Proactive Vs. Re Active Member Retention Strategies

MobileFit Australia Principal Lane Harrison has identified two main ways in which fitness and health clubs deal with member retention.
Harrison explains "often health club managers have what I call a reactive approach to member retention.
"This includes calling members after they have not been to the club for a period of four weeks, sending out 'we miss you' postcards and the like."
However, Harrison believes this strategy is flawed as that momentum is hard to stop, adding
"there is almost a 'dose-response' relationship between the frequency of new member visits in month one and the annual retention rate.
"Put simply, the more frequently people visit the higher their retention."
Harrison sees that once a member has developed a pattern of facility attendance this can very difficult to change. Therefore if a member has low usage in the first month of membership it becomes very hard to change this behaviour.
This is backed up by MobileFit Australia retention research that found:
ï¾ The difference between the frequency of visits in month three and month sixth is minimal suggesting that the visit frequency has been established by month three.
ï¾ Only 6% of low frequency users in month one manage to increase their visit frequency to at least once per week in month three. This emphasises the importance of picking up low frequency users early in their membership.
As a result, Harrison explains "this research is telling club that they must have a proactive approach to member retention."
"For greater retention success clubs must have strategies in place that support, educate and engage members to ensure that they start off on the right track with high facility use in the first 90 days of membership."
MobileFit Australia offer a short video on how to engage members in the first 90 days of their fitness club membership.
This video can be viewed by clicking on the link below.
If you would like some ideas of how to be more PROACTIVE in your member retention strategy click the link below to view a short video on how to engage members in the first 90 days.
For more information on retention strategies contact MobileFit Australia on 1300 181 665.
info@mobilefit.com.au
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dh-yuAisuU&feature=youtu.be