From what we have seen so far, the fitness industry seems to be recovering well. Membership sales in April exceeded sales made during the same period in 2019*. Leads are coming in thick and fast, with many clubs seeing as much as double the number of prospects added to their systems compared to the same period in 2019*. This is great news and shows real promise for fitness industry recovery.
However, the data also shows that many clubs still have a large number of members with paused memberships. Each member has their own story, and some may have complex reasons why they have not yet returned to your club, but it’s important that your fitness facility is doing everything you can to encourage members to pick up where they left off and restart their fitness journey. This is not only to support your financial recovery, but also to support your core mission of helping individuals get active and get healthier. In this blog, we explore four ways you can re-engage these members. Let’s take a look.
1. Show Your Members How COVID Secure Your Club Is
Showing your members all the measures you’ve put in place to ensure a safe, socially distanced environment to work out will go a long way to reassuring and re-engaging your members on pause.
A great way to do this is by filming a short video tour of your facility, demonstrating where the hand sanitizer stations are, how you’ve reorganized the gym floor, and other measures you’ve taken. If you showcase the thoughtful effort you put into keeping members safe, they will naturally feel more confident about coming into the club. We recommend creating a targeted email campaign that includes a link to the video.
2. Re-Engage Members with a Free Mini Personal Training Session
Members still on pause have most likely not been to the gym in over 12 months. They may have fallen into bad habits and lost motivation. What better way to restart their journey than with a free mini personal training session? The personalized and tailored approach of personal training will provide members with a great way to kickstart their journey and ensure they are getting the most out of their gym membership. A personal trainer can help members set goals, provide a tailored program, and educate them about nutrition, how to use certain gym equipment, and more.
By offering a free mini PT session, you are also providing members with the opportunity to learn about how personal training works, experience the benefits, and ultimately, consider how working with a personal trainer can help them achieve their goals. Be sure to follow up with members that have taken advantage of the free session to maximize long-term PT enrollment.
3. Encourage Members Back with a Free Personalized Health Assessment
Right now, people are more health focused than at any other time in most of our living memories. This is backed up by a recent survey conducted by Public Health England, which found that six in ten people want to be healthier. By offering your members a free personalized health assessment using body-composition analysis technology, you can provide an instant snapshot of a member’s health and fitness status that can be useful for developing a personalized program with step-by-step targets based around their goals and lifestyle. This is a great way to re-engage members — and keep them coming back.
4. Call Members to Understand the Barriers and Try to Overcome Them
The best way to find out why your members are not ready to come back is by speaking to them directly. A quick, informal “check-in” phone call will help you understand the barriers and provide insight into their individual concerns and challenges. With this insight, you can look at ways to overcome these barriers and get them back into the club and on their fitness journey.
The global pandemic has affected our lives in so many ways. Your members may be experiencing financial struggles, poor health, family issues, job challenges, and mental health issues. Your members will deeply appreciate you for supporting and accommodating their personal circumstances with flexibility and compassion. Not only may this help to get members back, but it will also go a long way to cultivating loyalty and improving retention of these members.
Final thought – If you are unable to overcome a member’s barriers and re-engage them at this time, it may be better to let them cancel with no penalty, rather than push them through a debt collection process and exacerbate any pressure or stress. According to Zendesk, 75% of people would return to a company with excellent service and 56% would recommend it to family and friends. By allowing your member to cancel, they are more likely to return in the future once their situation has improved. Not only that, but you may also find that you get a good referral or two!
These are just a few ideas on how to re-engage your members on pause. We hope you find them useful. Let us know in the comments if you have any other suggestions that will help our club community!
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*Data analysed from over 1000 ClubWise customers during period April 12 to April 30 2021 vs same period in 2019.