In today’s fitness world, there are more options than a consumer has ever experienced. There are more ads coming through social media, more at home options and more of a competitive landscape than has ever existed. Consumers are now more aware of fitness and wellness and are more educated on what they should be doing to extend longevity. This means as leaders of wellness-based facilities, you must be aware of your competition.
As a leader with extensive experience in the boutique fitness world — as well as the community space — I have often challenged that mindset. The problem with this thought process is it doesn’t consider a few key factors:
- More users have multiple fitness memberships than ever before.
- Customers don’t see wellness centers as competition for gyms and group fitness as they used to.
- Taking classes is no more a one-stop option. Many consumers today are looking for more variety, energy and new formats to challenge them as opposed to the same old song and dance.
Let’s look at what your community rec center can take away from what boutique fitness is doing:
The data: why boutique is winning on retention even at higher price points.
I often find humor in the fact that some gym-goers every month spend between $100 and $300 on morning drive-thru coffee, but they look at a gym membership and claim it’s too expensive. So then how are boutique facilities charging two to five times the price of your facility and staying alive?
First, perception is reality for your consumers. Value is perceived, and memberships within boutique fitness are prescribed. Your center can completely adopt the same process with even heavier tailoring to the prescription. A family of four trying to find ways to stay active can be coached on where to start and upsold on programs that will help guide them from day one. And before you think upsold is a bad word, remember we’re in the business of helping people live their best lives. The first way we do this is by helping them get engaged in what they need.
The three things boutique gets right that big-box and community rec typically miss.
- Vibe. Boutique fitness made the industry consider something that most gyms and centers never thought about past a subscription to generic, fast-beat pop music. Vibe is energy from coaching the front desk greeting by name and with a personalized approach to making classes and programs experiences and not just a pass through. Give your members something to remember. Simply personally welcoming those who have never been part of the program before and partnering them with a veteran member is a boutique fitness staple most centers never consider.
- Coach experience. Are your program directors auditing class touch points, progression and challenging members? Or is it just safety, class numbers and uniform checks? Boutique fitness realized quickly members look for a push, personalization and real coaching — not just cheerleading. This can be a massive win for retention and program growth.
- Community belonging. Every rec center has the chosen few members who know everyone by name, have made friends with all the staff and probably had a birthday party in their honor at your center at some point. The thing boutique fitness does that we miss out on is using this group to grow our member base. Boutique fitness has heavy referral rewards, special workouts that challenge members to bring workout partners and specific scripts to ask members to make them happen. When we simply send an email blast about our referral campaign or make an announcement before a group exercise class, we’re missing out on using the best evangelists for our facility.
The convergence opportunity: community rec + boutique partnerships.
Some of the best partnerships I’ve seen in the industry have come from facilities that welcome boutique fitness as an ally with a mission to get our community moving — not a competitor we must see as a threat. When we bring in specialized instructors to host events for us, coaches who have very differentiated experience from what our members are used to and modalities we likely wouldn’t be able to host as well as a boutique fitness franchise head coach would, the results are relationships that move our community towards a better future.
A massive side benefit of growing these partnerships is the lift to make an event happen becomes massively lighter on your staff. Simply hosting an event is so much easier than having to coordinate every detail.
The call to action: stop seeing boutique as the enemy and start seeing it as a playbook.
One of the things I love about the evolution of the fitness industry is the longer I’ve been part of it and the more leaders I’ve met, the more I’ve realized most truly great operators have wide-open playbooks. There’s no secret play that one business is running that magically grows their business more than yours. People are people, and boutique fitness has truly shown us how to capitalize on making that their experience. So, your homework is this: meet some boutique fitness operators in your area, share ideas, talk strategy and learn from those who have the highest retention rate in the playing field.
