This mistake nearly closed a gym down for good…
In my time in the industry, I saw a lot of gyms really focus on new members.
Nothing wrong with this at all, we all need new business.
However, this was perhaps an overcorrection.
For months we had huge campaigns and pushed for more and more new members.
And it worked, it worked amazingly well actually.
In fact, we got so many new members the gym was packed.
When I say packed I mean people could barely move.
This was also during the typical January influx that anyone in the fitness industry knows all too well.
So imagine double the January craziness.
This ticked off the regulars (who were paying us every month year in and year out)
A lot of them left as they couldn’t complete their workouts anymore (that’s how insanely busy it got)
Guess what happened in February and March?
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A huge amount of the new members left.
Now without the regulars that particular gym hit hard times.
Even though I was just doing personal training there at the time (Many moons ago)
I could see the writing on the wall.
The moral of the story is retention is king!
And while it may be tempting to chase more and more new sales, don’t do it to the detriment of your existing customer base.
They are the ones paying your bills.
To strike the perfect balance between retention and expansion it’s all in your marketing.
And your marketing and brand voice if finely tuned will do a lot of the work for you.
Stay connected to receive more advice and cautionary tales from my years in the industry.
Also If you are a fitness business and you are struggling with striking that balance between retention and new customers,
I’m only a message away.
