As a gym owner, you’ll know that customer retention isn’t the easiest part of the job – especially post-pandemic. The truth is, the COVID-19 pandemic drove people to work and stay healthy at home while taking care of everything else in their lives.
This level of isolation and adapting to a fitness regime in a home filled with other people and responsibilities was tough, to say the least. But today, everyone can go back to their usual gym routine.
The real question is, are they willing to? According to McKinsey, approximately 60% of U.S. citizens who exercise regularly feel they’ll likely prefer a blend of working out at a gym and at home going forward.
With this in mind, it’s safe to say that gym owners need to be vigilant, creative, and adaptable in these changing times. And what better way to start than by implementing some core and valuable customer retention strategies in your fitness studio?
Top 5 Tips to Increase Your Gym Member Retention
1. Use the tech
Hello, 21st century! We live in a world that is driven by tech – this is exactly the reason why some gym owners are struggling to get feet in the door – because people are choosing online workouts instead! But if you use technology to your advantage, you can be sure you’ll get those feet in the door and retain them for the long run. By using advanced fitness marketing software, gym owners can track a member’s performance, serve personalized messaging to them, and course-correct should they be looking to cancel a membership.
2. Focus on mentorship
Wellness is all about achieving goals. No matter what your members are at your gym for (some are there to stay fit, others want to build muscle, and some want to lose weight, etc.), you can use their fitness goals to build a relationship. If your staff is involved in a member’s wellness routine, they can help that member achieve their goals and encourage them if and when they feel like giving up. This brings a sense of mentorship and builds trust with a customer – who is unlikely to change their trainer after a mentoring experience.
3. Build a solid community
Building an in-person and online community holds great value to members. They want to be able to relate to others who have similar interests to them and learn from others, too. A community is sure to strengthen the bonds between your members and staff as well as the bonds between members themselves. It’s a win-win and should never be dismissed.
4. Personalize their experience
With fitness marketing software, you can achieve increased member retention by simply using results and customizing messaging and marketing materials based on these results. Software like this helps you create customer segments where you can divide members by their demographic, membership type, or fitness goals. This allows you to get different messages to different segments, thereby serving the right message to the right person at the right time. Personalization is everything today – and it must be used to impress members and keep them loyal.
5. Ask for feedback
Feedback is the golden word of modern marketing. Sometimes, it may sound overwhelming to ask for feedback as you may be afraid to receive negative feedback. But let’s clear this up – positive feedback is always great. Negative feedback is good because you can learn from it, and it won’t hurt your brand if you address it soon and efficiently.
Conclusion
By making your members front and center of your gym, marketing efforts, and staff, you’re setting your studio up for success. People want to be members of gyms where they know the owner and staff members care about their fitness goals and are there to help them through the good and tough times. Member retention always increases when you keep customers engaged and content. Keep that in mind when re-evaluating your marketing strategy.
