Personalization: The New Club Revenue Stream

Evolt shares how personalization can help improve clubs’ revenue streams.

When around half of club members drop their membership in a year — according to industry surveys — retaining members isn’t just important, it’s critical to the longevity of your club. But while many operators know and struggle with this, the answer can be shockingly simple: personalizing the member experience. Instead of promoting club amenities to existing and new members take these three steps to personalizing the experience and locking in members for the long haul.

Communications: It’s All About Them

When people use your name you feel good, right? It’s because, in the simplest form, you are being recognized as an individual. When front desk staff use a member’s name at check in it creates a relationship. Make it a priority to recognize and remember members in person and online. So that means a friendly greeting every single time a member steps through the door as well as personalized emails, e-offers and phone outreach from club leadership for occasional check-ins with members on their feelings, preferences and needs. In this way members feel seen, heard and valued and will keep coming back for more.

Offers and Incentives: Make Them Feel Valued

Instead of offering blanket discounts, create personalized offers. A week long free nutrition plan. A month where instructors offer free fitness assessments and personalized training plans. Or free sessions with any of your club’s tertiary staff: wellness coaches, recovery technicians. It’s a simple marketing switch that says you recognize members as individuals with specific fitness goals and needs, but it also cross promotes revenue-generating consulting and support services within the club.

Smart Measurement for Member Engagement

Knowledge is power, but it also helps with motivation and keeping members on track with their fitness programs at your club. New tools and technologies now allow clubs to offer more than a generic BMI reading. The latest intelligent body composition analysis units can take as little as 60 seconds and read a member’s body composition in terms of muscle and fat without any need to draw blood or remove clothing. To members the experience can be even more simple than a blood pressure check but the personalized analysis is incredibly beneficial to members and their clubs. Knowing body composition means being able to understand performance limitations and set better goals for workouts and nutrition. It’s effective for members who can feel more informed and empowered, and a revenue generator for clubs. Some report as much as $500 a week in revenue from even a modest volume of body scanning. That’s an easy win by any measure in the fight to engage, motivate and retain members and their fees.