Communicating with Absent Members - Part 3, Who?

Calling absent members is one of the least popular jobs in the gym. Most instructors prefer cleaning to calling absentees. Sure, the gym needs to be clean, otherwise people will leave, but you could stop 6 people from dropping out by spending 30 minutes on a few phone calls.

The gym team are usually the ideal staff to call absent members and encourage them back into the club. They should have the best relationship with the members, having talked about their needs, goals, habits and exercise programme. Alternatively, you might have the person who signed up the member in the first place (useful for new absentees), or a retention officer or membership manager who makes all the calls.

Communicating with absent, paying members : Part 2, How?

Hopefully you now understand that contacting your absent members is a good move.  The next question is how to contact them…

There are lots of ways of communicating with individual members; a phone call, text, e-mail or good old-fashioned letter, as well as direct social media messages (if configured correctly*).

The phone call is proven to be the best way of persuading members to come back into your club.  However, it can be hard work and is time consuming.  We’ll discuss who makes the calls in the next article, but here’s how to make it easier.

Communicating with absent, paying members : Part 1, Why?

Opinion is still divided on whether you should contact paying members who are not visiting your club. The naysayers argue that you risk prompting the member to cancel, and that you should let sleeping dogs lie. We say contact absent members. Do your best to encourage them back into your club. Give your members more motivation by showing that you care about their health and fitness, that you want to help them achieve their goals. It is their responsibility to get down to the gym, so send them a reminder and then they are less likely blame your club. Business-wise, if half of your members have not visited for more than 3 or 4 weeks, you risk losing half your members tomorrow (contracts aside). If you do nothing about this, you could soon be looking at an empty gym. Contact your absent members, and you will get some back, and hopefully extend the membership of many more.

An empty gym, yesterday

Ethically, it is right to contact someone who is paying you for a service but not using it.  Regardless of contract (more of which later), it is simply a good thing to do.  Businesses that think ethically are on the up, whether offering discounts for reducing emissions or best plan reviews on mobile usage.

Begin With Retention In Mind

When opening a new club, gym or studio, member retention is probably far from your mind.  The business plan focuses on your unique selling points, marketing spend and sales projections.  A clean new space with shiny equipment will keep members coming back for ever, right?

If you also plan your retention strategy at this early stage, your business plan will be more accurate.  Imagine the possibilities for your business if you have 100% retention after 12 months.  You would be re-writing your business plan for growth rather than adapting it to stay open.

Begin With Retention In Mind - FitPro Business Article

Come Back to What You Know - Non-member Contact pt3

Ex-members are normally the most lucrative segment.  But before we hit them with an e-mail, let’s look at the process of becoming an Ex-member, as this is critical to future potential.

Simply put, the easier it is for a member to leave, the easier it will be to get that member back.

Second Chance Sales - Non-Member Contact pt2

This is part 2 of a series of 3 articles looking at contacting members outside your club.

Your prospect list is a ready-made database of people who were interested in your club, and almost joined.  They showed an interest, but gave you an orange light.  You need to try to turn that into a green or a red light.

Make Easy Sales - Non-Member Contact pt1

In this short series of 3 articles, we're going to look at contacting members outside your club - this focuses more on member sales than retention, but is driven by work we've been doing on member churn, and processes that can positively affect churn.

There are only a handful of clubs in the UK who currently have a waiting list for new members.  Most are working incredibly hard to bring in new prospects and trying to sign-up members with offers and promotions, and community and corporate outreach.

However, there are easier ways for you to bring in more new members.

Budget Gyms - a synopsis

Lessons from Budget Clubs – Part 3 – Turning numbers into people

We’ve talked about how budget clubs (or low-cost gyms) are changing the rules on contracts, sales and service.  We looked at the power of data to motivate members and adapt communication.  This final article in the series explains how budget clubs manage to get more personal with their members.