While most of us all face different types of adversity in business, many Gym Operators currently are battling the same problem: Frozen Memberships.
“We have so many members who are still on freeze” is a comment I hear frequently from fitness industry executives. “How can we get more of them reactivated?”.
One option, of course, is to simply wait it out. There will come a point, probably next fall, when most people will be fully vaccinated, mask mandates will have been lifted and kids are back in school. When those three conditions are fulfilled and, particularly when the weather turns, people will go back to their gyms.
However, most of the execs I talk to are not the type to sit around and wait. They want to take action now.
Here are a few actions you can take to get your membership numbers back on track.
1. Offer free tours
Instead of asking your frozen members to come in for a workout, ask them to come in for a tour. Particularly highlight the steps you’ve taken to improve air flow, air turnover, and air filtering. The gym I go to turns over the air 3 times per hour and has installed the PHX filtering system – I’m practically working out in a breeze. Covid doesn’t transmit in areas with excellent ventilation.
2. Tour club facilities at your lowest capacity
Invite your members to work out at the slowest time of day, if you can.
3. Get valuable feedback about your Member Experience
Take advantage of MXMetrics Bounce Back survey. We put together a nice, simple survey with reporting that any club can use, that is specifically designed to get feedback from members who have not yet returned to active status. The core member experience survey we normally run provides feedback about gym experience from active members – those who have recently experienced your club. This Bounce Back survey can be very easily sent to those members who are not checking in. Some members will self-identify as “not coming back until everyone is vaccinated” – and others will indicate they just need a bit of a nudge. Reach out to them. We make this program available at no cost, whether you are a customer or not. Just reach out and we’ll get you set up.
Our company tagline is “Defeating Mediocrity.” We’re excited to partner with the operators who don’t want to be average, who don’t want to “wait” until everything sorts out – who want to take action and achieve Operational Excellence.
I’m happy to continue the conversation with any operator who is looking for solutions for unfreezing memberships. Let’s defeat mediocrity together.
For more unique insights, check out the MXMetrics Blog. Contact Dale@MXMetrics.com to learn more.
