3 ways to reduce customer churn at your fitness centre

In order to be sustainable and successful, gyms and fitness centres need to build a strong, loyal membership base with minimal customer churn and consistent cash flow.Customer churn 

Customer churn can be hugely detrimental to the success of your gym for a number of reasons. For one, if you have no consistency in your membership numbers, you'll struggle to plan for the future and make good long term decisions. 

High customer churn can also be a vicious cycle. If you regularly have members cancelling and taking their business elsewhere, you'll be busy poring resources into replacing them. As a result, you won't have the resources needed to improve the quality of your service and ensure the satisfaction of remaining clientele. 

Fortunately, there are plenty of things you can do to stem the tide and minimise the amount of cancellations you receive each month.

Here are three specific ways in which you can reduce customer churn at your fitness centre or gym.

Improve your communication

Communication is the lifeblood of any good relationship, particularly the B2C relationship. If you're not regularly talking to your customers and opening the lines of communication, it makes it incredibly easy for them to leave you further down the line.

Fortunately, modern technology has made communication easier than ever before. Email newsletters and automated text messages (when used in moderation) give you an easy and affordable method of talking to customers and letting them know about special deals and events happening at your club. 

Keep in mind also that communication is a two way street. You have to be contacting your members regularly, but you also have to be listening to their feedback in order to understand what you can improve on to keep their business. 

Make the most out of your Ezidebit payments

If you are already using Ezidebit then you will be enjoying the benefits of being paid on time and reducing your time spent on admin. Not only does this make your life easier, it also improves productivity for your staff as they will be spending much less time chasing down missed payments and explaining late fees to irritated customers experiencing bill shock. 

But, are you getting the most out of your investment in Ezidebit?

There are other benefits of Ezidebit beyond processing the recurring weekly or monthly membership debits. Have you considered using Ezidebit for one off purchases of club merchandise for example, or for a customer to add a pack of 10 PT sessions? Consider how easy it would be to let members know they can simply add that to their debits. You can simply set up the additional payments and just like that, you have made an additional sale.

Keep things fresh

There is a lot of competition in the fitness industry. Nationwide and international chains often compete with smaller clubs and centres for a limited pool of customers. As such, in order to keep your customers from switching to a larger brand, you'll need to be creative and think outside of the box.   

Special events, competitions and exclusive deals are great for helping you stand out from the crowd. Likewise, additional services such as chiropractic and massage sessions can offer you a competitive advantage. By presenting your customers opportunities that other chains do not, you'll be able to convince them of your individual value. 

It's important to note that this point goes hand in hand with the previous tip on communication – after all, if your customers do not know about the unique services you offer, how will they take advantage of them?