An effective process for inducting new members should be about enabling behaviour change as much as about learning how to lift weights.

When a new member joins a health club, most centres focus on providing the member with an exercise program.

This will involve some cardio, some resistance training and perhaps some group fitness. Often the missing step is scheduling these sessions into the members week. Each member has a unique lifestyle and commitments. They may work long hours; they may have kids sport on a Sunday etc. By discussing this with a member, you can help them think through the best days to exercise.

It can be useful to take into consideration things such as when will the members will power, and motivation is strongest.

For example, I am not a morning person. I hate exercising in the morning. The idea of it is painful. I much prefer to exercise in the afternoon or early evening before dinner. The thought of going to the gym at 5:30 pm for me is 100 times more appealing than going to the gym at 5:30 am.

However, someone else may be the exact opposite, perhaps they are a morning person and jumping out of their skin at 5 am.

Do you see why it is essential to understand this about a member?

Do you see how it can be used to help create a more effective plan for the member?

Another merit of creating a weekly schedule or plan is the potential psychological impact it can have on a member.

When something is scheduled, it is almost like a micro-commitment. This is why there is merit with helping a new member plan out and commit to the days they are going to come to the gym.

The power of scheduling in the role of habit foundation in the book Atomic Habits. Author James Clear explores what make habits stick. James explains a research experiment done in with 248 people from Great Britain to build better exercise habits. The subjects were divided into three groups.

Group 1 (Control group)

They were asked to track how much they exercise over two weeks.

Group 2 (Motivation group)

They were asked to track their workouts and to read some material on the benefits of exercise. The researches also informed the members of this group of the positive impact of training on lowering the risk of heart disease and improving health.

Group 3 (Final Group)

The final group, underwent the same process and education as group 2. However, they were also asked to formulate a plan for when and where they would exercise over the following weeks.

Individually, each member completed the following sentence. During the next two weeks, I will participate at least 20 minutes of exercise on this day at this time in this place. (They recorded specific days and times)

The results, first of all, showed that there was little difference between group 1 and group 2 suggesting the motivational materials and pep talk had a minimal effect on exercise levels. In these two groups, 35-38 percent of participants exercised at least once per week.

In contrast, 91% of the 3rd group exercised at least once per week. This is a huge difference.

Now, exercising once per week is not going to lead to life-changing results; however, what we should take from this research is the principle of planning and committing.

In the book, James calls this principle Implementation intention- A plan you make beforehand on how you plan to implement a particular habit.

He argues that one of the critical drivers of lasting behaviour change and habit formation is environmental cues.

Two familiar cues are time and location. Implementation intentions leverage both of these cues.

The following formula can be used to develop implementation intentions- When situation X arises I will perform response Y.

So for example, when I get home from work on a Tuesday, I get into my gym clothes and go straight to the gym.

People who make a specific plan for when and where they will exercise are more likely to stick with the plan and make it a lasting habit.

To improve member retention results we need to stack the odds in our favour, so taking advantages of principles such as getting members to plan out their week can help stack the odds in our favour.

The weekly plan process should become a part of your standard operating procedure for inducting every new member.

We recommend working with members to plan out using a blank weekly time table (7 days divided into AM and PM) The specific days and times they plan to attend the gym. Limit the commitment to 2-3 sessions.

We recommend including this as a process in your initial appointment with a member. The weekly plan can be written out for the member to take home with them or you can use a software tool such as FitDesk which has the capability built in – www.greenedesk.com.

This small change into the way you induct new members can have a tangible impact on your customer retention rates.