Contactless Assessments Drive Member Reengagement

Share of Mind Equals Share of Wallet

As members explore alternative fitness content providers outside the club and rely more on themselves to maintain fitness during the COVID-19 crisis, they can lose touch with the value they received through face-to-face guidance from fitness professionals.

This loss of mindshare and engagement puts clubs at risk of forfeiting their position as an indispensable coach and trusted advisor to their members when it comes to managing fitness and weight.

In turn, clubs risk either losing members altogether or being forced to accept a reduced percentage of member fitness expenditures moving forward. With reopening, however, there is an opportunity for clubs to recapture member attention and reclaim revenue.

Introducing Contactless Assessments

We know members who consistently receive progress evaluations and are continuously reconnected to their goals are the most likely to renew their memberships. 

In the current environment, most members have not received any form of structured assessment for an extended period — because they’ve been out of the club, and because assessments have traditionally required close or direct contact.

With this in mind, one powerful opportunity for clubs to immediately reengage members and reestablish their position of authority is to conduct contactless or virtual assessments.

Contactless assessments are a new and entirely digital approach to capturing and analyzing information about member fitness and weight. Member data can be collected through tools such as email and text, or through more sophisticated and specialized online assessment software.

Contactless assessments can be completed remotely or in-person through any web-enabled device such as a phone, tablet or computer, without the need for costly or space-consuming diagnostic hardware, and importantly, without concern for safety related to social distancing or sanitization.

This enables clubs to evaluate their members regardless of whether services are delivered on-site, online or both.

Contactless assessments can be used to re-onboard returning members as clubs reopen and as an offer to entice inactive members into substantive conversations about their fitness and weight, ideally leading to reenrollment.

Structuring a Contactless Assessment

The range and depth of metrics you decide to provide to your members will determine the amount of data you will need to capture in your assessment.

Potential diagnostics include, but are not limited to:

• Body composition 
• BMR and calorie needs
• Macronutrient requirements
• Fitness and weight goal analysis
• VO2 max and cardiovascular health
• Body and core strength
• Flexibility and balance
• Fitness behaviors, history and knowledge
• Weight management behaviors, history and knowledge
• Progress photos

Providing members with assessment reports, dashboards and educational content that can be referenced and updated in future progress evaluations is the ideal format for sharing results and for maximizing member retention.

You may elect to review assessments with your members in-person or in video meetings, or — depending on the capacity of your team — you may opt for a self-serve approach by offering members direct online access to their results.