While you’ll surely see your gym or exercise studio as the ideal place to workout in, your customers, unfortunately, won’t be able to feel that instinctively!
You either earn their loyalty, or you’ll watch them walk out the door.
But how can you really succeed in running your gym? What should you do other than ensure complete cleanliness and having top-tier trainers?
The human side of things is what you should master!
Remember that your members are people who experience your gym.
We’ve put together 4 of the most important tips and tricks to escalate your members’ experience at your gym, which will help you retain them as loyal customers in 2023.
Let’s go!
Is the Subscription You’re Charging too Pricey?
To entice your members to stay a little longer than average, you should dig a little deep into finding how soon they’re leaving and what’s the most common reason behind that.
If you realize that members are canceling due to the cost, find a way either to decrease your subscription fees or to add benefits with the same fee.
There’s a possibility your members feel like they aren’t being given enough services for the amount they’re paying.
If that’s the case, you can reassess how you’re marketing your gym and your different pricing plans.
Your members always want to feel like the amount they’re paying is being put in the right place.
They want to pay you! They just want to make sure you’re giving them what they deserve in return.
Are Your Members Aware That Their Gym Subscription Is an Investment?
The best way to keep shaky members is to remind them that nothing happens overnight — health and fitness are an investment and a lifelong journey! Your team in the gym should always make it a point to remind your members of that.
Your team and trainers’ words always matter because this is what your clients take with them, other than their results, of course. And since the results in the fitness industry come relatively slowly, make sure the motivational words come very often.
A good suggestion would be to script some topics your team could discuss with your members to make them feel like you’re with them on this journey. It works like magic!
Is Your Equipment Up to the Standards?
Most gym members will stay with you if they have access to the right equipment. This is true even if they’re not using all this equipment at all times. According to MSISE, 38% of gym members say they’ll stay in a gym because of the equipment available.
Go ahead and give your equipment a quick check to see what you can add.
Do you know what can be great too? Asking your members what new equipment they want to see at the gym.
If you’re afraid this will make you look as if you don’t know what you’re doing, rest assured that it won’t.
On the contrary, your members will see that you care about always updating your gym and finding the solutions that best suit their needs.
Then, make sure to budget for equipment upkeep and maintenance, so your members are always satisfied with their experience at your facility!
Is Your Members’ Booking Process too Complicated?
It really shouldn’t be!
Remember that members want to exercise and eat healthier and be more fit, but the entire wellness and health journey isn’t a walk in the park. It’s more of a rocky, difficult road.
Don’t make it harder for them!
Your members shouldn’t go through endless rabbit holes in an attempt to book a class.
With In2, you’ll be able to display your health facility for more people to see it! Through In2, your members can view and book your classes for the week, based on the instructors giving these sessions, and other categories!
Your members want to easily have all their questions answered in the shortest time possible.
Mainly, they want to trick themselves into booking the class before they convince themselves not to do it!
With In2, they’ll see everything; from sessions available, to the instructors giving these classes, to the prices, the locations, the duration, and everything in between.
Conclusion
Start your new year with optimized practices in your gym to better retain your current members and attract new ones.
With these four tips, you can start to make changes that will help you retain members.
But remember: it’s all about their experience at the gym and how you make them feel about themselves. If you want them to stay long-term, focus on improving your community’s culture and making sure there are opportunities for them to get involved.
Make sure their experience is facilitated with In2.