Monday 18 March 2024

When should you focus on retention efforts?

When is a good time to focus on gym member retention? 

Since loads of people join the gym in January, and “will be gone by April”, surely March is the month to work more on retention? 

Time for some myth-busting…

It’s true that lots of members join a health club in January, and even in the fitness industry, there’s an acceptance (at bad clubs) that they’ll be gone by April. Admitting this as the norm is poor business practice, and incredibly short sighted. You need to constantly work at getting members to stay (and therefore pay) longer. The days of retention through a 12-month contract and 3-month notice period are thankfully nearly all extinct, and nowadays most clubs work on retention through good customer service, added value and communication.


Friday 9 February 2024

Choices & Coaching for Health

“I don’t want to tell people what to do (e.g. join a gym, don’t eat takeaways), but I do want them to be healthier… how do I do it?” asked Kim Leadbeater MP at #ActiveUprising last week.

This was the best question in a whole lot of brilliant speeches, panels, pitches, and discussions at the ukactive annual conference. Kim has a passion for health and fitness, and is a force for change in the work she does. 

We love her “Healthy Britain – A new approach to health and wellbeing policy” paper from March 2023, and also enjoyed listening to her talk at the Why Sports conference last year.

Kim's speech and subsequent panel debate at Active Uprising really talked to the need for more of a coaching approach in health and fitness, rather than the traditional prescription or programming methods we are used to.

Simply put, if people choose their own pathways, they are much more likely to follow them, and succeed, than if they are told what to do.

Wednesday 17 January 2024

Motivation, Behaviour Change, and Health Coaching for the Fitness Industry

I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation over the holiday season, reading articles and listening to podcasts from inside and outside the fitness industry. Conversations with clients, partners, and trusted advisors feed and reinforce my thoughts on this, so here they are.

I’m talking primarily about motivation to be active, or to be healthier, of course.


It’s worth noting that behaviour change is very difficult, particularly when it comes to being active. It’s becoming more difficult too. Fast food or anything else we need can be delivered on demand to our door, while TV or social media sticks us to our couches, and AI is doing more of our actual thinking of us, while we sleep less. I’m not sure if we’re turning into the human characters in the film WALL-E, being softened up so that we can’t fight the Terminators.

So, behaviour change is difficult… we need more support and more motivation, to combat the evil kangaroos driving us towards an early grave.

Tuesday 12 December 2023

Expand, Franchise, or Sell - The Independent Gyms Winter 2023 Panel Debate

The opening panel at the Independent Gyms Conference is designed to get delegates thinking, interacting, and sharing ideas. The session introduced three gym owners who spoke candidly about their businesses, their experiences, and the lessons they've learnt along the way. 
We heard all about the details, drivers, and motives that lead gym owners to expand their operations, to franchise, and to sell the businesses they've built. 
There was some great audience interaction and questions as always, and delegates were talking about the session all day.

Independent Gyms Panel Debate

Expand, Franchise, or Sell - Independent Gyms Winter Conference

Wednesday 8 November 2023

People Power - culture as the cornerstone for great retention

Great member retention is only really possible with great staff. There are lots of strategies, tools, and systems that help, but without good people, they are just not as effective.

A whole chapter is dedicated to people in the book Stick Around (strategies to keep your gym members motivated). Staff is also a recurring theme discussed by many guests on the YourDreamGym podcast, and is often prioritised above certain equipment, spaces, or types of gym.

Motivating and inspiring staff is also one of the hardest nuts to crack, in any industry. There’s a wealth of articles on this across the internet, so we’re going to focus on three key areas that you can look at in your business, that will help with your member retention.

Wednesday 18 October 2023

Are Dormant Customers Healthier? (for business)

On health club membership retention, the age-old debate endures on the value of dormant members - those who have memberships but rarely use them. Are they a burden or an opportunity? In this article, we explore the concept of dormant members, highlighting the potential benefits for both gym and member. We'll discuss the art of re-engagement, optimal timing, and strategies to transform these sleepers back into active members.
Discover why it's not only ethical but also a smart business move to prioritize these members, reshaping the fitness industry into a healthier, more sustainable business.


There’s been some discussion in health club news recently about how ‘sleeper members’ of gyms and health clubs still get ‘real benefits’ of being a member despite not visiting. Some feel it will motivate them in future or enjoy the fact that they can [could] go when they want to, while others 'feel good' about having a membership they don’t use.


Do the right thing – ethical business practices

With this debate going on, lots of people have asked me what I think about sleepers. I have always advised clubs to re-engage with as many dormant members as possible.

Almost 10 years ago, I presented the view of Running an Ethical Health Club at The Retention Convention. Key to the talk was encouraging absentees to return.

At the time of the COVID lockdown closures, nearly all clubs experienced significant membership losses, many of whom were previously sleepers. Since then, I’ve doubled down on my views on dormant members, and ensure that the clubs we are working with do the same.

If a customer is paying for a service, but not using it, they are more likely to cancel than to come back, particularly if you take no other action as their service provider.

Getting Back to Normal

Several recent conversations and debates have talked about clubs wanting to return to ‘normal’ post pandemic. I’m shocked and saddened that so many clubs have returned to normal in terms of dormant members, as discussed in this June article… Absentees are Back!

Many clubs have returned to their normal ‘strategy’ of working far too hard on chasing new members and trying to hit sales targets, rather than focusing on the members they already have. Here’s a prioritised list of what a good, ethical club will focus on to improve membership retention and growth.

Key strategic focuses for growth:

  1. New members
  2. Active members
  3. Dormant members
  4. Ex-members and prospects
Your dormant members are worth more than your hot leads and prospects. They’re already paying you, you don’t need to offer ‘no join fee’, just get them back into the habit of visiting regularly. They’ll buy more… whether it’s secondary spend, or just one more month!

Won’t they cancel?

The big fear for most clubs is that you wake the sleeping dogs. Here's another note from the archives... Communicating with Absent payers.

Firstly, timing is critical, as we’ve discussed many times. It’s easier to recover members in the 21 to 45-day window of absence. Some clubs go much longer, with multiple contact channels, and 5-7 attempts. But if you start with a first call or message to members who’ve not visited for over 100 days, it’s not going to go well.

When contacted promptly, three or four members (per 100 contacts) will cancel, in our experience. The rest are grateful for the call, SMS, or email, and 65-80% return within 10 days. Most popular keywords from absentee calls are OK, Back, Busy, Sorry, Thanks, Holiday, and Soon. At clubs that offer Suspension, 6% of calls mention this keyword, but fewer take up the option. This starts another process of encouraging them back, for both suspended and cancelling members.

How do we get them back?

What options to entice absent members back into the club?

  1. Re-program – the classic “let’s review your gym programme”, appointment to discuss your goals/aspirations, and reset and remotivate you. If you offer some form of induction/activation/welcome session, this could be the same, or rebranded as a re-activation. Enter the new member challenge to get back into the habit
  2. HealthCheck – could be included in the above, or a standalone body composition measurement (worth £X). Why not bring a friend or family member for a check-up too. No need for them to join the club…
  3. Book a class – get your mojo back with a group exercise class. Let’s tell you about the new classes on the timetable, and book you into a starter class.
  4. Coffee and chat – more informal meeting (booked appointment time) to talk about options and remotivate/support the member.
  5. Suspend – not for every club, but better than letting dormant members drift towards cancellation

If you can build a ‘book it now’ button for some of these options into your digital comms, you can re-engage with more members more effectively. But many members will really benefit from the call and conversation, as will your club, because you’ll get more feedback and be able to adapt your re-engagement strategy.

View from outside the industry

Only yesterday, someone (outside the fitness industry) suggested to me that the ‘gym business model’ is to sign up lots of members that don’t ever visit. It’s amazing how slow it takes for the public perception to change! We still have lots of work to do!!

In summary:


Dormant members do present a conundrum, and it’s interesting to hear their views on why they keep paying for memberships. But they are not healthier by paying for a membership and not visiting, just poorer. As an industry, we should not accept absentees as part of ‘normal’, but prioritize re-engagement, timing, and innovative strategies to actually improve all our members’ health. There is hidden value in reviving dormant members, both for their health, and the health of our businesses and industry.

If you want to discuss member engagement, or want to add to the debate, please comment below, or get in touch.

Wednesday 20 September 2023

Measure your members progress to get them to stick around longer

Progression is key to keeping people engaged in any activity, particularly one that is hard, or part of a choice. Measuring progress through school with assessments, exams, or reports, music exams, colour belt gradings in martial arts, or levels on a computer game keeps us motivated to continue.



So, when fitness industry veterans ask, “remember when we used to measure everyone as they joined”, the response is “why don’t we do it so much anymore?”

This is tip 11 in a series to celebrate GGFit’s 15 years in business. We discussed progression briefly in tip 3, but want to expand on this important topic now. Read all the tips here.

There are so many better ways to measure progress now, without using scales, tape, or callipers. With body composition, we have medical grade devices providing so many stats on people’s health and fitness, and 3D (and 4D!) body scanners to show how people’s body shape has changed as they progress.

Saturday 5 August 2023

HealthSeeker Stories

Conversations to encourage the health and fitness industries to share, collaborate and grow together. 

Guy Griffiths talks with fitness and health professionals about HealthSeekers. Can we improve the health of the population, whilst giving the fitness industry a boost. 

Hosted on The Collective, and in partnership with WhySports, this series can be found on all good podcast platforms via anchor.fm/healthseekers or YouTube youtube.com/thecollective286  

Friday 4 August 2023

Time to tap into your ex-member data to boost September Sales

August is a great time to try to re-engage with your ex-members. We know that September is the second peak joining month (after January), so now’s the time to put your club in the front of people’s minds with a compelling ex-member campaign.

This is tip number 10 in a series to celebrate GGFit’s 15 years in business. Stay tuned for more, or read the series here.

We’ve been talking to lots of clubs about ex-member campaigns lately. Many businesses haven’t done much with ex-member data since re-opening post-pandemic. There are almost certainly some big improvements that you’ve made since then, or since those members left, so tell them what’s changed.

The ex-member database is a vastly under-utilized resource at many clubs. We find that most ex-members (over 50%) are not currently exercising, and they all know your club, so asking them to re-join will yield results, and ROI is clear compared to trying to recruit new members.