Tuesday 28 February 2017

Four Weeks to Quit Quitting - A Summary #FWQQ

To round up the Four Weeks to Quit Quitting series of articles, here's a summary of all 8 tips. Our goal with these posts is to help your members to stick around for longer, and reduce drop-out of new gym joiners, not just in January and February, but throughout the year. 

Click on any title to read the full article.


1. The New Member Challenge

How many new members joined the new member challenge, and how many completed it?

Friday 24 February 2017

Hands up if you're not here anymore #FWQQ #8

The final part of this Four Weeks to Quit Quitting series is very simple. It’s also pessimistic, but realistic.
By the end of February, some of your January joiners will have quit. They might have to keep paying for a while depending on your Ts&Cs, but they will have stopped coming and probably won’t be back.


It’s difficult to re-engage with these members, but you should try and find out what went wrong. If they won’t return your calls or respond to messages or complete your leavers questionnaire, the only other thing you can do is try to spot a trend. What was their goal, join date, induction instructor, and which class(es) did they attend? Are there any patterns that you can identify and correct in the future?

Click here to read the intro to #FWQQ : Four Weeks to Quit Quitting, or click here to see all the #FWQQ articles

Wednesday 22 February 2017

Can your new members keep it up? #FWQQ #7

We looked at how many visits your new members made in their first month back in tip #2 (What is your club’s minimum FMV?) This identified any slow starters, but there will be members who start well then become demotivated. It’s well worth looking at second month visits too…


So dig out your joiners list from January again near the end of February, and check how many of your members have made a visit in the last week, or the last two weeks. Make a point of contacting the least active new members, see what you can do to help them; do they need more motivation, a pass for a friend, or do they just need to know how to swipe their membership card properly on entry?

Thursday 16 February 2017

What do your new members think of you? #FWQQ #6

How do you know how well your joining process is working, how your member journey is going, and how you members feel after a week or two? One or two might tell you, and if there’s anything going wrong you might get a complaint. Equally, you might not even hear about it. 


In the UK, we’re not usually very good at complaining, although online reviews are starting to change this. It’s now easier to leave feedback, and if you don’t ask your members for it, you’ll still get it (but just the negative ones!)

A new member’s survey or review is crucial to your member journey. You need to ask you members because this feeds all the feedback into one place where you can measure and monitor it.

Wednesday 15 February 2017

Let's Move for a Better World 2017 - how to get 3 Million MOVEs

Technogym’s Let’s Move challenge is back again, running from 13-31 March. You can find all our previous tips & tricks here, but there are a few different prizes this year, and we’ve run some analysis to help you reach your club’s targets.


STOP THE PRESS - Registration deadline extended to Thurs 16th Feb!

Monday 13 February 2017

Where are your new member’s friends? #FWQQ #5

We’ve looked at some fairly standard (or straightforward) measures of new member engagement so far, with visits, inductions, classes and challenges. Something else that all clubs claim to do (but few actually do well) is asking all new members for a referral. 

When a new member does refer a friend, they are showing that they are engaged and into their new membership. Plus, if their friend joins, they are more likely to stick around longer when they work out together.

There are many channels through which you can get referrals; the 7-day courtesy call, a message in the member communications journey, asking within the induction or welcome session, or providing guest passes in the welcome pack.

Use all methods available to you, and count how many of your new members are referring at least one friend. If you know which methods are working you can work on those more, or look to improve them.

Wednesday 8 February 2017

Class A's for new members #FWQQ #4

We all know that members who attend classes or group exercise stay longer. This is partially due to the community aspect, but more down to the fixed time, commitment and instructor interaction.
We also know that classes aren’t for everyone, but if you can persuade more members to attend a class, they’ll be more likely to stick around.


So look again at your list of January (or last month’s) joiners, and work out who’s attended at least one class, and who hasn’t. There’s your ClassA KPI; a percentage of new joiners who’ve attended a class, say 60 out of 100, or 60%.

Now contact the other 40 and persuade as many as you can to try a class. One contact (email, sms, call) is rarely enough, so try again a week later, and see how many new members you can ‘convert’ into class attendees.

Monday 6 February 2017

The Fitness Business Network Podcast - Why?

Podcasts are awesome. To borrow from a Public Service Broadcasting album title (or the BBC mission), they Inform, Educate, and Entertain. And I’m proud to say that we’ve put out an episode with the Fitness Business Network. We hope you’ll find it Informative and Educational, and that it helps you to retain your members.




Do your new members know what they’re doing? #FWQQ #3

Some new joiners claim they know what they’re doing… they don’t want an induction or welcome session, and certainly don’t want a programme or review.
However, the customer is not always right, and some really need help and are at more risk of leaving if you leave them to their own devices.


Unfortunately, it’s difficult to tell which members need more attention, and which don’t. So, you need to be pushy and sell the induction, or set up a programme for as many new members as possible. If you push it so hard that you’re losing the odd member, you’ll probably be saving 5-10 memberships, so keep it up.

Review your list of January joiners, and check how many have had an induction or welcome appointment, and how many have had, or have booked a subsequent programme review.

Friday 3 February 2017

What is your club’s minimum FMV? #FWQQ #2

List your January joiners, along with their total visits to date. Pick a minimum visit target for your new members and check how many members make the cut. 4 first month visits (FMVs) is a good standard; it’s not going to break any records, but should give you a manageable list.


So, you’ll have a group of new members who make the grade, typically 80-90% of joiners, and a few (10-20%) that haven’t made 4 FMVs.

[Note, running this at the start of February for January joiners will show up some members who’ve not had a chance to make 4 visits yet, e.g. if they joined on 31 Jan. You might like to monitor this ongoing through the month, or split the Jan joiners into two segments.]

Wednesday 1 February 2017

The New Member Challenge : FWQQ #1

You have some form of new member challenge, right? A simple, getting started programme that checks visits, classes
How many of your January joiners started your new member challenge? And how many completed it?

Call it what you like, FitStart, Zero-to-Hero, your new member challenge should appeal to all new joiners, so that they all enroll as they join. It can be as simple as you like, but there are a bunch of ideas in our Zero-to-Hero article.

So for example, if you have 100 joiners, maybe 80 started the challenge, and 50 completed it. Give the 50 ‘winners’ a t-shirt, water bottle, or a pat on the back. You can also give the 30 non-finishers an extension of a week, or another chance to do the challenge. And then you should find out why the other 20 new joiners didn’t sign-up, and think about how you can improve the numbers next month.