When a customer cancels a membership at your gym, you may want to assume your work is done. You’d be wrong. Before a member walks out the door for the last time, your final act should be doing a proper “exit interview” to find out exactly why the member is taking their business elsewhere.
By doing so, you can glean key insight that may help you prevent other members from leaving as well.
Here are five questions you must ask members who have decided to cancel a membership at your gym.
- Why are you leaving?
- What is your biggest complaint about the gym? or What can we improve upon?
- What is your favorite part of the gym? or What should we capitalize on?
- Has our team communicated effectively with you?
- Did we meet your expectations?
Think about the last time you “broke up” with a company. You likely had a number of key reasons why you were doing so. And if that company had been open to feedback, they would have benefited from knowing what your complaints were.
In addition, even if a member is leaving for reasons outside of your control, such as moving, you should still do an exit interview. Maybe they’re only moving 15 miles away, and you have another location close by that they didn’t know about.
Trust me, you’re much better off asking members why they’re leaving, versus not knowing at all.
In this case, ignorance is not bliss.
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
