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Sealing the Leaky Bucket – 7 Research-Based Tips for Retaining New Members in January 2021
With January now close on the horizon your thoughts will be firmly focused on sales campaigns to attract new members through your doors in the new year rush.
But have you thought beyond the sale? About how you are going to maximise the return on your sales investment by keeping those new members for longer?
In this article, we will share with you 7 tips (informed by our extensive research into member behaviour, experience, and retention, conducted in partnership with esteemed academic, Dr Melvyn Hillsdon) which will help you to seal the leaky bucket and retain your new members for longer in 2021.
1. Create a friendly, welcoming club community which your new members can be part of.
58% of members report being highly motivated by the social aspect of attending the gym.
2. Get your new members into group exercise.Members who take part in group exercise are 26% less likely to cancel than those who only workout in the gym.
Get your new members into group exercise with the help of your raving fans >
3. Talk to your new members when they visit.Almost 9/10 members say they value fitness staff speaking to them.
4. Find out what motivates your new members and ensure they have a regularly updated plan of action to achieve their goals which has bitesize milestones they can hit to keep them motivated.
For each factor that a member reports they have made progress on, the risk of cancelling during the following 7 months reduces by 10%.
5. Utilise digital communication channels to engage with your new members when they are away from the club to encourage them to make visits.In the first 6 months of membership, making at least 1 visit in a given month reduces the risk of cancelling in the next by 27%.
6. Member engagement doesn’t stop in the gym. ensure your reception staff are, at minimum, saying hi and bye to new members when they visit.
Compared to members who say they are always spoken to by reception staff, members who are never spoken to cancel at a rate 2.8 times higher.
7. Get all of your new members following your club’s social media channels and ensure you are regularly posting engaging content that adds value.Members who receive club communications via social media are 3x as likely to be ‘Promoters’ as defined by the Net Promoter Score® methodology.
Looking to keep your new members for longer this January? Contact The Retention People today to request a demonstration of their user-friendly software.