Make it Easy to Leave, and More People Will Stay

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. 

Why You Should Stop Trying to Upgrade Every PAYG Member

Pay-as-you-go members don’t always need upgrading. 

But they do need nurturing. 

And leavers can always visit again on PAYG.

Across the public and private sectors, we’re hearing the same story this autumn; strong membership sales and steady PAYG numbers. That’s good news, but it raises a question; are we nurturing PAYG visitors, or simply counting them?

While this might sound like a public leisure issue, it applies to many models, from low-cost gyms to boutique studios. If you sell day passes, 7-day trials, or 'bring a friend' offers, then PAYG customers are part of your ecosystem too.

For clarity, let’s call PAYG visitors casual members, and use members for those on monthly or annual payments.

Keep Your Staff, Keep Your Members! Strategies for both...

How Staff Retention Helps Member Retention

When we talk about retention in the fitness industry, most of the focus is on members. But the same principles that keep members coming back also apply to staff. And when staff are retained, engaged, and motivated, members benefit directly through stronger relationships, better service, and a sense of continuity that builds trust.

Staff Retention = Member Retention

Members join clubs for facilities, but they stay because of people. Staff are the heartbeat of the member experience. High staff turnover disrupts relationships, creates inconsistency, and makes it harder to build the kind of trust that keeps members long-term. Retaining staff is a key driver to retain members. We see it clearly when supporting operators, good staff morale, positive communication (banter even) between teams, means that staff stick around, and members benefit too.

Speedy Onboarding

Following Up: Why Onboarding Still Matters
In the last article, Inductions for Everybody, we explored why and how clubs should promote and encourage all new members to have an onboarding appointment; because members who do stay longer. That’s better for your business, and better for your members too.

The Airline Analogy

As many of us board flights over the summer, we’re given the option of Speedy Boarding; paying more to get on (and off) the plane faster than everyone else.

What if we borrowed this idea in fitness?

Inductions for Everybody

How can we be more efficient and offer a standard service when onboarding new members? And how can we deliver more? The standard industry term is still induction, but many clubs are changing to ‘activation’, ‘welcome appointment’, ‘step 1’, ‘getting started’, etc. If we’re shifting mindsets, let’s use new terminology.

“All of our members have an induction” is often the response when we ask about retention strategies, particularly onboarding.

Club operators and owners believe that they really are doing their best to ensure all new members have the maximum chance of sticking around.

But when we dig under the bonnet, either through further discussion, or analysis of club data, it often transpires that fewer than half of new members actually attend some kind of onboarding appointment.

 

We’ve looked at this issue many times, with many clubs; from leisure trusts and councils, private clubs and independent gyms, even low-cost, low-staff gyms, where inductions really aren’t popular at all.

Who should deliver Inductions?

How to increase induction percentage with limited staff – have everyone deliver them?

If you read this blog regularly, you’ll know we encourage ‘inductions’ for new and returning members in order to improve early engagement, visits, habit building, and ultimately member retention. The question of who should deliver this important appointment came up at a recent workshop, and sparked an interesting discussion.

What’s an induction called?

Before we get into the discussion, and possibly some controversial hot water, let’s talk about the ‘induction’. This term is often used in the fitness industry, but more and more clubs are quite rightly using different names for this appointment, such as Activation, Welcome session, Step 1, Consultation. All have their merits, and we honestly believe anything other than ‘induction’ is a good name.

What’s in an induction?

Retention Starts with Culture: The Power of Member Interactions

After a positive start to 2025 for many clubs, February is about maintaining membership sales momentum, but more importantly, focusing on retaining all your new members (and the existing ones) as long as possible.

Filling a leaky bucket doesn’t make sense—stop losing members by focusing on retention, not just sales.

Retention isn’t about complicated strategies—it’s about talking to people, consistently and meaningfully.

Boost Member Retention: The Power of Group Exercise for New Joiners

Looking for new ways of getting your new members to stick around longer? Group exercise could be the key.  

This article explores why group fitness classes are a game changer for retention and offers practical strategies to engage with more of your new members.

Onboarding focus

While onboarding often focuses on individual inductions, integrating group exercise into the process can significantly boost engagement and retention.

It may not be easy – many popular classes are full, and the timetable can be a bone of contention with members trying to book, so staff might avoid exacerbating the issues. But you have to work on the harder stuff to get greater success.

Class members stay longer; an average of 2 extra months

But most operators know that class members stay longer. Our research shows that booking a class is as effective as, or more effective than an induction at increasing engagement. 

Members who attend at least one class in their first month make 1-2 more first month visits (FMVs) than those who don’t attend any classes, and they will stay around 2 months longer on average. 

What's Your Experience?

We’ve been talking a lot about selling experiences recently. 

As competition intensifies for people’s reducing disposable income, we’re seeing a slow rise in attrition from clubs.

Price increases are needed to meet rising operational costs, including increasing minimum wage.

Most readers will know that reducing service is a false economy – we need to maintain or increase customer service to retain more members.

Understanding, experiencing, and measuring your key customer touch points is critical for all stakeholders in your business. It’s no longer enough for gym staff to be the ones who know about inductions, group exercise instructors to understand what goes on in a class, or for the body composition device to be the domain of the exercise referral team.

Measure your members progress to get them to stick around longer

Progression is key to keeping people engaged in any activity, particularly one that is hard, or part of a choice. Measuring progress through school with assessments, exams, or reports, music exams, colour belt gradings in martial arts, or levels on a computer game keeps us motivated to continue.

So, when fitness industry veterans ask, “remember when we used to measure everyone as they joined”, the response is “why don’t we do it so much anymore?”

This is tip 11 in a series to celebrate GGFit’s 15 years in business. We discussed progression briefly in tip 3, but want to expand on this important topic now. Read all the tips here.

There are so many better ways to measure progress now, without using scales, tape, or callipers. With body composition, we have medical grade devices providing so many stats on people’s health and fitness, and 3D (and 4D!) body scanners to show how people’s body shape has changed as they progress.

What do Communities mean to your members?

There’s lots of talk about building communities around your club, but what are the best ways to do this, and how can it help with member retention?

This is tip number 7 in a series to celebrate GGFit’s 15 years in business. Stay tuned for more...

What is a Community?

The difference in definition between a club and a community is that a club is a group of people who come together for a common purpose, whereas a community is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

So, a club is not necessarily the building or venue

What Happens Next? 2 tactics to reinforce your onboarding journey.

Use one or both of these strategies to take all your new members to the next level

January was a good month, and if you've followed the first 3 tips in our series of 15, you’ve Sold Retention, Onboarded Everyone, and Promised Progression. All your new members are super-engaged, building up their health habits, and feeling great about being a member of your club. 

What Happens Next?

[my favourite round on Question of Sport, read in Sue Barker's voice, or for older readers, David Coleman or David Vine]

While the first month, or first 7-10 visits are most important for your new members, you can boost their loyalty and enthusiasm further with a couple more steps. So don’t take your eyes off your new recruits this month, but do take your graduates from last month and try one or both of these tactics.

These are tips 4 and 5 in a series to celebrate GGFit’s 15 years in business.

"I've come from your competition" - Sales tip Jan '23

A new prospect walks into your club saying they’ve just visited your competitor around the corner [or that they’re thinking about leaving that club to join you].

What’s your first response?

Don’t put them down… big them up!
Think of one of your competitors USPs and compliment it.

3 Steps to Get MEMBER RETENTION Right in 2023

Simple starters to improve retention and get more members to stick around

Retention will be one of the key differentiators in 2023. We ran several workshops last month for forward-thinking clubs who want to thrive this year and get their members to stick around longer. Sales is naturally a big focus in January, but if you get your new members off to the best start, you’ll reap rewards down the line.

These are the first three tips in a series to celebrate GGFit’s 15 years in business. Stay tuned for more

1. Sell Retention

Incorporate your retention activities and actions into your sales process. Tell your new members what they get as new joiners, what you’ll do to motivate them, what is expected of them, and start with why. 

The Independent Gym Owners Conference - Doing Things Differently

The biggest and best gathering of independent club owners and operators took place on 1st December 2022. While there were some excellent speakers, and it’s important to have supporting suppliers who help the event to happen, the real value was within the delegates in the room. 

It’s a chance for independent clubs to get together, share their ideas and learn from each other. A lot of sharing happens in the group online, but people connect properly in real life at the event or after-party, forging partnerships, alliances, and friendships.  

The panel debate at the start of the conference encouraged delegates to make the most of the value in the room, talk to each other, be curious, find out about each other’s clubs, and get new ideas or momentum for old ones.

Gym Membership Sales Ideas - Nov 22

September member sales weren’t as good as many clubs hoped. If you’re holding out for redemption in January, you need to think again. 
2023 is the year to focus more on retention (we would say that!), but if you want to talk sales for a minute, here’s a tip.
January is (traditionally) a busy time in the fitness industry. Many clubs will have a new member joining offer, when you could actually double your joining fees, and still have a good sales month. 

Using Digital & Tech to Augment Reduced Staffing Levels

Staffing is one of the big issues in the fitness industry. It has always been difficult to recruit and retain staff, but it has become harder post-pandemic. 

We’ve discussed this in previous articles, but lately, there is more focus and debate on operating with reduced staff, or even no-staff gyms. 

The best member retention rates are created through staff interaction, but if you’re having to work with a smaller team, there are still ways to maintain good member retention.

Staff leaving

The furlough scheme in the UK helped keep some staff during lockdowns, but many top fitness instructors and PTs took the opportunity to set up their own businesses, sometimes taking members with them. Some realised that they could make more money with less effort by delivering parcels or fast food. Others re-trained for careers outside fitness. 

WFH, Health, and Health Clubs

This article talks about how health clubs can help improve corporate wellbeing, without selling classic gym memberships.

The effects of the COVID pandemic will be felt for many years after the last positive test result. One of the big business and cultural shifts has been the fast-track evolution of working from home (WFH). While many have been doing this for years, not everyone is benefitting. There are some serious repercussions on health, both physical and mental, as described by this report in HR Magazine, which claims remote working is “as dangerous as smoking”

Clubs losing members who are WFH 

Health clubs and gyms have been hit hard by the changes in working practices, with fewer people in towns and cities for a 5-day working week. On the flip side, some independent clubs have benefitted slightly from people wanting to train closer to home, twinned with the general trend of supporting local, smaller businesses. But the big city gyms are feeling it the hardest at the moment.

Reasons Not To Discount Your Membership in 2022

January is just around the corner, and most clubs are hoping for a windfall of new members. It’s normally the best month for fitness membership sales, but for the last two years, many clubs have missed January due to lockdowns. By just opening your doors to members (fingers crossed), you should have the best January in recent memory. But getting loads of ‘new’ members is relatively easy. How can you maximise revenue and retention, and really put your business on the path to recovery?

You don’t need to go full “Centre Parcs” and double your joining fees in January (although I’ve written about this in the past – read more here). But discounting, waiving joining fees, and offering financial incentives is not a positive business strategy for many reasons. Let’s look at some of them.

TO BOOK OR NOT TO BOOK

Fitness business owners are facing a conundrum at the moment. Booking your gym visit became the new normal for a lot of members during lockdown, but as restrictions ease, should clubs continue to make their members pre-book sessions, or let members visit ad-hoc?

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!)