They Don't Just Leave You, They Escape Without Warning!!!

by Scott McLaughlin (Director - www.Clutch.com.au & GymConnect)

It's a known fact that the loss of members for whatever reason drives massive costs to fitness centre operators each year.

We have and we are learning in this business that retention is a damn sight more cost effective than the extremely high costs of acquiring new members. More over, the degree to which bad word of mouth spreads as a result of people choosing to leave your facility, makes acquisition all the more difficult.

Lets face it you operate in communities - how many years and how many members does it take to leave you before their past experiences become your painful legacy, well it's probably only a matter of time.

What is most interesting about this is that very few facilities conduct exit interviews; and if they do, they do a sub standard job of collating and addressing the areas of concern of former members. This is a critical miss for any business. Research indicates that for most businesses 7 out of 10 who leave for service-related reasons, will do so without saying a word, worse still they may well become the "silent" assassins for your business well into the future.

Capturing this feedback on the way out is extremely valuable, but getting constant feedback from your existing members is even more powerful, as it allows you the opportunity to retain more of them in the first place.

When your customers realize that you care what they think, that you are open to feedback and most importantly you are prepared to act on it, you begin to move your membership from satisfaction to what really matters, customer loyalty. Loyal customers not only pay, they become an invaluable sales resource for your business going forward.

So all you have to do is ask, listen and act, it really is that simple.