Are You Doing All You Can 

To Retain Your Health Club Members?

With all the competition for health club members, managing member retention has become more challenging than ever. 

More clubs today are offering the latest equipment, sassiest new classes and the hottest local fitness instructors and trainers in an effort to make their health club desirable and retain members. Clearly there is more to it than that and management needs to tap into all the different reasons members would want to stay with their club.

It may be time to take a second look at your health club management processes. Think you’re doing all you can to keep your members happy? Check your club against this list of the top ten practices that add up to better club membership retention. 

Provide on-line schedules for member convenience. Go beyond paper and provide digital schedules for members living on-line.

Encourage cross training. Educate your staff to motivate members to cross train. Add strength training to cardio routines or Pilates to tennis. You’ll see members spending more time (and money) at your club.

Offer social events. Provide birthday parties for the little ones and wine and cheese events for the grownups.

Create regular emails to update members on the latest club activities. Offer fitness tips and invite members to try new classes.

Run tournaments for everything from tennis to racket ball to ping-pong. You can also use these events to attract potential members from the community by opening tourneys up to non-members.

Provide additional training opportunities such as marathon or triathlon training. Not everything has to be done inside the club. Regular outside training adds a fresh approach for both members and instructors.

Train your staff to know members by name. The more connected and valued members feel, the more likely they are to keep coming back.

Establish reward programs for frequent exercisers. For example if members come more than 10 times per month, give them a 50% discount at the pro shop or café.

Offer incentives for renewal. There may be little difference between you and your competitors but providing extra motivation for renewal may be the straw that tips members in your favor.

Use health club software to streamline your operations. The less time you have to spend on day-to-day tasks, the more time you have to connect with members.

Fitness is so tied in with social activities that it makes sense to increase the social atmosphere at your club. Find more ways to engage members and you’ll boost your club’s energy, revenue and retention numbers – elements that add up to a healthy business.