For years, the fitness industry has relied on friction to retain members.
Long notice periods. Hidden clauses. Phone-only cancellations.
It worked… on
paper.
But that model is now under pressure. Regulation is tightening around “subscription traps,” customer expectations are shifting, and the tolerance for opaque cancellation processes is disappearing fast.
We asked
recently: what’s the last subscription you tried to cancel?
The responses weren’t about price or value; they were about frustration.
That’s the real
issue.
The problem
isn’t that people leave.
It’s how they feel when they do.
The old model: friction as retention
There’s a
long-standing industry assumption that if you make cancellation harder, fewer
people will cancel.
This is technically
true... but commercially short-sighted.
Friction
doesn’t create loyalty.
It creates resentment… and that shows up somewhere else:
- Negative word of mouth
- Lower trust at point of sale
- Reduced likelihood of rejoining
- Brand damage that compounds over
time
People don’t
forget bad exits.
And in fitness, where rejoining is common, that matters more than most sectors.
