– Written by Dr Melvyn Hillsdon
For nearly 20 years, Fitronics has been carrying out industry leading research into membership retention.
A key finding of the early research studies was that the frequency of interactions between fitness staff and members was a strong predictor of membership retention. This was true regardless of members’ sex, age, how much they paid for membership and what length their membership contract was. We found that the 12-month retention rate (the proportion of members still paying after 12-months) was over 5 times higher in members who were spoke to each visit compared to members who were never spoken to. Each member who received at least 4 interactions during the lifetime of their membership yielded 4-times the membership income compared to members who received no interaction – a very cost effective intervention.
We also found that the frequency of club visits was associated with better retention and that visit frequency could be improved if fitness staff interacted with members during each visit. In fact, fitness staff interactions, that led to a repeat visit within 7-days reduced the risk of cancellation in the next calendar month by 86%, compared to members who attended and were not spoken to.
In 2014, we undertook a landmark piece of research into membership retention when we launched The Retention People (TRP) 10,000 study. This was the first ever longitudinal study of fitness industry members that tracked 10,000 members from joining to cancellation over 2-years of follow up. The study was designed to provide new insights into the modifiable determinants of retention.
The study reinforced the fact that the most important determinant of membership retention was fitness staff interaction. Further, we also learnt that being spoken to by the front of house staff also improved retention and added to the effect of the fitness staff interactions.
In addition, we found that members who were spoken to by fitness staff were more likely to report progress towards their goals, which in turn improved retention. Members who felt they weren’t making progress and were not spoken to had the highest rate of montly cancellation.
We asked people a range of factors that we labelled as the daily hassles and uplifts they experienced when they visited their clubs. The top 5 hassles were broken equipment, dirty changing facilities, having to queue for equipment, not being able to park and not being spoken to by fitness staff. Of these, not being spoken to by fitness staff was most strongly associated with membership retention. The 5 uplifts were completing a challenging workout, achieving fitness goals, being spoken to by fitness staff, encouragement from fitness staff and being spoken to by reception staff. You wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the three interaction factors were most strongly associated with retention.
Perhaps a little surprisingly, we did not find any benefit on membership retention between members using personal trainers and those who did not or between members using wearables to track their progress and those who didn’t. This was of course 10-years ago before wearables were as ubiquitous as now.
We compared retention rates between members who regularly did group exercise only, gym only or a combination of the two and found that undertaking a mix of activities when visiting a club yielded the best retention rates. Few people did just a singular activity with gym only members restricted to younger aged men.
It is clear that the most impactful way to improve membership retention is to increase the rates of communication between club staff and members, especially fitness staff. Members really value the social interactions in their club, and this translates to significant increases in membership income from dues, reflecting a high return on investment. A club culture of high social engagement creates a place that is more than just a building to workout. It creates a sense of belonging, a place where each member feels valued, a place where they want to be and a place they care about – a place they want to continue to pay to belong to.