Years ago, I had a conversation with a long time member who was canceling her membership. In an attempt to save her from canceling and help our member retention, I asked many open-ended questions about her experience, usage and plan going forward. Her response got me good. She politely answered all my questions, and then simply said “if this consultation had happened when I first started, I may not be having this conversation with you now.”
That meeting stuck with me and I have never treated onboarding members the same since then. Onboarding is such an important facet of a rec center. However, setting a member up for success is simply one of many steps in ensuring they actually want to stay with you long term. Let’s take a look at five ways to add a personal touch to your member retention strategy.
1. Personalized Consultative Onboarding
Action Step. Many rec centers tend to have a “showcase” mentality when touring a prospect, showing them everything your facility and community has to offer and then allowing the member to tell you what they want and even if they will sign up. Taking a consultative approach let the prospect know you truly are seeking to find the best programs and next steps to help them accomplish their goals.
Why it Works. Making recommendations establishes your staff as the authority on your services and also allows the prospect to know you care about helping them choose the right programs for their family. Statistically, this approach also creates higher penetration rates into your additional programs, which in turn creates sustained membership longevity.
2. Connect Where your Members are Connected
Action Step. Get to know your members and how they are connected in the community. Your member base is so much more than a referral source — they are your connection to your city. What passions do your members have? Is there any volunteer work they are doing? What boards do they sit on and what schools do their kids attend? By getting to know your members and their interests, this allows you to learn more about your their passions and to support what your members are involved in, which encourages them to support your cause.
Why it Works. Your members have their interests and connections already in place. As a service to your city, connecting to other businesses, schools, programs, non-profits, or causes, this not only allows you to have organic exposure to your city, but also allows you to find ways to create greater impact for your cause.
3. Personalized Check Ins and Invites
Action Step. Have you ever been to an event where you only knew one person? It can be quite awkward and honestly, pretty easy to leave early. The same rule applies for your center. If you knew 30 people at the party, it would be much easier to stay. Within your customer retention management software (CRM), be sure to have check ins from multiple engagement avenues scheduled through the first 90 days of your member’s lifecycle.
A fitness assessment from a personal training director, a personalized invite from a group fitness teacher to take a specific class, a personalized phone call from a program director to invite their child to take part in a program that may suit them, and personal invite from the membership director to a community event coming soon are all great ways to engage your members and create multiple relationships within your facility. This gives your members a more confident and comfortable experience.
Why it Works. Members want to know that you care, and most programs depend much too heavily on email and automation to communicate with their member base. A personalized phone call strategically placed at certain milestones of membership show intent, care and personalization all with one simple dial.
4. Know Member Retention Is Not Always About Fitness
Action Step. When people join rec centers, it’s not always just for health reasons. Getting kids to be active, socialization, finding a fun activity to enjoy weekly and finding accountability are all great reasons why people may join your center. Offering regular socials, sponsored events, special tournaments, and open houses are great opportunities to get specific about encouraging your members to come and incentivize bringing friends.
Why it Works. As human beings, we crave interaction, socialization and fun. What better way to encourage your members to come back than to have a fun family activity for them to partake in when statistically most people don’t really like going to the gym? To top it off, if your customer experience is great, your members will gladly bring friends to your social events.
Member retention is a multi-faceted metric that cannot simply be viewed through a single lens of attendance or lifetime value. Be a student of your member base and study the reasons as to why some stay and some members leave. These tips will help you to see beyond the metrics and into the psychology of your members. Trust me, they will appreciate your care and dedication to their success.
