Featured Article
Membership Retention Strategies: Plan "B" for 2010
Why is it that after about 25 years of trying to fix the membership attrition problems within the fitness industry, we are still experiencing a membership attrition rate of 35 percent to 45 percent...
Archived Articles from Step by Step: Retention
Membership Retention Strategies: Plan "B" for 2010
Why is it that after about 25 years of trying to fix the membership attrition problems within the fitness industry, we are still experiencing a membership attrition rate of 35 percent to 45 percent...
Inside the Mind of Your New Member
Many people cite lack of time or money as their reasons for not joining a health club, but I've found that three more prevalent factors stop them from getting started...
Seven Tips for Retaining Trainers and Instructors
What would happen if you lost your best personal trainer or group exercise instructor to a competitor? If this has ever happened to you, then you know how important it is to retain your trainers and instructors...
Are You Easy?
Did that title catch your attention? Thought so. Well, the expanded version of that title is ‘Are You Easy to Do Business With?’ but it doesn’t seem to be as much of an attention grabber as the abbreviated headline...
Internal Training Programs Help Retain Personal Trainers
Owners and fitness managers agree that people drive the success of the fitness business. Thus, most owners find that the benefits of developing an internal educational resource for personal trainers outweigh the challenges they face in implementing the program...
Cleaner than Clean
Clean must become a mantra for everyone at a club because hygiene and cleanliness are priorities for current and prospective members. Nothing differentiates your facility more in the minds of members and potential members than your staff and your facility’s cleanliness...
How to Keep New Members Loyal and Involved
More than half of your members in 2009 will join in January, February or March. The sad reality is that the majority of these members also will lose motivation shortly after joining....
Personal Training Client Retention Made Easy
Retaining personal training clients requires effort and a sensible approach. The following tips will make it easy for any personal training department to retain more clients for a longer period of time....
The ROI of Customer Service
Simply stated, customer service means servicing the customer. What sets your company apart from your competitor?...
Retaining Value: Retention Through Fee-Based Programming
In the "2007 Guide to Membership Retention," John McCarthy, former executive director of the IHRSA, cites member-to-member connection and fee-based services as two of several powerful retention tools....
Seven Tips for Retaining Your Clients for Life
Are you getting most of your business from your current and past clients, especially if you have been doing personal training for at least two years...
Calculating the Reason for Focusing on Retention
We often think that retention is something we will worry about later. Club owners have so many other things on their to-do list that improving retention seems to fall far down on the list of must-do items...
Six ‘High Five’ Retention Strategies that Work
Avid exercisers know the importance of continually developing new muscles. But they also know the importance of maintaining the muscles they have already built up. ...
How to Prepare your Club for Great Retention
Having a good retention rate is like hosting a well-attended dinner party every month. To host a good dinner party, you first have to go through many steps of preparation and behind-the-scenes effort and energy. ...
The Hard and Soft Truth About Retention
In the health club industry, a high retention is a must. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation out there about retention. Here are five important tips for improving your retention and separating the soft data from the cold hard facts: ...
Four Strategies to Dramatically Improve Your Member Retention
There are several ways that you can maximize the LMV of each of your members, but the foundation of this concept is retention. You must keep a member......
Five Steps to Avoiding Member Issues
There are many issues you might come across when running your daily operations. The best way to decrease the possibility of a member-relations nightmare is by following a few easy steps. ...
Position, Position, Position: 5 Tips
Retention, retention, retention. That is the name of the game if you want to stay profitable. But what’s a club to do when it’s surrounded by competitors? The answer: position, position, position. ...
How to Solve the Revolving Door Dilemma
Trying to lure beginners into a health club is not a difficult task but keeping them there is a different story. We live in an image-conscious society with infomercials and diets that promise to help us lose weight in less than 30 days, so people are typically ...
Eight Tips for Implementing a Successful Member Retention Program
1. Create a synergic relationship between the personal training and programming departments and the fitness manager. 2. Proactively ask the members how they’re doing and what you can do to better serve them. ...
When Should You Conduct A Member Survey?
The quick and easy answer to the question of when should a club conduct a member survey, of course, is whenever you want to know what members are really thinking. In reality, there are many answers to this question. Here are a couple of the more important ones....
Train More, Worry Less
Phil Kaplan, a club owner, personal trainer and consultant, discusses how clubs can train more and worry less....
Focus On Retention
Maintaining Interest With Your Club's Layout...
Focus on Retention
How to Prevent Employee Burnout...
Focus on Retention
Member Satisfaction: It's All in the Name...
Focus on Retention
How Your Members Sabotage Their Own Success...
Focus On Retention
Prescription for Service Excellence...
Focus on Retention
Retention Begins With Your Sales Force...
Focus on Retention
Renovate to Retain: Updating Your Club...
Focus On Retention
Praise With Punch: Why More Than a Thank You Matters...
Focus On Retention
Satisfying Members With Group Exercise...
Focus On Retention
Keeping members happy during renvations....
Focus On Retention
Promotion! Promotion! Promotion!...
Focus On Retention
Keeping Members Entertained...
Focus On Retention
Staff Turnover: What Is It Costing You?...
Focus On Retention
E-mail Newsletters Build Community...
Focus On Retention
Keep in Touch With Your Members...
Focus On Retention
The Warning Signs of Dropout More and more club operators are recognizing the importance of proactively keeping existing members as opposed to eternally seeking to find new members. Many factors contribute to why members discontinue their memberships. The obvious reason is that they are not coming to the club. However, the warning signs that indicate members are about to drop out are visible long...
Focus on Retention
Making Fitness Fun...
Focus On Retention
Keeping Great Employees...
Focus On Retention
Keep Them Coming Back for More...
Focus On Retention
Is Your Customer Service More Than Lip Service?...
