Choice, Loyalty, and the once-a-month visitor

Some positive fitness industry numbers announced this week in the Leisure DB State of the UK Fitness Industry Report. 

The Headlines... 15.9% penetration, over 7,000 gyms, and 10.7 million members. 

There was lots of positive talk of health and pivots, yet some of the rhetoric around the report was still stuck in the past, particularly with respect to engagement and retention, and AI. We’ll cover the former in this article, leaving the latter to the experts.

People have more choice than ever when it comes to improving their health and fitness, which is both a blessing and a curse. As more clubs open, they compete with each other for the same members, via more channels, creating more churn as members chop and change. 

Some might say that loyalty is dead, but you must focus on loyalty, and create more and more ways for people to engage, connect, and lock into your club. It is possible for a member to visit your club once a month and never want to leave, even referring new members who will do the same. You just need to change the tune. More on this shortly…

Loyalty in other industries

People are loyal to streaming services, banks, internet providers, delivery companies, restaurants, and to essential services like utility providers and supermarkets. A reward card, free coffee, or discount code goes a little way to creating loyalty, but the building blocks are great customer service, great communication (tailored and relevant), and strong brand values and identity. And referrals are constantly in demand, something that the fitness industry must do more.

Reed Hastings , CEO of Netflix recognises that their main competition is not Disney, Amazon or other services, but time, or sleep… “You get a show or a movie you're really dying to watch, and you end up staying up late at night, so we actually compete with sleep,” he said back in 2017.

While most clubs think of their competition as the gym up the road, most in reality are competing more with time – time asleep, watching Netflix, or shopping, time spent with family, friends, in the pub (especially when they reopened before gyms post-lockdown!).

But by improving your members’ health, you are giving them more time with their family (long term), increasing their longevity, or quality time in their life, which everyone wants.

An old James Acaster sketch talks of someone leaving the cinema saying, “Well there’s 2 hours of my life I’m not getting back”. The ever-astute comedian points out that you’re not getting any time back, whether it’s a rubbish film or a great live comedy gig. 

Do any of your members think that an hour in the gym is wasted? Not the loyal ones. And certainly not the ones who are adding years to their life with a regular visit.

Fitness Industry Loyalty

So, your most loyal members do perhaps love your customer service, comms, and brand. But they are often loyal to a particular group exercise instructor, to setting and ‘smashing’ goals (e.g. HYROX ), or other members (community). A hello and goodbye as you arrive and leave (or just walk through) your club is a super simple, but super effective way of creating loyalty. But demonstrating results is massive, and educating members about their health and fitness creates huge value, and therefore loyalty.

Which brings us back to a member who visits once a month. Do you know what else they’re doing outside the club? Getting more data through connected apps and devices is part of the solution. Simply telling them they need to visit more regularly is not going to create loyalty. In fact, the old-school “you need to visit three times a week” mantra will likely put members off any future visits, especially new members. 

Check out these archive articles: Setting Up New Members to Fail from 2017 or How often should you encourage your members to visit?How often should you encourage your members to visit? from 2013.

You don’t create raving fans by getting them to visit more, you do so by educating them and helping them to get results.

What do results look like? 

Having some members visit once a month for their HealthCheck, health coaching appointment, and progress update is perfect. This is the way that we achieve the ukactive 2030 strategy of engaging 20% of the population through our clubs. Not everyone will be exercising within the club, there is simply not capacity. We don’t want 20% of the population to have a membership that they don’t use. That model was broken before the pandemic and is even more out of date now. Supporting these HealthSeekers with their choices is key, measuring and coaching them along the way.

Using body composition devices, or other health measurement tools, and our brilliant staff to coach, educate and motivate people, is how the fitness industry can truly grow. Nurturing, engaging, and supporting HealthSeekers adds big member numbers to the bottom line now, and could boost us past the 20% target before 2030. Alternatively, we try to creep up by 0.7% each year by selling fitness – a hard slog. 

HealthSeekers at Elevate 2024

If you want to hear more on this topic, what clubs are doing to nurture, engage, and support HealthSeekers, head to the Collaborate Stage at Elevate this Wednesday at 14:20 for a panel debate. Or catch Guy earlier in the day on the Technogym stage at 13:00. Get your Elevate tickets here.

Alternatively, reach out for a conversation, or get more resources and info on HealthSeekers here: ggfit.com/healthseekers