Management Software and Member Retention
06. Feb Larry
How are your membership sales working out for your team at the club? Let’s say, for example, you are meeting your monthly sales goals of 30 new members a month. That should position your gym to grow very nicely. But wait !!! You need to ask one other very important question:.
HOW IS YOUR MEMBER RETENTION?
If you are selling 30 memberships and losing 30 every month, you will have a hard time growing your business. Selling 20 and losing 10 a month, is better than selling 50 and losing 50. I think we can all now see how important Member Retention Management is. One of the best ways to improve your member retention management is to communicate effectively and consistently to your members during their first 2 weeks as a member. Make sure you are meeting their needs and bringing to their attention services that you offer that could be of interest to them. Now you can have a great staff to put procedures in place to handle this manually, but there is one fool-proof safety net to handle this: Have your management software AUTOMATICALLY send out emails and text messages during that critical first 2 weeks in the gym for EACH new member. I have heard many gym owners tell me they are developing a retention plan but just haven’t implemented it yet. There are a few software companies that provide member retention services and have the data to confirm the effectiveness of it. Basically, once a membership is purchased through the system, the software will queue this member to automatically receive emails and text messages about your services for the next 2 weeks. The order and content is designed by the gym owner to make sure the information is relative to your gym. If this is done right, you will end up turning your clients into raving fans that will be loyal and help you more easily and effectively grow your business by keeping your retention rates lower. Clients that enjoy your services will ultimately become long time members AND will encourage their friends to join your gym. Look for club management software provides member retention services because this is a must have for any business. Larry King is the Founder and CEO of Shape.Net Software. He can be contacted at 800.381.2082, or by email at sales@shapenetsoftware.com, or visit www.shapenetsoftware.com. 
