The cost of acquiring a new member had
doubled over the last ten years
of our old and maybe outdated strategies.
IHRSA published figures showing it can cost
up to seven times more to get a new member
than to keep an existing one, and that the cost of
acquiring a new member had doubled over the
last ten years. If the health club industry today
agrees on just one thing, it’s that the market is
becoming more and more competitive. As this
continues, it is harder and harder to keep the
cost of winning new members from rising. This
places an added premium on the ‘risk versus
reward’ conundrum of retaining members. If it
was possible ten years ago to outrun attrition
by topping up with great sales figures, the
prospect of doing so in today’s competitive
market and challenging economy certainly
make this a far more daunting task.
Use it or lose... them
We agree that every five minutes we
spend with members is time well spent.
We only question which members should
be receiving the focus of our efforts. Look
at the evidence: new members that are
encouraged to achieve a visit frequency of
once a week or more during their first four to
eight weeks of membership are 100% less
likely to cancel in the next year. Members
that use your club less than once a week are
at twice the risk of leaving, compared with
those that do visit weekly.
26 | NETWORK WINTER 2019
An IHRSA retention report highlighted a
study by Richard Blacklock that concluded
if an individual’s club usage pattern drops
by over 50% from their usual pattern (over
an eight-week period) they are at risk of
cancelling their membership. For example, a
member that previously visited twice a week
for the last six months who now only visits
once a week should thus be highlighted as a
potential cancellation risk.
Better use of your time
Every year, as an industry, we sell hundreds
of thousands of memberships to those people
who, although they sincerely want to, have not
yet been able to develop the discipline to make
exercise a regular habit. Behavioral scientists
will confirm that to develop such habits and
discipline is not easy to do on your own.
As the amount of data relating to the
exercise habits of our members increases
and becomes easier to translate, we are
learning that there are many ways for us to
spend our five minutes other than just with
the members we are already doing a great job
for. For example, clubs that use AI software
services like Keepme to improve systems,
pinpoint at-risk members and tailor their
service to individual members, are likely to
find opportunities to spend those five minutes
more productively.
Using these tools, fitness businesses
can use the data to automatically shine a
spotlight on areas in which differences can
be achieved with specific members. By
highlighting low or non-users, they are able
to spend their ‘five minutes’ (and multiples
thereof) far more productively, focusing
on more comprehensive new member
integration programs and motivating at-risk
members to make exercise a habit.
So, when you next spend five minutes
with a member you already know well due
to their frequent attendance, while certainly
congratulating yourself, ask yourself ‘did we
just spend one-third of our working week
growing our membership or standing still?’
While expending time and effort to better
service your customers is never a wasted
endeavor when your goal is to reduce
attrition, you also need to ensure you don’t
neglect those members who need your
five minutes the most – the ones who are
not regularly walking through your door
or attending the classes they would enjoy
the most. As the ever-growing body of
evidence and research suggests, expanding
your focus to include this segment of your
membership base is where the true retention
battle is won or lost.
Jon Nasta
Jon has a wealth of experience in the health and
fitness industry from both a supplier and operator’s
perspective. Noted for his expertise in member
engagement and retention Jon has held positions such
as COO of Retention Management, Sales Director of
Matrix Fitness and Marketing Director for Xercise4Less.
Jon has recently joined Keepme as its new Consulting
Partner. keepme.ai / twitter.com/keepme_ai