Challenge for Change - boosting activity in communities, with 7 tips for clubs, schools, and workplaces

Participating in the Challenge for Change can lead to increased community engagement, support for meaningful causes, and enhanced motivation and collaboration within the organization. It's a great way to promote physical activity, foster a sense of unity, and make a positive impact on the community. 🌟

You can take part in Challenge for Change as an individual, but it's much more fun, and you'll go much further if you take part with your club, school/college, or workplace.  

Find out more at ChallengeForChange.org.uk or read on to get 7 tips each for clubs, schools, and workplaces, and let us know your ideas to boost participation in the comments below...

What do Communities mean to your members?

There’s lots of talk about building communities around your club, but what are the best ways to do this, and how can it help with member retention?

This is tip number 7 in a series to celebrate GGFit’s 15 years in business. Stay tuned for more...

What is a Community?

The difference in definition between a club and a community is that a club is a group of people who come together for a common purpose, whereas a community is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

So, a club is not necessarily the building or venue

The Hybrid Fitness Model - Gym Owner Monthly Article October 2020

The future of the fitness industry is a combination of in-club and online experiences. This hybrid model has been forced on many businesses and members during lockdown. As clubs re-open, we are all adapting to new needs and uncertain about what is in store next. Health and fitness are high on many people’s agenda, but not everyone is willing or able to visit a gym.

What is Hybrid?

Hybrid is a combination of two different things. It is also a buzzword, covering everything from cars to bikes, golf clubs to genetics. It sounds cool, which is another reason why it is generating a lot of discussion in our industry right now. Hybrid fitness has been developing for years, the pandemic has simply accelerated things.

Fitness Business Survival & Minimising Cancellations

The global fitness industry has taken a massive hit from COVID-19. But health and fitness are now trending keywords, and everyone is talking about being more active, from Boris Johnson to Joe Wicks. If you’re ready, being a gym owner or personal trainer is about to become the new astronaut - one of the best jobs ever!

Gyms have had to close their doors, but the transition to online digital solutions is incredible. The industry was slowly heading in this direction, but now our hand has been forced, and we’re adapting quickly to change. At the same time as adopting tech solutions, we also need to keep a positive mindset, be more kind, and talk more.

Membership sales focus is out of the window. Now is the time to work harder than ever on your member retention. Here are 3 tips for fitness business survival and coming out the other side fighting fit with as many members as possible.

GDPR: one year later – have you filtered out the negative vibes?

It’s one year since the General Data Protection Regulation came into being, and the world doesn’t feel very different from a communication point of view. In the fitness industry, clubs are communicating less with members, and Net Promoter Scores have increased, as many detractors will have opted out of communications.

If you made the mistake of asking your members to opt-in, you may have created a culture of only listening to positive feedback. You’ll likely only be asking your ‘raving fans’ what they think, and getting a false NPS boost.

Positive feedback is fine;

January Gym-bashing backlash!

Liz Terry of Leisure Media has called for the annual gym-bashing to stop. With the rise of social media, constant content and fake news, there seem to be more stories of how evil the fitness industry is, with everyone from the Guardian to the Sunday Times saying how people should do without the gym.

The January rush story is never going to go away, but it’s worth talking about what we can do to combat this bad press. Here’s what we do when talking to friends and family, or taking the battle online…

• Debunking the myth that everybody joins in January, and is ‘gone’ by March

Drowning in data? How to make sense of the customer feedback deluge with MyCustomerLens

The fitness industry is collecting more customer feedback every day, but [how] is the data being used?

Let’s look at where some of this data comes from, how you can collect better feedback, and use the data to improve your bottom line.

• Net Promoter Score is now established in the fitness industry, and is a great benchmark. But you must ask the follow-up open question “Why did you give that score?” It's this follow-up question that turns NPS from another metric into the secret of continuous improvement. 
• Likewise, “Score your induction”, “How was the joining process”, etc. on a scale of e.g. 1-5 are interesting, but the free format comments that follow is where the real value lies if you want to improve your customer experience.
• Finally, there’s a wealth of information in leavers questionnaires, particularly when free format questions are asked (rather than a multiple choice “why are you leaving?”, which inevitable shows most ex-members “moving away”).

So, if you’re asking lots of free format questions, you have lots of comments.

Why SMS Member Comms Has the Best Hit Rate

At GGFit, we trigger hundreds of text messages (SMS) every day on behalf of our client clubs to their members. The primary objective is to get absent members to return, but we also send a lot of good news messages via SMS too.

We send a plenty of emails, letters, postcards, etc. everyday too, but for certain triggers, particularly absentees, we recommend SMS. This is because SMS is more effective at getting absent members to return. (Actually, postcards are most effective, but they are also most costly).

How to handle the membership end process - The Sales & Retention Convention

How do you manage the process of members leaving your club? Many organisations do nothing about leavers, sticking their heads in the sand. If handled well, the leave process can help turn members around, or at the very least, improve your chances of getting an ex-member to return

The first session at the autumn 2017 Sales & Retention Convention started where the last event left off, focusing on members who have perhaps been absent for some time, and now are trying to leave. We talked about the process that leavers should go through, the opportunity for dialogue or discussion with the member who wants to leave, and collecting and making use of critical membership data. If you want to hear this session repeated live, please check out the live webinar on Tuesday 21st November 2017.

Video Interview – the value of contracts and the pros and cons of letters, email and SMS for member retention

The good folk at The Fitness Network asked Guy some quick fire retention questions and filmed the answers.

With a background in IT systems, marketing and data analysis, Guy Griffiths from GGFit is regarded as one of the industry’s leading experts in maximising retention rates for health clubs through data mining/processes and targeted communications.

TFN met with Guy to learn:

• Whether or not clubs should be enforcing contracts
• The value of social media for member acquisition and retention.
• The pros and cons of SMS, letter and email as retention tools.
• The most effective referral tactics.

Member Retention Communications: Traditional vs Digital (Sales & Retention Convention pt1)

At last week's Sales & Retention Convention, Guy’s first presentation covered member retention communications. We discussed traditional comms channels (such as email, SMS and post), and digital channels (social media, blogs, vlogs, surveys and the web in general).

There’s clearly a big crossover between what we call traditional and digital, so another way to look at defining each is that traditional marketing is a push model, whereas digital is more pull. Members will receive traditional messages when you send (push) them out. Conversely, on digital channels such as social media, they will see content based on their likes, and previous comments and shares.

How to Make the Most from Make a Move - Part 2

The Technogym Make a Move challenge is a UK nationwide club challenge that encourages facilities using the MyWellness cloud to challenge their members to collect MOVEs. It is a team challenge, so it pits instructors against each other to find out which instructor team can collect the most MOVEs from 7th to 25th November.

If you missed the previous article about maximising your team, you can read it here.

Part 2 – Collecting MOVEs

You’ve got a whole bunch of members in your team now, but that’s no guarantee of collecting the most MOVEs. Here’s some quick tips on how to get up the nationwide leader-board and win the Skillmill:

How to Make the Most from Make a Move - Part 1

The Technogym Make a Move challenge is a UK nationwide club challenge that encourages facilities using the MyWellness cloud to challenge their members to collect MOVEs. It is a team challenge, so it pits instructors against each other to find out which instructor team can collect the most MOVEs from 7th to 25th November.

For motivation, there are 2 focuses on prizes. The winning team’s club will win a Skillmill, plus £500 in education vouchers. Although this will benefit the members at that club, there’s more prizes up for grabs for everyone who takes part. The top 20 participants nationwide will each win a Technogym goody-bag and training kit, plus online coaching and an Olympic training seminar. Finally, everyone who takes part will get fitter and healthier, and have more interaction with instructors, which will help them stay members for longer!

Part 1 – Collecting Members

So how to you get as many members to sign-up to your team? Here’s our top tips list for getting as many members involved in this (or any) challenge:

Why you should come to the next Sales & Retention Convention on 15th Nov

Spoiler alert: this article previews content for the forthcoming Sales & Retention Convention. If you’ve already booked your tickets, and like suspense, please move along. If not, read this and make your decision at the end…

There are massive benefits to linking your sales and retention processes. Primarily, your members will benefit, as they’ll stick around longer and get fitter and healthier. But this will also help your club’s bottom line, with more sales and better retention.

Uniting members and making teams with Pokémon Go – Part 4

Now that you are all set and and your members are raring to go, its time for your club to join a team to take over your local PokéGym.

Using Pokémon GO to get active is not a new concept, but integrating it into your health club or gym can help you to retain members, inspire fitness through a fun new concept and maybe even catch a few new members along the way.

In this article we will explain to you a bit more about PokéGyms and battles, as well as giving you a few ideas on how to integrate these aspects of the game into your club’s Pokémon program.

Catching, Hatching and getting your members moving with Pokémon GO

Improving health club retention with Pokémon Go – Part 3

In the last article we gave you a few hints on how to integrate Pokémon GO with your health club marketing plans.  Not only will this help with member retention, but it also gives your club a steady social media content stream that is highly engaging.  If you would like to know more about this secondary benefit, get in touch with our team or download the full Pokémon GO guide. If you need to go back to basics, check out our 1 minute getting started guide for health clubs.

So in this article we’re giving you ideas and methods on catching, hatching and exercising for your new Pokémon GO programs.

Is your club a PokéStop or PokéGym?

If your club is already a PokéStop or PokéGym, then you should find more Pokémon nearby, and can also attach lure modules to attract more (read on to find out how). Let members and non-members know with posters and social media posts, and have your staff (create master Pokémon trainers) educate members about the game.

Getting your club ready to play Pokémon GO and improve your health club retention – Part 2

By now, you must have heard of Pokémon GO – the latest app craze to hit our mobiles this summer! But if you haven’t read this quick guide first.

Over the next few articles GG Fit will tell you exactly how you can get your club on board with Pokémon GO and use the game to help your member retention.  First, you will need to get your club ready.  Here’s how…

Locating your nearest PokéStop or PokéGym

First up on your to-do list is locating your local PokéStops or PokéGyms.  It could be that you are one!

What is Pokémon GO – a quick guide for Health Clubs

Here’s your one-minute guide to Pokémon GO…

Pokémon GO uses a mobile phone’s GPS to locate the trainer’s position on a local area map, showing Pokémon activity, PokéStops, and PokéGyms. When you find a Pokémon, you can view it in augmented reality, so the creature appears against the real-world background, whereby you can take a screen shot to share with friends.

Do your members enjoy being single?

This is a guest post from Joshua Uwadiae of WeGym...

When your members buddy up they will stick around longer, see more results and you will make more money.

Members who make a friend at the gym are 40 per cent less likely to cancel their membership, according to the TRP 10,000 report. 

Team sports naturally engender a social atmosphere and make friend-making easy, it's less natural to strike up a friendship with a stranger on the treadmill next to you. This is why operators up until this point have never been able to scalably influence this process. 

How can you help more of your members buddy up and make friends?

LetsMoveForABetterWorld - Prepare! GGFit Tips (2/5)

The overall aim of #LetsMoveForABetterWorld is to get more people moving, promote activity, and make the world a better and healthier place. It’s a great way to encourage your members to move more, and to bring their friends down to contribute to your club’s moves. Taking part will also raise the profile of your club in your community, boost your social media presence, motivate your staff, and what’s more, you could win some very cool prizes! 

Full details are on the Let'sMove microsite, but read on for a quick summary as to how you should be preparing right now…