Gym Ethics – how many follow-ups?

Whether it’s sales or retention, there seems to be a shortfall in follow-up actions taking place. How many of these sound familiar?

We sent an email / sms / letter (therefore it’s covered)
I left them a message, and they’ve not called back (my job’s done)
I called them, and they said they’d be back next week (but I’ve not checked)

We know that around 50% of absent members return within a week of receiving an absent communication, but what about the other 50%? What else can you do to encourage them to return sooner?

We need to work harder at these follow-ups… another message will help, but using a different channel (e.g. sms, followed by email/post) will be much more effective than email, email, email. A call is always best, and actually easier if you are calling to ask if they got the message last week.

A club with lots of absent members, yesterday.

Perhaps the sales analogy is a good one here… a single call is hardly ever enough. The same applies to calling absentees, leavers, ex-members… if you want to get results, you will need to work at it, and keep contacting them, either until it’s too late, or until they return!