5 strategies to improve customer loyalty in a box

Did you know that attracting a new customer costs up to 10 times more than retaining an existing customer? Designing customer loyalty strategies becomes essential in a sector with such a high turnover as fitness. However, customer acquisition strategies in gyms usually overshadow customer loyalty strategies. Today we will turn the tables with these 5 strategies to increase customer loyalty in your gym.

What is customer loyalty in fitness clubs?

Customer loyalty in gyms is the process by which we ensure that a customer who already attends our gym or box, maintains their commitment to us. With today’s wide range of gyms and boxes on offer and the high Churn rate in the fitness sector, developing customer loyalty strategies is vital. For this reason, many international sports associations and organisations have dealt with the subject in several publications. Resawod has selected some of the data from these studies to illustrate the importance of customer loyalty in gyms.

What do the studies say?

• • •  60% of people value more than one option when choosing a club. 50% of users also believe that their sports centre is no different from others.(Source: https://www.ihrsa.org/)
    • New customers who use the club about three times a week in the first month are more likely to remain members for the first year.(Source: https://www.europeactive.eu/)
    •  Instructors’ contact with users increases the number of visits by approximately one extra visit per month for every 2 interactions (Source: The Retention People (TRP): The Retention People (TRP))
    • Approximately 20% of club members rejoin the same club and only 15% leave to join another club (Source: Les Mills International).
    • Social support is a relevant factor in customer retention as training with family or friends increases retention. (Source: Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA).

As you can see, these data already give us many ideas on how to build customer loyalty and increase retention in our gym.

How do you build customer loyalty in a gym?

To build customer loyalty in your gym you must always keep two aspects in mind: their degree of satisfaction with the gym and their degree of belonging. Customer loyalty processes in gyms are not the result of a single action. They are the sum of different strategies carried out over time. Therefore, there are numerous actions to implement in order to increase the two main aspects of loyalty. Here are 5 strategies to increase customer loyalty in your gym.

5 strategies to increase customer loyalty in your gym.

1. Close communication. Maintaining close communication with your customers is one of the most relevant factors in retention. Not only will you make them feel valued and listened to, but you will also be able to anticipate their needs. In addition, by doing so, you will get to know your users better, helping you in the management of your gym at all levels.
2. Differentiate from competitors. 50% of users believe that their gym is no different from the rest. Therefore, differentiating yourself from the competition is one of the key strategies in the process of customer loyalty in a gym. This will make it more difficult for a customer to make the decision to leave your gym when they are considering changing gym or box, because of what you offer and others do not.
3. Work on gamification. It can be one of the best customer loyalty strategies in a gym. But what is gamification in gyms? Something as simple as turning training into a game increases the motivation of your users. The points system, rewards, competitions… Learn more about gamification in gyms in this article.
4. Offer additional services. Offering extra services can increase the loyalty of your customers in your gym. By offering discounts on additional services with which you have agreements, the degree of satisfaction with your gym will increase as your users will understand that thanks to belonging to your gym they have a special discount.
5. Turn your users into ambassadors. Social support is a relevant factor in the customer’s relationship with the gym as we have seen. The more a person goes to the gym with others, the more loyal they will be. In this way, you can encourage the recruitment of family and friends, turning your customers into ambassadors and increasing their loyalty as well as gaining new customers.

Now that we are clear about the two fundamental aspects of loyalty: the grade of satisfaction and the grade of belonging, and we have seen 5 strategies for customer loyalty in gyms, it’s time to make our loyalty plan where we will collect all the strategies that we are going to carry out. To help you in this process, at Resawod we have designed this user retention guide in boxes that you can download for free here. We hope it helps you!