Four Strategies to Boost Member Retention

Nick Thornton, the vice president of sales at Club Automation, shares why improving member retention requires a multifaceted strategy that’s part of your larger club management plan.

Retention is and always will be a hot topic for health and fitness clubs. Many people have heard the industry standard statistic that it costs five times more to acquire a new member than it does to retain an existing one.

However, the initial monetary benefit of investing in retention is just a small part of the equation. Building a culture of loyalty, commitment and engagement pays in dividends when considering your club’s reputation and success in the market.

Improving retention at a health and fitness club requires a multifaceted strategy that’s part of your larger fitness club management plan. But any way you spin it, member attendance always plays an important role. By tracking member attendance, you can get a snapshot of the level of engagement in your club, as well as the health of your club’s membership retention. Additionally, creating an environment that emphasizes community will keep members wanting more.

Here are four tips that will help you turn the corner and maximize member retention:

1. Segment attendance tracking by length of membership. The secret to retention is knowing your members as deeply as you can. Getting a clear breakdown of how often members are coming to your club compared to how long they’ve been members of your club can guide your future interactions with them. If you notice a trend where member attendance drops off after six months, you can implement a rewards or loyalty program that kicks in at six months to jump start engagement and get them back in your doors.

2. Track overall check-ins, plus class and program attendance. In addition to knowing how often members are checking into your club, it’s important to see how else they’re engaging with your programs, classes and other offerings. With knowledge about what types of classes and programs members prefer, and even which they’re willing to plan their weekly schedules around, you can constantly innovate new ways to keep your members engaged and invested in your club.

3. Build a stronger community by staying in front of them with a mobile app. Your members expect to interact with your club how they want, when they want and where they want. Thankfully, a solid member app can address all three. By making your mobile experience comprehensive and easy to use, you create a great opportunity to increase retention. At the end of the day, when your members are satisfied with how easily they can access the services you offer, they stick around.

4. Engage members by leveraging a CRM tool. Engaging your members is not something you have to do all on your own. Utilizing a customer relationship management (CRM) tool is a great resource to have to assist your team in the goal to retain and engage your members. A CRM tool can help track your club’s membership lifecycle and create unique cadences and scripts for calls, texts, emails and more — thus allowing your team to drive sales, retention and grow a community.