10 Ways To Keep Your Members (Happy!)

by John McCarthy (Author & Business Entrupeneur)

The health club industry enjoys great success in selling memberships. However, for every 15 million members who walk in the front doors, 12 million exit through clubs’ back doors. Membership attrition represents a financial loss for owners, an opportunity loss for managers, and an experiential failure for members. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, the following suggestions can help you improve your club's retention.

1. Get the right people on board.

Every employee either strengthens or weakens the culture that either supports or depletes a club's initiatives aimed at improving retention. Employees must recognize the vital role they play in making the club friendlier, more responsive, more hospitable, and more effective in helping members connect to the club to which they have hitched their hopes for a healthier, more enjoyable life. This raises the issue of firing — not simply firing staff who poison the morale of their fellow workers, but also of firing members who poison the well of membership morale. If a member is a chronic complainer and is continually communicating his misery to other members, management may be well-served from a retention perspective to invite him to take his business elsewhere.

2. Hone your staff's hospitality skills and reward successes.

Hospitality skills can never be assumed, nor can they ever be completely perfected. They can only be taught, nurtured, modelled, and incessantly incrementalised. Hospitality training should be a regularly scheduled training event that involves the entire staff. The club's senior leadership should model this training in their daily interaction with members. Reward and recognize employees who create 'moments of magic' for members.

3. Make sure owners and managers are visible.

At prime time, i.e., when the club is busiest, no manager should be buried in an office; rather, at those times, managers should be on the floor interacting with members. In addition, the occasional presence on the premises of a club's owner is a statement that he or she cares and is personally interested in everything that happens in the club.

4. Take nothing for granted where new members are concerned.

Ask new members to state their fitness objectives and intentions. These are unlikely to change, and they can be used later as leverage to re-motivate members whose usage patterns indicate that they are losing touch with the club. Approximately 40% of new health club members are first-time members. They need to migrate through many unique psychological barriers. For them, every policy, program, and piece of fitness equipment is a mystery. Provide every new member with a personalized introduction to your facility. Within the first two weeks, call to ask about their experience.

5. Incentivize club usage early on.

Activating members within the first 90 days is essential. Combat early termination by incentivizing club usage during this time. For example: if a new member uses the club 4-5 times in the first 30 days, give him 2 guest passes; if he uses the club another 4-5 times in the second month, give him a free personal training session. In addition to rewarding usage, this introduces new members to services that they might not otherwise have tried.

6. Facilitate member-to-member interaction.

When it comes to retention, member-to-member connections are even more important than member-to-staff connections. Members who socialize with friends (both new and old) at clubs have higher retention rates. Country clubs have higher retention rates than commercial clubs, in part because they put a premium on social spaces and events. Cafes, lounges, viewing areas (adjacent to pools, courts, etc.), and other comfortable spaces facilitate member-to-member connections. In addition, celebrations, holiday parties, and other social events promote such connections. Only by making the club experience as socially enjoyable as possible can we entice people to sustain the rugged work of getting in and staying in shape.

7. Show your gratitude.

Time is the scarcest resource for every adult. Whenever people visit a club, they are presenting that club with the gift of their time (as well as their hard-earned dollars). Perceived from this perspective, gratitude must become a governing characteristic of clubs that value their members. Clubs that continually tell their members, implicitly as well as explicitly, how much they appreciate their presence are touching one of the most vital chords of retention.

8. Practice responsive listening.

Develop a company-wide habit of listening to, interpreting, and responding proactively to member interests. This way, members become partners in improving the club experience for everyone. Empower front-line staff to respond to member complaints. Develop a recovery policy so that when, as inevitably happens at every club, a member gets poor service, front-line personnel are empowered to fix it on the spot, as well as inform higher-ups so that they, too, can respond. Such a process empowers front-line personnel to offer the equivalent of gift certificates to members whom the club has, despite its best intentions, treated poorly.

9. Recognize and reward your most valuable members.

Recognition and reward systems that benefit frequent users and high spenders can be a potent tool in making your most valuable members feel appreciated. Recognize and reward the three classes of members that mean the most to your success, namely: a) long-term members (5+ years); b) frequent-users (who use the club 100+ times/year); and c) high-spending members.

10. Allow membership freezes.

Some members just need a time out. Some who ask to resign their memberships are willing instead to accept a membership freeze, which would enable them to resume their membership once a current situation (often a temporary financial crisis) passes. Most members believe that with respect to their membership they have only two options: they can either continue as members or they can terminate their membership. When presented with a third option—a temporary membership freeze—a small, but significant minority are willing to consider this alternative.