How To Keep Gym Members Happy

By Gavan Chapman Gym Improvement Guides Member Engagement Member Management Member Retention January 14, 2020

Here is how to keep gym members happy at your fitness club

Personalise gym member communications
Regularly check-up on member progress
Take advantage of gym feedback
Maintain gym equipment and hygiene
Celebrate gym member milestones

Learn how to improve gym member satisfaction at your fitness club

The key to creating a successful gym business can often be lost when looking into new digital fitness trends and fancy gym machines that promise to enhance your members workout experience. While it’s hard to argue that both won’t play a role in building a better foundation for your gym, their hype has recently overshadowed what is the ‘most’ vital part of your business… the gym member. More importantly, how to keep these gym members happy.

You need to truly understand how your members feel and understand whether they are satisfied with the service that your gym provides. This really boils down to one question – are your gym members happy? After all, what’s the purpose of investing thousands into new equipment if it’s the fundamentals that customers are unhappy with.

Improving gym member satisfaction at your fitness club and ensuring member happiness should always be the first step in any development plan. Sound simple enough? Well, that might be because it is.

So, how do you keep gym members happy? Here’s how some of the most successful fitness businesses are keeping their customers satisfied.

Personalise Gym Member Communications

Take a moment to think back to your experiences as a gym member and you’ll find that it’s not hard to understand why personalised communications can make all the difference when trying to keep clients happy. Whether talking about fitness beginners or seasoned gym veterans, there is still a distinct desire to feel valued. Personalisation is perhaps the most effective way to do this, recognising the individual needs and preferences of each gym member.

So, what do personalised gym member communications look like and how can they help keep your clients happy? Here’s how some of the most successful gyms are increasing member satisfaction:

Custom invitations to gym events and challenges
Personal text messages outlining key dates and other information
Tailored fitness newsletters based on goals

Have any other ideas for some personalised communications that you could send out? Great! Not sure if your gym has enough resources to make this happen, perhaps? Don’t stress!

The good news is that sending ‘custom’ gym member communications will rarely mean that you need to write and send hundreds of messages for each member. Instead, you can utilise third party business programs or even a good quality gym management system. This makes it easy to implement any new ideas you may have without exhausting other limited resources.

Regularly Check-up on Member Progress

Consistently going to the gym can be quite challenging for many people, especially when their fitness goals seem ‘so far’ out of reach. Even at the gym, motivation is something that can quickly disappear halfway through a workout. This is where regular progress check-ups act as a valuable tool to keep gym members happy.

The more engaged and on-track a client is throughout their fitness journey, the more likely they are to have a positive perception of the service being provided by your business. After all, your gym is simply a facility that provides the necessary tools needed for people to transform the way they look and feel.

While regularly checking up on members may sound good in theory, it’s important to consider what is viable for your gym. Smaller gyms with a more manageable member base may have the ability to offer a more personal consultation – larger-scale fitness businesses may not have the same opportunity. So , what’s the solution? Well, sometimes less is more. Even a simple question or email can have a large impact on member satisfaction – keeping your clients happier throughout their fitness journey.

Here’s how leading gym’s are checking up on the progress of their members:

Member metric systems in-built into gym management software that allows staff to see individual member measurements and goals.
Enquiry emails for inactive members who haven’t visited the gym for numerous weeks or months.
Personal programs or body scans to analyse bench-marked performance.

These are all great ways to track gym member progress with relative ease, however, if you’re still not able to implement such systems – this process can be as simple as asking a member how they’re going and if there is anything you can do for them.

Take Advantage of Gym Feedback

Gym feedback is considered to be one of the most valuable tools available when looking to improve your gym business. Why? Because it provides two opportunities to greatly improve the customer experience.

Firstly, feedback engages gym members by giving them an opportunity to be actively involved in shaping the future of their fitness journey. This not only makes them feel incredibly valued, but also acts as a way to constructively vent any issues they may be experiencing.
Secondly, feedback allows gym owners to implement given recommendations that are now known to improve the fitness experience. This helps keep members happy, improving gym retention rates significantly.

Seems straight forward, right? After all, asking is the only way to truly understand how someone feels about your fitness club. Well, you would be surprised by how many businesses aren’t taking advantage of what members have to say…

So, make sure you have an effective set of tactics that allow feedback to be freely given from anybody. Customers aren’t always the only people with feedback either. Try consulting any gym staff to gain professional recommendations that can be used to grow your business and improve member satisfaction.

If you’re unsure how to go about obtaining member feedback, you can read our gym improvement article that outlines four of the best questions that you should be asking people right now.

Maintain Gym Equipment and Hygiene

Though it holds true that gym’s don’t need all the latest ‘bells and whistles’ to keep gym members happy, well maintained equipment and a hygienic environment really does go a long way. The more you can create a pleasant fitness environment for your members, the more likely they are to remain satisfied.

Keeping all machines in clean, working order is also critical to running a quality fitness business as without properly functioning equipment, a range of issues beyond customer satisfaction can arise. Defective machines can bring up a whole list of unforeseen expenses and liability issues.

So, how do you properly maintain your gym equipment and upkeep club hygiene? Well, it’s a great idea to keep a maintenance checklist to best optimise your gym’s environment for all club members. If you’re not sure where to start looking, most equipment manuals will provide a detailed list of maintenance activities while hygiene practices are typically just a given.

Here’s how some of the most successful gyms are maintaining gym equipment and hygiene:

Testing relative humidity and temperature within fitness clubs to ensure equipment life is prolonged
Schedule regular examinations and gym walk-through’s to allow staff to constantly monitor equipment condition
Daily gym maintenance practices including equipment wipe-downs, vacuuming, and cleaning of amenities
Providing gym members with free bacterial wipes to assist with equipment cleaning and maintenance
Following recommended maintenance schedules of all gym equipment to ensure that machines are serviced accordingly

Lost your equipment manuals? Trying contacting the manufacturer to ensure that you can keep providing the best customer experience for all club members. Clean and fully functioning machines are a surefire way to keep gym members happy.

Celebrate Gym Member Milestones

Whether you’re trying to keep gym members happy or looking to increase gym retention rates, celebrating individual successes are a must. Reaching fitness goals is never an easy task and can often be both mentally and physically exhausting. Rewarding gym members and celebrating their success can greatly reinforce their achievements – keeping them happy and motivated.

How you choose to celebrate gym member milestones can be highly dependent on the resources you have available. The important thing here is to acknowledge all achievements in a genuine manner. Make it a big deal. Not sure what to do? Look not further!

Here’s how some of the best gyms are celebrating their gym members milestones

Featuring hard working gym members in a monthly gym newsletter is a great way to include the community in recognising big achievements
Offering free ‘gym packs’ can be a good way to celebrate milestones. Trying giving out some branded water bottles, shakers, caps, or towels to those who are working hard
Utilise a gym notice board to post pictures or articles about your most hardworking gym members. Popular ideas include ‘member spotlight’ and ‘member of the month’ features

Remember that it’s hard to celebrate achievements that you aren’t aware of. This is where using a quality gym management system can help you keep track of personal metrics – giving you the upper hand when trying to keep gym members happy.

Not sure how else you can keep gym members happy…? Well, here’s what the most successful gyms are doing

Although we’ve covered five top ways to keep gym members happy at your fitness club, there are things that can be done behind the scenes to give you that extra edge. Sometimes, member satisfaction can be impacted by staff processes, all which can be optimised through an effective gym management system.

The use of good gym management software should not be underestimated with the ability to integrate crucial business functions such as billing, member sign-on, 24/7 security, and scheduling.

When using the right management system, there can be a profound effect on the customer experience, making processes much quicker and more convenient for both members and staff. Not sure if your current system cuts it? Here are the top signs it’s time to change your gym management system.

Get help selling more gym memberships with VIGYR gym management software

VIGYR is an innovative gym management system that has been built with the mission to revolutionise the fitness industry by allowing fitness clubs around the world to deliver the ultimate customer experience at an absolute cost-advantage. Developed from decades worth of experience and feedback within the industry, VIGYR delivers the fastest and most flexible gym experience today.

VIGYR has continued to push the boundaries of what fitness software is capable of by building an easy-to-use platform that is simply and seamlessly integrated. What does that mean for you? Well, think complete process optimisation delivered by a new suite of powerful tools and features that are redefining business success around the globe. Don’t be held back by a system that doesn’t deliver. Find out what’s driving the future of the gym industry today!

Talk to us about how VIGYR can help improve the member experience at your gym.