What is member retention? Membership retention is a percentage that expresses the number of members a gym has against those it has lost. If a gym has 100 members and loses 10, its retention rate is 90%. You may also read about the churn rate, which measures the percentage of members a gym has lost. Both percentages say the same thing; it's just the emphasis that is different. In the example above, the churn rate would be 10%. A good retention rate is usually around 70% to 75%; anything higher may be considered exceptional. Why is gym member retention important? Attracting and onboarding new members is more cost and time-intensive than retaining existing ones. According to the Harvard Business Review, it can be between 5 and 25 times more expensive. Retaining members also means maintaining a steady income stream, making business planning easier, and enacting longer-term strategies. XplorGym writes that increasing retention rates by 5% can increase profits by between 25% and 95%. Advertising new products, services or classes to existing members is often easier, too. Paid members are inside your marketing eco-system, having already established a relationship with your brand. High retention rates often indicate that your members are happy. Competition between operators can be fierce, especially in urban areas, so retaining members suggests you're doing something right. Satisfied clients are also more likely to recommend your gym to friends and family, and word-of-mouth is one of the best forms of free marketing. Low retention rates suggest lower satisfaction levels, which is great for local competition. 💡💡💡 ⚡⚡⚡Turn workouts into watts with the RE:GEN—our electricity-generating fitness bike. Discover how harnessing human power can revolutionise your gym or studio today!⚡⚡⚡ 💡💡💡 How can gyms improve membership retention? Member feedback can be invaluable in highlighting strengths and weaknesses. If you need more quality responses, offer rewards or incentives. Ask people who've just quit. Their answers may surprise you. There may also be reasons that are within your control to change. Ask your staff to start conversations with members and look for common themes or issues. Building loyalty amongst members often starts with community. Encourage members to connect via social media and email to stay updated on news and new products and services. Creating member events, group sessions, and challenges can help too. Research suggests that group exercise can help improve member retention. One Les Mills study found that members who attended classes were more loyal than those who exercised alone. Over 50% of new members quit within the first six months, so having an onboarding process that nurtures new members is vital. Building a fitness habit can take many months, and most new members will have run out of motivation by then. Onboarding can help members set realistic goals and explain how to track performance successfully, especially during those first few months when physical results often aren't visible. It can reduce feelings of anxiety or intimidation among new members who may have limited to no experience using equipment or attending classes. Given the sharp drop-off in attendance, the initial induction process should encourage new members to attend classes, highlighting specific ones to best support general or specific health goals. Using data to help track retention can be invaluable, but so can identifying at-risk members and intervening before they cancel their membership. Software can help with this, highlighting which dates and times are more popular and which classes perform well and which don't. There's lots of competition for new members. Budget operators like the Gym Group are challenging independent and higher-end providers by offering fitness at a reduced cost. Gyms should look to developing a USP—what sets them apart from the competition. This could be in the type of mission statement or branding of a gym. Gyms can cover a variety of themes or niches—cross-fit, boxing, women's only, sustainability, boutique, lifting, etc. You can change your gym to accommodate Hyrox training or set up electricity-generating bikes in your studio. Poor cleanliness is among the top three reasons people quit the gym. There's no excuse for this. Staff should be polite, friendly and attentive. The gym should be welcoming and pleasant to train in. Find out how Energym's electricity-generating indoor bikes and supporting software packages can help transform your gym, visit our RE:GEN for gym's page.