Member retention is about people.
If your members are people, which I hope they are…
The have certain emotions, wants, and needs.
If you give your members a great experience and they feel like they are making progress towards their goals, they are more than likely to continue to come to your club.
Pretty simple huh!
The problem is that most health club are unremarkable with their customer service and support.
In fact, most health clubs are average at maintaining a high level of customer service. Members come in, sign up and are left floundering in many cases.
This is why most health clubs get average member retention results.
The first strategy we will cover in our member retention blueprint is having a clear member retention pathway.
This is simple but often overlooked.
A clean member retention process allows you to more easily maintain support and most importantly maintain accountability of your staff who will be responsible for supporting and connecting with members.
A clear member pathway should include how your introduce members to your club, what appointments will member have and what follow up points you will have with your members.
The pathway should focus on the first 90 days of membership as this is widely seen as the member retention period where the habit of regular gym attendance forms.
Your member retention pathway should become part of your health clubs culture.
Each staff member should be able to recite all the steps in the pathway without notice.
When you have a clear pathway and your staff know it back to front you have the foundation for great member retention.
Action Plan
In each email we will list a couple of action steps that you can take to implement some of the ideas and strategies covered.
Here is today’s actions.
- List what appointments a member should ideally complete during the first 90 days of membership?
- Is there a different pathway for different member types? Eg. Inexperienced vs Experienced.
- What contact points should you ideally have with your members throughout the first 90 days?
Good job, However, there is still work to be done.
A good plan means little without implementation.
In our next email we will cover our second member retention strategy which will build upon our foundation of having a clear pathway
Until then, have a great day.
For more information about setting up a clear member retention process at your club go to www.fitdesk.com.au