The Fitness Network:

Why is it important to get your members interacting?

Joshua:

According to the TRP 10,000 report, members who make a friend at the gym are 40 per cent less likely to cancel their membership. And it makes perfect sense, right? Not only does it make the process of going to the gym less intimidating and more fun, but if these friends turn into training partners then that’s a really powerful motivator. You don’t want to be the guy that let’s their mate down, so you turn up, motivate one another and see results.

This phenomenon exists within any kind of social activity. It’s just like how Facebook noticed early on that if someone didn’t add 5-7 friends then they would probably drop off, so Facebook placed the emphasis on generating those contacts as rapidly as possiblle. Whereas in the fitness world we don’t think that way. We view it as a solo activity because that’s the way it’s always been done, but that’s why it’s only ever attracted a certain kind of person; someone the desire and self motivation to train alone. These people are not in the majority. Most people need a social anchor.

The Fitness Network:

What are some of the things that gyms can do to encourage interaction and socialising?

Joshua:

First of all, be clear on what the person is joining. Is it 100 pieces of equipment, or is it a fitness community that has 100 pieces of equipment? If you really are trying to build a community then this needs to be communicated from the outset.

1. Help people identify their peers

Most people have no loyalty to their gym itself. However, they do have loyalty to people within it. The key therefore is to identify which of the people share similar interests, so that you can devise ways to ensure they interact.

This is usually driven by their goal. Does the person want to get massive, become more healthy, lose weight, or train for a particular event? By dividing the gym into these cohorts you can start to create a level of stickiness that’s going to have a serious impact on retention.

2. Run regular social activities

The next step is to get these groups meeting one another. It could be a monthly social event of some kind, or you could approach people that fall into each category and offer them a free training session aligned to their goals, where the real objective is to get like minded people meeting and interacting.

3. Realise that on-boarding is a progressive process

Gyms have a hard time keeping the induction going beyond day 1, but for most members the induction should be a two or three month process. Are they comfortable with the gym equipment? Do they have the right training plan? Are they meeting people? Are they seeing results?

If you look at the most successful tech companies they all focus on this progressive on-boarding - Deliveroo, Fitbit, etc… It’s all about how they can keep you engaged.

Gyms don’t tend to think this way, despite having huge amounts of customer data at their finger tips. They need to be asking how they leverage this data to create programmes that really get the customer engaged early on. I’m not suggesting they create the technology themselves, but they need to be aware that this is the way the industry is heading. Acquisition is the easy part. The real challenge is in getting people to then engage in regular interaction.

4. Harness social media to add value and promote user content

Not only is social media a great way to add extra value to yoyr members, but it emphasises that sense of community. Gyms should be doing all they can to encourage user generated content from both their trainers and members. It positions the brand as a welcoming, social environment, and helps to strengthen ties between its members.

5. Offer free classes for non-members

Not only is this a great acquisition tool, but what you’ll also find is that those members that join will do so generally in small groups and from day 1 they will then see familiar faces around them every time they enter the gym, so the long term value of these members will be far higher than the average.

6. Think carefully before investing in your own tech

Most gyms now accept that technology must play a major role in their engagement strategy. The question then is do you use external software like We Gym, or do you invest in your own tech? There are of course pros and cons to each. If you have sufficient budget and you want the maximum level of control then building the tech yourself internally is a legitimate option, but you need to recognise you are essentially launching a tech start-up within your business. So, on the other hand, if you want to keep your costs and risks low whilst tapping into a much larger network in return for relinquishing a small degree of control, then it’s probably best to engage with third parties. The most important thing is that either way you have a plan!