Boost Your Bottom Line by Increasing and Retaining Memberships

Boost Your Bottom Line by Increasing Memberships Retention

If you are looking to reduce your churn rate and increase your membership retention capacity, these tips and tricks will help you get there.

Did you know that, on average, one gym membership is worth 517 dollars to a facility each year? While that might not sound like much, it adds up as more and more people join your activity facility.

However, how do you increase membership and reduce your churn rate with the many options available? What helps set you apart from other activity facilities?

Keep reading to learn how to increase membership and retention.

Increase Activity Facility Memberships

Increasing activity facility memberships isn’t always easy. You can take steps to market your activity facility and show the people in your community what makes you unique.

However, getting them to walk in the door is where the struggle begins. Once word of your facility reaches your target customer, the key to getting them to walk into your door is making it super simple.

You can do this a few ways.

Allow Online Membership Signups

When you’re looking for an activity facility, you’re likely going to do your research online before you ever walk in the door. Allowing potential members to sign up online will increase your number of customers.

In fact, online scheduling leads to 26 percent more new customers.

Make it Easy to Get Tours

After your customers have done their online research, the next step is a facility tour. This is your time to shine. However, first, they need to make the appointment.

While you can provide the option for your potential members to call for a tour, you miss out when you do that. Around 65 percent of Gen Z and Millenials are more likely to engage digitally than in person.

That means you need online scheduling software that’s easy to use and efficient. If it’s difficult or time-consuming to sign up for a tour, your potential members will find an easier solution.

Improve Appointment Attendance

Once your members have made an appointment for a tour, you want them to keep that appointment. When they don’t, it costs your team time and takes away time from other potential members.

This can cause frustration and reduce productivity. That’s where streamlined appointment scheduling can help again.

An appointment scheduling tool that syncs with Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar to place the meeting on the calendar is essential. In addition, a solution that can do the busy work for you and send appointment notifications and reminders using text and email is imperative.

This helps ensure that your members make an appointment and keep it.

Referral Programs

Word of mouth marketing is more effective than paid ads and results in five times more sales. Your current members know people who might be interested in a membership.

Instituting a referral program encourages them to reach out to those friends. Customer referral programs work, with the conversion rate being three times higher than the industry average.

In addition, customer referrals will also help with retention. We’ll touch more on that soon.

Membership Retention Strategies

Once you get your members to sign up, you have to find a way to keep them. Around 14 percent of women drop their membership after a year. That number is lower for men at eight percent.

Deliver Top Level Service

We discussed the fact that making joining easy is imperative. However, delivering top-level service doesn’t start after they’ve joined; it begins in the onboarding process.

Around 87 percent of members stay active because of a positive onboarding process. There are a few ways you can continue to offer exceptional service.

Staff

When members visit your facility, they prefer a setting that is more caring. However, only 47 percent of people who visit a fitness center report positive perceptions.

There are a few things your staff can do to help members feel cared for:

• Interact with members
• Learn the names of members
• Greet members
• Offer and provide help to members when needed

Facilities

Cleanliness has always been important, but with Covid, it’s become even more essential. If you want to maintain your members, you need to ensure your facilities and equipment stay clean and in working order.

Stay Connected

Around 30 percent of people who visit a workout facility admit that they don’t even break a sweat when going to their activity facility. Instead, they go for the social aspect.

That means it’s essential to help your members feel connected. You can do this using discounts, events, and workout tips and tricks. Send emails that allow your members to feel connected, and create opportunities to enable your members to be social if that’s an important goal for them.

Programs

Different programs can help with retention. For example, women with children are more likely to stay if they can utilize their membership because there’s childcare.

Programs will appeal to your more social members. And, personal trainers and group classes will appeal to members who want a specific experience, like yoga or additional instruction.

Referral Programs

As discussed, referral programs will help increase your membership; but they also help with retention. When your friends or family join, you’re more likely to stay connected.

You now have built-in workout buddies, and you can take advantage of the facilities together.

Make it Easy to Schedule Sessions

Classes, programs, and childcare are great to have, but it’s not helpful if it’s difficult to access.

Streamlined appointment scheduling software will make it easy for your members to see upcoming classes and programs they can sign up for. It can also help with scheduling personal training and childcare check-ins.

Increase Membership and Retention With the Right Solution

Increasing membership and retention can feel simple if you keep it simple. It’s imperative that you make the process as easy as possible for potential new members and current members.

Are you ready to start using software that will help to make your life easier and increase your bottom line? Book a demo with Day Smart Appointments today.