Fitness clubs are faced with the challenge of retention rates in the 50 percent to 60 percent range. Very few clubs have found the solution to drastically change the revolving door of membership. John McCarthy, the former Executive Director of IHRSA, compares the opportunities in the health and fitness industry with our sister clubs – the country clubs, yacht clubs and private clubs. These clubs keep raising their joining fees, have lengthy waiting lists, yet relatively few of their members leave. Their retention rates average 90 percent to 95 percent.
Here are two powerful retention programs to help increase your member retention and plug the leaking hole that is your membership base.
1. Exclusive Member Savings Program – For our valued GHF members, we’ve put together an Exclusive Member-only savings program, designed to help offset their membership dues. We have partnered with over 100 local businesses that offer our members exclusive discounts that they can’t get anywhere else. These discounts have been specifically designed so our members can offset their dues and in a lot of cases, pay for their membership and more. With their membership card, they not only get a return on your investment health-wise, but a return in their wallet too when they shop at any of our participating savings partners.
Visit www.GHFC.com/save to see the latest offers. As a GHF member, you save money every time you shop at any of our 100+ Gainesville business partners. Just show your GHF membership card and save money on your purchase. This program makes it difficult for our members to give up their membership.
2. Face 2 Face Retention Program – The first 30 to 60 days of any new membership are critical, and unfortunately, many members can drop out of their gym program before ever realizing the full benefits that regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle have to offer. As fitness industry leaders, GHF is determined to reverse this worldwide trend in member drop-outs by adopting the Face2Face Program. Combining weekly Face2Face personal consultations with the informative and helpful F2F Resources, we are confident that our new members and indeed many existing members will appreciate the difference Face2Face can make when it comes to adopting new healthy habits and getting worthwhile results in less time than ever before.
Remember when you first learned to drive a car, how you had a series of driving lessons to make driving safe and fun. Well Face2Face is a series of face-to-face consultations our Fitness Trainers have with our new members through their first month at the gym to get them fully confident in the gym and teach them how to get the most out of a healthier lifestyle. All new members joining our participating sites will receive five, half-hour personal consultations over the course of a month. Sessions will include Health Profiling and Benchmarking, Personal Exercise Programming and Supervised Workouts, a Nutrition component and Results Reviews. Members will also receive professionally presented educational resources and their own Member’s Pack. Everyone who completes the program will be invited to one of our regular graduation events, which will double as a social night for all our members and their invited guests. Visit www.retentionf2f.com for more details.
Shawn Stewart is the Operations Manager at Gainesville Health and Fitness Center. Contact him at shawns@ghfc.com
