Some club KPIs are looking positive. Visits and visit frequency are up. There are more active members (those who have visited in the last 30 days) as a percentage of total members. Your keen members are visiting more than before, and even the regulars are finding more time to workout and boost their health and fitness. However, the stats look better because there are fewer members.
A big part of the problem is the industry’s blind optimism and eternal focus on sales and new members, rather than engagement, length of stay and customer value.
Optimism is good, and the fact that many members have returned to your club after the enforced closure is great news (although these are not new member sales). Genuine new members are signing up, but you must take a close look at how these new and returning members are getting on before you start signing up more. The more you fill a leaky bucket, the more it leaks!
There are countless explanations as to why more members are leaving at the moment, and it will vary from club to club. But here are the top three reasons we’re seeing from member and client experience and feedback.
Many clubs are struggling to recover their business post lockdown. Your core customers returned quickly, but it is taking time to rebuild confidence across all sectors, not just fitness. Dormant members have not returned. A handful of new joiners are looking to improve their fitness, but many more are needed to meet increased overheads and deferred liabilities.
Measurement can be any combination of body composition scales (bioimpedance analysis or BIA), a 3D body scan, or traditional scales, tape measures, etc. To appeal to more health seekers (regular folk, not fitness fanatics), the less intrusive the better. Think about standing on scales while holding handles versus wearing tight clothing versus skinfold callipers.
The appointment then moves to coaching. This typically involves explaining the specific measurements that are relevant to each client, listening to their goals, and helping them to build themselves a plan for activity, nutrition, or lifestyle.
Lastly, it’s time to book the follow-up appointment. When would they like their next measure – in one month, or two- or three-months’ time? Most go for monthly measures and coaching appointments to keep them on track and to see results.
The health-check appointment is a great offer to bring members back into the facility. Some clubs are charging for this (£20-50), others are offering a limited number of funded appointments to selected ex-members, leads or prospects.
The focus is not on re-joining the gym. All messaging clearly states that this is not the goal, some clubs even say the gym is at capacity.
Offering one-on-one appointments helps to bring people into the club at a time they are comfortable with. Depending on your set-up, the client doesn’t need to visit the busy gym floor or attend a crowded fitness class.
In the unhappy event of future lockdowns, there’s a chance that one-on-one appointments could continue (as with individual PT or other health appointments). So, health-checks help to future proof your business, to continue offering services and stay in touch with all your members going forwards.
However, you can sell a plethora of add-on services to support and grow your health-seeker business. Coaching around lifestyle, nutrition, sleep, and activity will help clients to work towards their goals. Supplements and food could be sold direct from the club, or in conjunction with a local or national distributor.
Think about exercise equipment, programmes, and plans (don’t send your members to Argos or Sports Direct). Provide access to your online classes, workouts, tips, trackers, logs (or create new ones). These services and products will help your new members and existing members to get more value, ensure they come back for their measurements and stick around longer.
All these schemes can help clients individually or in communities. You already have your in-club member community. Now there’s an opportunity to bring more people together with common goals and needs, who will support each other and help your groups to grow. The health-check is an entry point into these communities, which will provide added value and retain your subscribers. They don’t need to be a member of the gym, but they are a member of your club.
Developing a strong health seeker strategy and getting all staff on board is vital…
Staff development and delivery is critical to the success of these programmes. You need the right coaches on board, with the right mindset, and an ability to listen and learn.
Talking about health more than fitness will open more ears and generate more leads and prospects for your club. Talk to them about health-checks, and how you support people’s health, and you will win many more members. Mention the gym, or fitness-tests, and many will lose interest.
Download our Health Seekers Playbook or get in touch to discuss how you could attract and retain more health seeker subscribers.There are a lot of strong opinions and debates on this topic. Customer choice is important, but you also need to consider the business needs and model, and how you can best serve the majority of your members, not just the hardcore (aka the loud ones!)
We have talked about the non-essential nature of gyms here before, but as lockdowns ease, more and more clubs are developing interesting new ideas and enhancing their offering. These pivots are what will help to both grow those clubs, and make them more essential.
Gyms and health clubs, particularly independents, are competing less with one another. The common enemies both in terms of share of time and money are now entertainment services such as Netflix and Disney+, or food delivery services like Just Eat and Deliveroo.
Independent gyms still contend with the big chains to a certain extent. But post-pandemic, clubs are clearer about their differentiating factors and unique selling points. Small studios and individual trainers are more likely to partner with several other clubs to extend reach, while focusing on their specialism.
Supermarkets and delivery companies are essential. Doctors’ surgeries and pharmacies are essential. Public transport is essential for essential workers. Mental health support can be found in hairdressers, cinemas, record shops and gyms, but unfortunately, they are not essential. Take-away coffee shops fall somewhere in between, which is nice.
A Public Health England Survey says that 7 in 10 people want to make healthier choices in 2021.
For those of us who study fitness industry data, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented us with lots more data and some interesting new challenges. You now know more about your members than ever before. Consequently, you need to learn to treat them even more like the individuals that they are. If you manage this, you will be able to improve the service and support you provide your members, and to increase your revenue and retention.
At the time of writing, we do not know when lockdowns will be relaxed and we can re-open. You might be busy running virtual classes, sending out programmes or remotely coaching members. But the most important thing you can do now is to reflect, listen to your members, and make more plans.
Some industry research reports that most members will return (up to 88%). But the reality is that many have not yet. It is hard to remove bias from fitness surveys when they are mostly completed by the keen, raving fans of your facility. As clubs dip in and out of lockdown, member recovery is going to become a full-time, constant battle. Whilst it will feel like a battle, it is easier to re-engage your existing members than to find new ones.
To get more of your members back, you need to be smart and to work hard at it. You also need to have lower price options and accept that having lesser member revenue is better than nothing.
Boris Johnson brought Blue Monday* forward by three weeks this year. Traditionally the third Monday of January, when Christmas has faded, debts are at their worst, and it is dark and cold. He moved it from 18th Jan to 4th Jan, starting at 8pm, with the announcement of the return of lockdown in the UK. This meant the closure of gyms, and a return to home schooling. The idea of dry January was kicked swiftly into touch by many people, not just parents of schoolchildren.
