Good retention is the backbone of any fitness club. You can spend as much time, effort, and money as you’d like acquiring new members, but if you can’t keep them at your club at the end of the day, then that’s time, effort, and money wasted.
In truth, however, branding is much more than just a logo, colors, and name design. Your brand is your reputation, i.e., who you are in the eyes of your audience. Without a brand, your fitness club is forgettable. With a strong, consistent one, you can carve out your own lucrative place in the industry.
Increase Member Engagement
Engaging members to keep them active participants in your club is crucial to retention. If they don’t feel like they’re really part of your community or using your services, it won’t be long before they cancel. Rewards can serve as an extrinsic motivator that keeps members coming back to your club and interested in what’s going on.
Offer points and incentives for things that show a member is active and engaged, such as club visits, completed classes, logging progress in your app, and shopping your retail. The more engaged members are, the longer they’ll stay. And the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% — versus 5-20% for a new customer — so the longer they stay, the more they’ll spend.
Attract New Customers
Retention starts with acquisition, right? A strong club loyalty program can sway prospects to choose you over a competitor. Sometimes, it can even convince someone to switch from another club to yours. In a KPMG customer loyalty survey, 75% of consumers said they would switch brands for a better loyalty program.
A rewards program can also help you attract and acquire new members through the impact it has on your current members. Engaged members often become brand advocates, recommending you to their friends and family. According to Bond’s 2019 Loyalty Report, 73% of consumers are more likely to recommend brands with good loyalty programs. You can boost word-of-mouth promotion even more by implementing a referral program for current club members.
Collect Valuable Member Data
Members aren’t the only ones who can get something valuable out of your club’s rewards program. A loyalty program is also an opportunity for you to track metrics that can help you deliver a better member experience. To earn points, members have to track data like their club activity and spending habits, which gives you a better understanding of what they like and need.
Armed with the information from your rewards program, you’ll be able to better personalize communications, tailor individual member offers, and provide custom recommendations. This will encourage greater member spend, increasing their customer lifetime value (and your revenue) while increasing their perception of their membership value at the same time.
Make Members Feel Valued
When you reward members for participating, it makes them feel like a valuable part of your club. Members who don’t feel valued are less engaged, so showing that you appreciate them is an important part of your retention strategy.
Over time, this appreciation through rewards and incentives builds loyalty and a more lasting relationship between you and your members. Research shows that loyalty program members spend 27% more when the brand develops a positive emotional connection. So, the more valued you make members feel, the more value they’ll bring to your business.
Boost Member Retention & Build Loyalty with My Rewards from ClubWise
Providing valuable rewards and incentives to your club members doesn’t have to be difficult. ClubWise offers a unique, scalable, and cost-effective solution that is simple to implement and manage: My Rewards.
My Rewards is a points-based loyalty program that rewards members for engagement. They can earn points for everything from club visits and referrals to class participation tracked by a heart rate monitor and logging body fat percentage loss. This all leads to better engagement, better retention, and more success for your club.
Book a free demo today to learn more about My Rewards and the suite of other integrated products in ClubWise’s all-in-one club solution!