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

Challenge your members – to stay longer!

Once you’ve onboarded all your new members (and returning members) at the start of the year, you’ve hopefully looked at upselling, referrals, and rewards. By March, the motivation of some members will start to wane, so it’s time to challenge their fitness.

This is tip number 6 in a series to celebrate GGFit’s 15 years in business. Stay tuned for more

What makes a successful challenge?

A great challenge is one that most of your members take part in.

Contrary to what many fitness instructors think, a hard challenge is not a good challenge, since most of your members either won’t take part, or will, and then will never join a challenge again.

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. 

Don't Let Leavers leave without a chase

Leavers are outnumbering joiners at many clubs this autumn. Clearly the rising cost of living and economic uncertainty is having an effect, but you need to find out more about why your members are leaving. There are two parts to this article, the first talks about the reasons to contact leavers, and then a real-life anecdote about cancelling a corporate gym membership.

Attrition on the rise

Lots of clubs have seen reasonable membership sales in September 2022, traditionally the second-best sales month of the year. Few had record sales numbers though, and membership attrition is on the rise across the whole industry.

One step forwards, two steps back - Retention ideas for Autumn 2022

For the last few years, many clubs have been running to standstill. As retention consultants, we often get called in to help shift this balance, reducing attrition to enable clubs to really grow their membership.

One-in, one-out

It’s been an incredibly tough few years for the fitness industry, and while there have been pockets of positivity as clubs have re-opened following COVID-19 lockdowns, operators and owners are still talking about new member numbers matching leavers each month. Members and prospects have more concerns, more alternatives, less time, and less money. And as clubs focus more on sales, the retention battle gets harder to fight, let alone win.

Unfortunately, it’s about to get tougher.