Spaces in the Gym

Social relationships can be a source of motivation for members to visit the gym regularly. Help your members socialize and connect with others by providing them with social spaces. As per research, socialization is one of the factors that might influence brand loyalty.

Improve your gym’s design by creating social spaces like a lounge room, waiting area, and a juice/breakfast bar. All these spaces encourage socialization helping your members build friendships. When members form bonds with other people, they’d be less likely to drop out or switch to another gym.

Offer Group Workout Programs

Group exercises are a great strategy for keeping your members with you. People who like group workouts include those who dislike working out alone, dislike utilizing gym equipment, and who are just beginning their fitness journey.

Zumba, aerobics, pilates, and yoga are some examples of popular group workouts you can offer. Keep your members satisfied by providing them with multiple workout programs and helping them spice up their fitness routines.

Online Training Sessions

In the post-pandemic period, a lot of members aren’t eager to go back to the gym to work out because they are scared of going to crowded spaces like gyms.

To ease their fears and make sure that you don’t lose them, provide online training services. By providing the option of accessing the gym’s training services online, people can sign up online, and watch training videos from home or anywhere else.

The concept of online training also provides them with a sense of control, as they get to decide when and where they want to exercise. Provide them with exercise live streaming and instructional videos, online personal training sessions, and customer service reps for any assistance. Online services will help you retain members who don’t want to come to the gym.

FAQ’s

1. What is gym member retention?
2. ym member retention is the length of a customer’s membership over a specific period of time ranging from a few months to a year.
3. Why is member retention important for gyms?

Member retention is important to understand how customers value your services. It is also helpful in learning how satisfied members are with the gym and what can you do to improve that.

1. How many people drop out of the gym?

60% of the members drop out of the gym within the first 12 months of their membership.

EndNote

Gym member retention has always been a point of concern for gym owners but it has become a bigger problem after the pandemic. Acquiring new members is not the solution to a high dropout rate. Increasing your gym’s retention rate will increase your revenue so you need to focus your time and resources on increasing member retention.

Here’s a recap of the 10 best strategies for increasing your gym member retention.

• Improve your Gym’s Hygiene
• Focus on Member’s Experience
• Ask for Feedback
• Use Social Media
• ate a Buddy Workout Program
• Offer Membership Discounts and Coupons
• Hire Quality Staff
• Build Social Spaces in the Gym
• Offer Group Workout Programs
• Online Training Sessions

To focus your time and energy on increasing retention rates, you will need gym management software that simplifies your management processes.

Check out the VFitness Club Management Software that assists you in managing gym members, marketing, inventory, and much more.

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