Get more members to Opt-in – Actions:

Your Systems / Sign-up process

Following our series of posts on how to get more members to opt-in, here's a few pointers that you can use to check in your club and communicate with more members.

Tell the member/prospect how you are going to use their e-mail/mobile, e.g.

• to send them occasional messages (newsletters) 
• to help motivate (remind) them if their visits slow down

Tell them this is part of the service they get at your club, and in the extremely unlikely event that they don’t find the messages useful*, then they are able to unsubscribe at any time.

Why Opt-Out Is Sometimes Good - Member Messaging

From a pure business point of view, you want as many members/clients/prospects to opt-in as possible, so that you can reach the most people with your marketing/motivational messages and maintain or improve members’ retention.

However, the analyst will welcome a few opt-outs as this provides a control group to compare the effect of messages being sent.

Don’t Offer Opt-In - Member Messaging

A few clubs we know don’t give their members the choice to opt-in or out of communications as they join.

Whether online or in club, member’s details are recorded, with address, e-mail and mobile as mandatory fields. They are told briefly about the communication journey that they will receive as new members, which sounds very attractive and valued.

Get More Members to Opt-in - Member Messaging

We’ve explored the value of data and collecting mobile numbers and e-mail addresses previously. Budget clubs are much better at acquiring good data with fulfilment rates close to 100% due to their online joining and confirmation process.

But even fulfilment rates of 100% are no good if half of those members opt-out of receiving communications. It is important to ask members’ permission, and there are good and bad ways of doing it.

How will you Fight the Summer Slump?

Are you prepared to fight the summer slump?

The recent hot weather in the UK is causing club attendance to drop, and the massive sporting summer which is around the corner is more likely to compound rather than reverse this effect. It would be great if the Olympics generated a load of newly motivated members, but in reality, we need to go the extra yard to keep them.

BHF Canary Wharf Jog 2012

The British Heart Foundation Canary Wharf Jog this week was a complete contrast to the Tower jog back at the start of May. The sun had been beating down on London for a couple of days, and by 6:30pm on Wednesday evening, the Tower lined streets of Canary Wharf were at least a little shady, but still very hot indeed.

The weather brought a good turnout of runners, with well over 1,000 people taking part.

BHF Tower of London Jog 2012

For the first time in recent memory (we’ve run the Tower Jog every year since 2004) a grey, stormy day faced us last Wednesday. The downpour that drenched us as we made our way to the Tower did not make running in a moat an appealing prospect! Umbrellas for sale outside the tube station were proving as popular as Boris Johnson had been a week before.

Incentivising Instructors

So you want to incentivise your instructors to provide better customer service and improve retention. What metrics do you want to use, and what is going to incentivise your instructors?

If you want to improve your 12-month member retention from 50% to 60%, it can be difficult for the individual instructor to see how they can have an effect. Asking instructors to reduce attrition or increase average length of membership can be a bridge too far. Instead, you can achieve better results by looking at daily or weekly actions that will provide a short term effect that builds up over the month or year.

Incentivising Instructors - FitPro Business Article

Open publication - Free publishing - More fitness

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.