How can you boost the number of members coming back to your fitness business?

How many of your members have returned in the first month of reopening? Clubs we have spoken with range from 20% to 80% of members back. The lower figures are sometimes low because they are based on pre-lockdown total membership, and the top end are often based on optimistic feelings (or visits, rather than memberships).

Who has not returned yet?

Where we have accurate measures, the return rate after one month of reopening is around 50%. This immediately creates a segment of members who have not yet returned, who we need to campaign to get back into the club. One email will not suffice, but we will come back to these members in a moment, because there’s not so much an elephant in the room, as an elephant who’s NOT in the room…

Getting back with your Ex… members

As gyms in the UK start to re-open, it might seem too soon to start thinking about ex-member campaigns. But as your loyal members return, and you start to measure your capacity, it is likely that you will need to get some ex-members back too, to boost your revenue. 

We’re going to explore when you should be getting in touch with members who have cancelled, how and what you need to say to them, and how to balance this message to ensure you keep your regular members happy.

Gym Owner Monthly - The Big Interview with Guy Griffiths

Gym Owner Monthly, August 2020, Guy Griffiths talks data, motivation, bridging the gap between exercise and technology, and recovery in the Big Interview

How did you get into the fitness industry?

My mission is to help operators to support their members’ health and wellbeing. 

After 12 years as a consultant and ultimately as director of sales and marketing for a banking software firm, I was looking for something more meaningful. I wanted to help people to be healthier and fitter, rather than help banks to make more money. I had always been a regular gym member, and knew retention was an issue, but that exercise data was under-used.

I talked to staff at the clubs where I was a member, and other clubs around London, and built connections with a few suppliers. I networked relentlessly online and at events like the FIA (ukactive) conferences, LIW (Leisure Industry Week), and SIBEC. I supported and presented at the IOU (Independent Operators Unite) events at LIW.

Without the experience or biases of working from the ground up, I think from a member’s perspective, often questioning the status quo. When the answer is “because we’ve always done it like that”, it is usually time for change.