Importance of fitness staff in improving retention in your club

You may have different approach towards the whole gym staff issue. There are few schools that treat this subject completely differently or diverse but the latest findings of IHRSA can force you to have a second thought about it. One crucial and the most important fact is: the gym team plays a vital role in keeping the customers engaged and active in a long-term perspective.Therefore, building an effective fitness team seems even more crucial for your business. Those people will transmit your values and care about your members. Training, extra workshops and bringing in new incentives programs for fitness staff can positively impact not only  your employees but alsothe member retention rate.

The whole thing comes down to interactions

The whole thing comes down to interactions – it may seem very simple, yet it is not that common these days. People long to have old-fashioned contact between one another and a real-life communication with the gym staff is worth a value. Reports show something that might be nearly not possible but for every 100 gym  members, 16 will leave within a month if there is no interaction with the gym staff. However, if thesemembers receive a single interaction during a month, only 7 will leave. So, to follow every two interactions with a member result in extra visit at the gym! Real win-win situation!

Generally, when asking yourself why you need good gym staff you should always think about your customers. Members are your first line advisors and their opinion counts the most. Surveys show that the health club team – trainers and floor staff are extremely highly rated when it comes to importance for the customers. Staff can be the reason why some people come back to your place. Staff can create motivational environment which again helps to improve frequency and in the end also the retention rate.

As mentioned many times before, bringing in new members is up to 6-7 times more costly than maintaining the loyal ones. These are costs of extra marketing, working hours of your staff, administration plus not fully measurable, but still important, profitslost. Therefore, it seems legit to follow the reports the fitness staff can bring in up to six times the amount of money per member than the sales staff. To calm you down let me add that the reportsdo not say or suggest to cut down the sales department but instead it is stresses how critical the gym team is to a health club’s bottom line.

How to check interactions between your employees and customers? This is when PerfectGym management software comes very handy. Your team should be instructed to note down in a system all essential interactions taken with customers. These could be training instructions and tips, membership options, loyalty program review, general fitness advise etc. But under no circumstances would I close this interactions into a hard number and pay extra bonus for them. This could go into a wrong and unhealthy direction. I would suggest to use the retention rate as a great financial incentive and reward general hard work taken towards reaching this goal.