Improving member retention at your health club is the sum of a lot of little things. The little things you do to improve member experience and results add up and compound to improve member retention results. The key is to maximise the number of retention drivers that put the odds of success in your favour.

Unexpected Gift

We all love to receive gifts, especially when they are unexpected. Consider giving new members an unexpected gift during the early stages of joining. This can be something simple like a gym towel or drink bottle, the key is to surprise the member sometime in the early stages after joining. You ideally want to create a positive feeling and experience that will help maintain the motivation and initial excitement of the member. Anything that you can do to increase the momentum of your new members, increases the chances that they will stay longer.

Introduce Key Staff

One of the key drivers of member retention is a connection between staff and members. This is why you should consider how you design your gym floor layout to maximise interaction between staff and members (such as having your gym desk near the entrance so members will have to walk past to enter the gym). To improve connection between members and staff it can be beneficial to introduce key staff to members. You can do this automatically via emailing new members a “meet the team” PDF or even an introduction video where trainers introduce themselves. This can help break the ice and make it easier for members to approach trainers if they are uncertain or have questions.

Consider your suspension policy

Most health clubs these days have a suspension policy where members can put their membership on hold for a period rather than cancel. Often gyms have policies that restrict the number of suspensions and the period of suspension. For example, a gym may have a policy where you can only suspend for 2 weeks. If a member is going away for 5 weeks, they will most likely cancel their membership in this instance with the intention to rejoin when they get back from holidays. However, life sometimes gets in the way and the member may not get around to re-joining or they may decide to join another club. It is important to avoid this scenarios by making it easy for your members to suspend their membership. For example, a policy for one health club when it comes to suspension is that a member can suspend for any time period up to 3 months. They can suspend a many times as they want in a 12 month period to a maximum of three months. This is a good strategy because the members membership automatically restarts after the suspension period so they never run the risk of losing the member completely. Consider your suspension policy to ensure you are focused on making maximising the chances that you keep your members in the long run.