IHRSA Talks:
Member Engagement

A good experience leads to higher satisfaction with the Gym.

People are willing to pay up to 70% more for a “superior experience”, or an experience that is perceived as being superior.

A good experience will result in more referrals.

60% of people who leave a gym, will leave because of a bad experience. However, only 1/25 people will actually tell you why they’ve left.

He mentioned the book “outliers”, which I think is the one they based the movie “moneyball” on? Might be worth a read.

Talking to a member in a meaningful conversation makes them 48% less likely to leave. He used to the “F.A.C.E” acronym to describe the interaction. That is:

F (I missed whatever this was)
Acknowledge
Communicate
Execute

He also mentioned “F.O.R.D” for helping to build meaningful conversation with customers. That is:
Family (ask them about their family, are they all well? What do they do?)
Occupation (What do they do for a living? Is it near to the gym? Do they enjoy it?)
Recreation (what do they do for fun?)
Dream (what are their goals? What do they want to do?)

The world should stop every time a member walks in. This means the staff should stop what they’re doing and engage the member, make them feel welcome.

The Gym Staff should have allotted dedicated engagement times. This time is spent engaging with customers that are on site, as well as calling up customers that haven’t been in, and regulars who have just to ask how they’re going. Without dedicating specific time to these tasks, it’s easy for “more important stuff” to inhibit it ever actually happening.

Body Language is important for engaging customers and making them feel welcome. The body language should be friendly and inviting, not hostile.

During the welcoming process, he suggested sending educational emails every 2 days for the first 2 weeks. This helps drive engagement with the gym, and makes the member feel welcome. It also allows them to do more at a solid pace.

His email sequence looks like:
- Welcome Email
- Monthly Call
- Complimentary PT & SGPT
- New member Rewards
- Attendance Rewards
- Celebrates milestones (i.e. 20% discount next month because you’ve been with us a year!)

“Do not let sleeping dogs lie”. That is, if a member hasn’t be coming to the gym, follow up with them about why. Why aren’t they visiting? It likely means they’re going to cancel.

Class Buddies - People engage more with a gym when they enjoy it, to this end at his gyms he has his staff buddy with a member who’s trying out a class for the first time. The staff member will go to the class as well and helps make the member feel welcome and ensures they enjoy the experience.

Facilitiate inter-communication between club members. People want to feel like they belong to a group, allow them to form groups with in the gym (i.e. the running group).

Diversify engagement, don’t rely on just emails.

Encourage & engage with members; One way to do this is to ensure that you offer a “warm welcome and a fond farewell”.

Sharing results drives positive reinforcement, which leads to greater enjoyment.

At the core of this, is that staff need to engage with the members.