First things first - listen to your new members!

We know that the first few visits are key to retaining new gym members, and of those visits, the very first visit is the most vital. Whether the member has already joined, or is on a guest pass, their experience and feelings of their first visit will shape the route their journey takes.

There is an abundance of advice and recommendations on how the experience should be, from building rapport to setting goals, exercise programme libraries to recommended minimum visits, and when the next review should be. You’re better off keeping it simple.

The 80:20 principle of gyms

The Pareto Principle, or 80:20 rule, can be applied to a lot of life and business situations, and it's a great lens through which to look at health clubs…

The principle is most easily explained with a few examples. You wear around 20% of your clothes around 80% of the time. You spend 80% of your social time with 20% of your friends. And in business, 80% of your revenue often comes from 20% of your clients. The split is not always 80:20, it can be 70:30, but is sometimes 90:10 or more extreme. For this post, we’ll stick to the 80:20 split for simplicity.

A Different Class for new beginners?

It's widely acknowledged that classes and group exercise help to engage members more and therefore improve member retention. But how many extra classes do you put on in the busy new member periods of January/February or September?

Hopefully, you know how many of your new members are completely new to exercise, and can adjust or balance the class timetable accordingly. Classes like Spin, HIIT, Tabata, or ViPR are all very exciting for the industry, and for the experienced gym bunny. But

New Fitness Class to take UK by storm

New Year’s resolutioners are flocking to gyms as usual this January, but in 2014 there’s a new class designed to motivate more members to lose weight.

The “Twerkout” is a full body exercise class, based around moves made popular at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. It’s a great class for beginners and experienced exercisers and focuses on bums, legs and core strength.

Retention Focus - Do we need people?

The LFX event in Ireland last month was a great success, with some really good audience interaction and debate around member retention. There were many good questions, one of which we’d like to expand on here – please let us know your thoughts in the comments below?

“Should we focus more on staff coaching or member messaging… surely staff are more effective at interacting with members and improving retention than sending messages.”

The Perfect Health Club

In an infinite universe, where everything's possible, there's a gym somewhere that has reached its member capacity. All the equipment is being utilised all the time, and the layout is such that members can switch between exercises with minimum waiting and fuss. The only time that new members can join is when existing members move out of the area (which they rarely do, as the club is so good), or die (which they hardly ever do, as they're all so fit!)

Of course, there are plans to expand

Do gym members need rewards?

We've been interested by the furore created by news that Tesco plan to use face-scan technology to target ads at petrol stations. The tech is not new, and the concept does not bother us; after all, you’ll see much more targeted ads on your web-browser every time you look.

Nevertheless, this started us thinking about loyalty and customer rewards in other industries. What rewards do you enjoy? What is it about the service, experience, or product you receive from your favourite brand that makes you want to shout about it from the rooftops, or just tell all your friends?

How often should you encourage your members to visit?

The results of last month’s newsletter survey are now in. We asked our readers about members’ weekly visit patterns:

1. How often you think members should visit to have the best chance of sticking around?
2. How often does the average member visit the gym?

The results are interesting; there are a lot of reports that say members who visit 2-3 times a week stay for longer, and that’s what the majority of our newsletter readers think. However, there’s also a group who believe that once a week is enough, and a handful of people who think that 4-7 times a week is best for member retention.

Sport the difference, and motivating exercise programmes

What’s the difference between the sports in column A and those in column B?

A	B
Football	Athletics
Rugby	Cycling
Basketball	Rowing
Hockey	Swimming

Take a few minutes to think about it while we tell you how we think most exercise programmes in most gyms could be improved.

LIW 2013 review - payasUgym, GYMetrix & Joggle

Leisure Industry Week 2013 brought the usual busy build-up, particularly as it coincided with the launch of our book Stick Around, and we had back-to-back meetings for a couple of days in Birmingham.

There were some big changes – a new location in the NEC in hall 4, which was a little cosier that the usual large space of Hall 18. This seemed to create more of a buzz, and the exhibition floor felt busier than the last few years,