Amber Martinez, the COO of JEM Wellness Brands – Crunch Fitness, shares why the future of fitness won’t be won by signing more members, but through retention.
I’ve spent nearly three decades in this industry and one thing has remained true through every trend, economic cycle, competitive shift and new piece of technology.
The fitness industry never stands still.
Consumer expectations evolve. Competition evolves. Technology evolves. And if we’re paying attention, so do we.
For most of my career, I’ve kept my finger firmly on the pulse of our industry. I’ve always believed our responsibility as leaders isn’t simply to respond to trends. It’s to understand them early enough that we can build something better before everyone else catches up.
That’s where my attention is today.
Not just membership sales. Not just unit growth. It’s largely on retention.
Because I believe retention is one of the most important conversations our industry should be having.
Attrition isn’t a Problem to Fix, it’s a Story to Understand
Across the fitness industry, member attrition has steadily become one of our greatest challenges. While rates vary by operator and market, many traditional health clubs lose 35% to 50% of their membership annually, and some operators experience even higher turnover depending on pricing model and demographics. That means an enormous amount of our energy is spent replacing members we’ve already earned.
The easy answer is to look for a single cause like pricing, competition, economic uncertainty, consumer commitment or technology. But I don’t believe it’s any one thing.
Today’s consumer has more options than ever before, such as:
- Boutique studios.
- Big-box gyms.
- Recovery centers.
- Pilates.
- Running clubs.
- Pickleball.
- Wearables.
- Digital fitness.
- AI coaching.
- Home equipment.
- Wellness apps.
- Nutrition platforms.
- And community-based fitness.
The question isn’t whether people value health and wellness. They do. In fact, they value it more than ever. The difference is they no longer expect one business to meet every need. They’re building personal wellness ecosystems that fit their lives.
That’s an important distinction.
Consumers aren’t becoming less committed to wellness. They’re becoming more selective about where they invest their time, attention and money. The memberships they keep are the ones that become part of their identity. That’s where our opportunity lives.
We Have to Earn the Right to Stay in Their Lives
For years, our industry has become incredibly good at getting people to join. Marketing is smarter, technology is faster and sales processes are stronger, but joining is only the beginning.
Retention isn’t built at the point of sale. It’s built in thousands of moments afterward, by the front desk team member who knows someone’s name, the personal trainer who remembers their goals, the group fitness instructor who notices when they’ve been gone, the manager who reaches out before a member quietly disappears, and the club that consistently feels welcoming, clean, energetic and alive.
Retention isn’t a department. It’s the cumulative result of every interaction we create.
If our members only think about us when their payment hits their bank account, we’ve already lost. We must become something they rely on. Somewhere they belong. A place that makes their lives better every time they walk through our doors.
Loyalty is an Experience, not a Program
I think we sometimes confuse loyalty with longevity.
They’re different.
Members don’t stay because they’ve been with us for years. They stay because every month we continue giving them reasons to.
Loyalty isn’t built through contracts. It’s built through trust, consistency, emotional connection and experiences that repeatedly reinforce, “I’m glad I belong here.”
That’s why our team spends an incredible amount of time studying member behavior. We’re asking different questions:
- What makes someone fall in love with a club?
- When do engagement patterns begin changing?
- What behaviors predict someone staying?
- What behaviors predict someone leaving?
- What moments matter most during day 1, day 30, day 90, six months, one year and beyond?
Because if we can understand those moments, we can intentionally design experiences around them instead of hoping they’ll happen naturally.
Data Tells Us What Happened, People Tell Us Why
One of the most exciting opportunities we have today is the ability to combine human leadership with technology. AI is giving us insights we simply couldn’t uncover a few years ago. We can identify behavior patterns, predict risk, personalize communication, recognize engagement trends and understand sentiment at scale.
These tools are incredibly powerful, but AI should never replace relationships — it should strengthen them.
Data can tell me a member hasn’t checked in for three weeks; only a conversation tells me their father got sick. Data tells me someone stopped taking classes; a coach discovers they lost confidence after an injury. Technology creates awareness; people create connection.
The future belongs to organizations that know how to leverage both.
Growth Isn’t Just About More Members
One of the biggest mindset shifts I believe our industry needs is this: Growth isn’t only measured by how many members we acquire. It’s measured by how many members choose to stay.
Those are two very different businesses. Anyone can buy attention, but loyalty must be earned.
When members stay longer, everything changes. Lifetime value improves, referrals increase, marketing costs decrease, culture strengthens, teams become more energized because they know the people they serve, communities become more connected, and financial performance becomes healthier because it’s built on relationships instead of constant replacement.
Retention isn’t the opposite of growth — it’s sustainable growth.
The Clubs That Win Will Feel Different
I don’t believe the next generation of successful fitness companies will simply have better equipment or lower prices. I believe they’ll create experiences people can’t imagine living without.
Members will feel known, seen, celebrated, supported and connected.
The club won’t simply be where they work out, it will become part of who they are. That’s incredibly difficult to replicate, and it’s incredibly valuable.
I’ve always believed our industry is about far more than fitness. Every day we have the privilege of improving someone’s quality of life. Helping someone become healthier, more confident, resilient and connected. That’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly.
It’s also why I believe retention deserves so much more of our attention.
Not because losing members impacts our business, but because losing people means losing opportunities to continue changing lives.
The businesses that thrive over the next decade won’t be the ones chasing the next marketing tactic or trying to squeeze one more transaction out of every member. They’ll be the organizations that never lose sight of why people came to them in the first place.
Our responsibility isn’t simply to convince members to join, it’s to make sure they never question why they stayed.
If we keep that as our compass, I believe our industry’s future is incredibly bright.
Because when we stop thinking about members as transactions and start serving them as people, retention becomes more than a business metric. It becomes the natural outcome of delivering an experience that’s genuinely worth coming back to.
