Gym member retention is one of the primary concerns of most gym owners. Even when you reach your membership goals, and you’re constantly adding new members from your community, you always worry about keeping those numbers.
When we evaluate how much it costs to get a new member versus how much it cost to retain current members, we see it’s much more expensive to acquire a new customer.
Are you tired of the never-ending cycle of three new members in and one lost member out?
What if we can flip this routine on its head?
Interested? Keep reading.
The reality is, loyal gym members are much more valuable to your business the longer they stay a member of your gym. To know whether they are loyal, you must use current customer satisfaction as a key indicator of your gym member retention.
Customer satisfaction is one of the highest motivators for staying with your gym. Not only will these customers be more loyal if they’re happy, they’re also more likely to refer your gym to their friends.
Two pillars of your fitness business success: retention and word of mouth.
It’s simple, all you need to do is provide epic customer service to boost your gym member retention.
Yes, it’s that easy, just epic customer service!
Article Contents
Invest in Customer Service to Boost Gym Membership Retention
Look at the facts:
- 81% of consumers are more likely to give a company repeated business after good service. – Source
- On average, loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase. – Source
- Companies that prioritize the customer experience generate 60% higher profits than their competitors. – Source
Your customers buy a gym membership, they are buying a service from you. This service Will be judged by how your team treats each member. The retention of each member is tied to the emotion that a member has for your business, that in turn is tied directly to your customer service.
Let’s explore the advantages of great customer service:
Great customer service
- Increases the value of your fitness business.
- Build brand loyalty and a long-term relationship with your gym members period
- Increases your gym member retention.
Out of all the impact customer service has, the biggest impact on your bottom line is using it to increase your gym member retention. This starts at the front desk, is carried by every coach and trainer, and prioritized from you, the owner.
Great customer service will make members want to stay with you.
Here are 6 steps to increasing gym member retention with customer service.
1. Avoid the “I’ll check with the owner/manager.”
You must empower your team to make decisions and own the issues. Customer service is always better in the first point of contact can respond to the customer and make independent decisions on behalf of the company.
2. Make the customer’s job easy
As your gym grows, your business and the process for your customers to experience the service becomes more complex. This is why it’s very important to audit your members’ experience and identify any pain points your members have with your business.
For example. Is it easy for your gym members to pay? Is it easy to find out the class schedule?
If it’s not, it must be!
3. When you make a mistake, apologize
We all make mistakes. I make them all the time; that’s life.
No one expects you to be perfect all the time, but they do expect you to care about them as people. People value honesty and transparency, especially when your gym is clearly wrong. Being honest with your members strengthens the relationship and will help you improve your gym member retention.
4. Say thank you to your members
Your customers have other choices. Appreciate them for choosing you. Without your gym members, you have no business. Genuinely say, express, and show your appreciation by saying Thank You!
Regularly thank them for choosing to be members of your gym.
5. Measure membership satisfaction
What gets measured gets managed. This simple truth will keep you from missing the mark in your fitness business. You must ask and document if your customers are happy.
Experienced businesses know that you only hear from a few unhappy customers. The rest will take their business elsewhere. Since we’re focusing on retention, this should matter to you. Use simple quarterly surveys to gauge the temperature of your gym members.
6. Go above and beyond
Now that customer service is the core of your business; you should always try to go above and beyond.
Here are a few ways you can do this for your gym.
(I recommend using these suggestions in training programs with your team.)
- People remember the first and last impressions.
Make an amazing first and last impression an objective for all team members.
- Your members must feel important and special.
As your team to listen for events and activities in your members lives and ask them about this event in your member’s life. Allow the discussion to go beyond the gym, so your team can learn more about the individual.
- Become an active listener.
Whenever a member is speaking to a team member, make sure they clarify, paraphrase and summarize to confirm and show that each member know’s what they are really saying.
The only way we’ll ever be able to increase your gym member retention is to improve the quality of the service you provide.
Customer service is a critical component of keeping your members coming back.
Want additional tips to keep your clients loyal? Schedule a 30-minute call with one of our consultants to learn more ways you can retain members.
— Peter
P.S. Check out these 10 creative fitness marketing ideas
