For a health club, much of your success hinges on member retention. Your ability to keep the members you currently have has far more of an influence on your bottom line than any other aspect of your business.
As your health club strives to move into the future with its membership base, the question becomes clear: “How do I keep my members?” While the question is simple, the answer is much more complex. There are several ways to help retain members, but each alone, is not the solution. It is a comprehensive focus on all the ways your club should be servicing your members that makes for a thriving health club business. Reaching out to your members in the club.
There are several ways for you to make a connection with your members. In the club, make sure your entire staff is outgoing and concerned. Really get to know your members, by name. It is about creating a sense of community that will keep your members coming back in the club.
To amplify the effects of this sense of community, it is important to act upon it. Here are just a few examples of community-building alternatives that motivate your members:
• Host monthly member parties
• Run special member promotions
• Create friendly contests and challenges
Once you have established a schedule for your community events, it is time to figure out how to get the word out.
Staying in touch with your members outside the club.
One of the most effective ways to retain your members is to keep them involved, and informed about the club and your community events. But with a majority of your members’ time spent outside the club, this could become a difficult proposition-without the Intranet. Harnessing the power of the Intranet is simple and easy with the use of email marketing. As an added bonus, email marketing offers the most cost-effective way to communicate.
This interaction with your members will not only solidify a sense of community, but help further member success. For less than a penny per person (and sometimes at no cost), you can…
• Advertise any or all of your profit centers
• Invite your members to all of your community events
• Involve your members in personal challenges
It is quite simple…email marketing offers an inexpensive, effective, immediate, measurable way to stay in touch with your members. There are several ways to utilize email marketing to communicate with your members:
• Auto-response emails offer hands-free communication
• Member newsletters allow you to be the expert in fitness
• Member surveys allow your members to feel like their opinion counts
• Periodic kudos help your members feel like they are on the right track
Helping your members to succeed in life.
Just as important as making your members feel at home is the idea of making them feel good-about the club and themselves. If you are able to help your members in their quest for better health, you have gained a loyal member.
Each new year, there is an influx of eager new members with lofty goals needing guidance. How you service these new clients and their overall success will have a dramatic effect on how many of those members you still have at the end of the year.
The dilemma lies in how many of your members can afford personal training services. With less than 10 percent of your member base utilizing these premium services, how do you help the other 90 percent that still need your direction? Again, the Intranet can pave the way for both you and your members to meet your goals.
Online fitness and nutrition programs can bridge the gap between trainer and client. These programs provide a roadmap to success that can be utilized in conjunction with a trainer, or as a member benefit for individuals to explore on their own.
When used in conjunction with a trainer, online fitness and nutrition programs provide a low-cost alternative to conventional training, while still providing communication and guidance from a professional trainer. Trainers are able to modify programs and stay in touch with clients quickly and easily through an online email tool. These efficiencies allow your trainers to train more individuals in less time.
When used independently, online fitness and nutrition programs provide an unparalleled member benefit package that your members can really benefit from. Either way, your members are no longer alone in their quest for wellness. Armed with access to this fitness and nutrition knowledge 24/7, your members are far more likely to succeed.
Bottom line? Increasing your contact with your members by utilizing new technologies not only improves member communication, but ultimately, increases member retention.
Don Hoskyns is the CEO and Co-Founder of FitnessInsite. He can be contacted at 800.787.3955 x 213, or by email atDon@fitnessventuregroup.com.
