The VoicE 2019 Q4 | Page 12

The VoicE Q4 3 Key Retention Metrics that Successful Gyms Follow Religiously You might have heard the phrase, “what you focus on expands”. Often, gyms and fitness studios spend the majority of their time and energy acquiring new members. Meanwhile, their existing members aren’t given the atten- tion they deserve and they filter out through a revolving door. If these members had been engaged, they could have been loyal custom- ers for years. Although it’s important to focus on getting new members, the most profitable gyms know that it is crucial to optimize their customer retention strategy. What metrics do they focus on to retain more members? Three key metrics indicate the health of your fitness club: happiness score, member churn, and lifetime value. Success- ful gyms use this data to create an informed customer retention strategy that amplifies profit. Learn how you can focus on these key metrics to skyrocket your business growth. How Do High Happiness Scores Drive Retention? First off, let’s discuss the importance of mon- itoring and improving your customers’ hap- piness scores. Collecting periodic feedback from your members at regular intervals al- lows you to check in with them and ensure they’re on the right track in their custom- er journey. Since 95% of text messages are read within two minutes of being received, engaging with your customers this way en- sures you get a quick reply. And, you can en- gage your members via Facebook chat using a bot that allows them to rate their experi- ence and to provide further information. By analyzing happiness data, you tap into both overall member sentiment and individual sentiment. You can intervene where neces- sary to nurture customer relationships and promote loyalty. That can be as simple as texting or emailing members asking them to rate their experience with your brand from 1-5. 12 These check-ins allow you to collect data on member satisfaction, and if something isn’t quite right, a sub-par rating from a member can catalyze a follow up from the manage- ment team to improve the member’s experi- ence far before they’re likely to even consider leaving the gym. Chances are if one mem- ber is vocal enough to voice a concern, other members are in the same boat. By listening to your members’ voices, you can spend your dollars actually improving the exact things that you know will make the customer experi- ence even better. How Quality Customer Engagement & a Low Churn Rate Equal Success What is the membership churn rate? In es- sence, this metric, also called the rate of at- trition, is the rate at which customers leave a service over a given time period. As such, we want to ensure that this number remains as low as possible. Statistics demonstrate that the more engaged members are, the less likely they are to turn over. Delivering targeted messages to your cus- tomers where it is appropriate in the custom- er journey helps you engage them in a per- sonalized way. Take this example: you have a new customer who has been a regular for weeks, then suddenly hasn’t made it through