Our retention strategy number 2 is what we call entering the pathway.
In the last email we talked about the importance of having a clear member retention pathway as this allows your club to monitor members through this process and also maintain accountability with your staff members who will be responsible for the success of your members.
Most health clubs unfortunately lose the game before they really start.
The first two weeks in the member’s journey are really important.
Members who have joined have already taken some action towards their desire to achieve their goal
The member already has some momentum, they are moving forward towards their goal.
They have invested energy to get off the couch, come to the gym, purchase a membership etc.
It is important that you take advantage of this momentum because once its lost it’s almost impossible to get back.
A study into member attendance showed that members with low attendance in the first 1 month of membership have a much lower retention rate than members who come at least 2 times per week over the first month.
What was alarming is that the study showed only 6% of members with low usage were able to change their behaviour with intervention and assistance.
This means that if you lose the natural momentum of a new member you only have a small chance of being able to turn it around.
Despite this most health clubs continue to have weak processes for inducting their members.
If you’ve followed the action steps from the first strategy you should now have a clear idea of your member pathway.
To keep the momentum going it’s vital that you ensure that EVERY new member enters your member retention and support pathway as quickly as possible.
To do this, we advise that you book members in for their first appointment at the point of joining.
DO NOT leave it up to the member to book in at a later date.
This is creating a massive crack in your induction process that a whole bunch of members will fall into.
We also advise that every new member regardless of their experience level go through an initial induction or consultation.
It is still important that you understand an experienced members goals and make them feel welcome at the club.
A further measure to consider is what we call an induction check.
If you really want to ensure you take full advantage of your new member’s momentum than we recommend that you make an induction check part of your weekly to do list.
The induction check is simply looking at the members who joined in the previous week. (You can get this from your management system)
And comparing this list with your appointment report log from within FitDesk. (To get this go to reports, appointment report, and scroll down beneath the summary)
The goal is to see which members that joined in the last week have not been booked in for their first appointment.
Completing this on a weekly basis provides you with the opportunity to follow up and re-engage members to get them back in the pathway.
To be successful this has to be done on a weekly basis otherwise you run the risk of losing that all important member momentum.
This process alone has helped several club turn around their retention results.
In fact, a case study on member retention, Mr Wayne Westwood from the Griffith Park Athletic Health Club said “The process is a little painstaking, but it’s worth it; we’ve seen a drop of 18-20 cancellations per month since we began tracking this way. One has to conclude that it’s having an impact.”
This process is made a lot less painstaking through FitDesk’s reporting so try to make this a part of your weekly to do list and you will ensure that members continue to move forward and that any cracks in your induction processes are covered over
Action Steps
- When can you schedule your weekly induction check reporting? Pick a day and time and put it into your schedule.
Hope you’ve found this strategy useful.
If you’re interest in improving your health club’s induction processes you may be interested in our software tool- FitDesk www.fitdesk.com.au which can help you and your trainers induct and monitor members more effectively.