“A good retention strategy means giving your members more reasons to stay, not just preventing the things that cause them to leave. There is a difference!”

Get Your Members to Stay—
Not Stray!

There is nothing like the comfort of knowing that your club’s membership dues will cover all your expenses with something left over for security, or to build your business. This scenario means a club is profitable from day one of the month and any new business sold that month is profit to be used as needed, or desired. Bringing in new members will always be necessary, but the best clubs spend less time, money and worry, trying to come up with new mousetraps to drive in sales, because they have a retention strategy in place that minimizes the number of members leaving to begin with.

THE REALITY however, is that many clubs are better at hunting for new members than keeping existing members happy and cultivating their loyalty.

The silent majority of unhappy members who cancel don’t usually voice their concern; they just give their notice. By that time, regardless of what you offer during their “exit interview”, it is often too late to save them. A final meeting to listen to concerns and offer ideas to keep members can be effective, but only as a last resort, not as a main strategy for keeping them. Incorporating your club’s own personal retention strategy to maximize the member experience is taking a big step in the right direction. As long as you have a clean club, well maintained equipment and employees you can work with, there are a variety of steps you can take for your brand to build loyalty and retention that do not involve spending mega bucks on the newest equipment and latest fitness trends.

Our training module to improve retention will also provide a crucial assessment of your existing operation to look at all the ways you have in your power to retain members and to identify all the reasons that your club may be springing “member leaks”. Not only will we implement a strategy to reduce the number of cancellations from members wishing to leave, but also to reduce the number of members wanting to cancel in the first place.

Some learning topics include:

  • Using your Club’s Human Resources to Improve your Club’s Member Experience
  • Ten Effective 0 to Low-cost ways to Keep your Members Happy
  • The Exit Discussion to have to Reduce Cancellations
  • The “Save Protocol” to Follow to Avoid Cancelling Members Slipping through the Cracks
  • How to Turn a Cancelling Member into a 12-month Commitment
  • How to get Club Employees Excited about Saving Cancellations
  • Writing a 30-day Renewal Notice to Members that will Entice them to Stay, not Alert them to Leave

GYM MEMBER CREED OF APPRECIATION

  • My members are special
  • I will never take my members for granted
  • It is a privilege to be able to serve them and I am thankful for the opportunity to do so
  • If one of my members has a problem with the club, I have a problem
  • I should take it personally when an unsatisfied member cancels
  • I will always remember that outside of my club I become a customer too
To receive a free phone, or email consultation, please list the main concerns you are having at your club and provide your preferred method of contact on our submission page.