Month: February 2019

With swimsuit season upon us, many people are choosing to join gyms for the first time. However, finding and signing up for a gym can be an intimidating, confusing process for people that have never been members before. What gym offers the best deals? What gym will I actually use? The list of questions goes on and on. Luckily, wireless Internet service provides tools that can make signing up for a gym easier than ever.

The main advantage that wireless Internet service provides in looking for and choosing gyms is that it reduces the number of gyms that one has to visit in person. While going to a gym can be a very pleasant experience and a lifelong habit for many people, visiting the membership representatives at a typical gym can be a bit like buying a used car. Many gyms do not fix their membership rates, and negotiating hard with a membership representative can cut hundreds of dollars off the cost of your membership during the life of your contract. Coming in knowing what you want in a gym and which gyms are prepared to offer it can greatly facilitate discussions with a gym’s membership staff, although you are still likely to be offered a hard sell on personal training services, tanning appointments, and other membership add-ons.

How does one use the wireless Internet to begin choosing among gyms to even visit, then? Realistically, the first item you will want to consider when choosing a gym is its location. If your gym is close to neither your home nor your office, you are extremely unlikely to ever go. Think hard about whether you prefer physical activity in the morning or the evening before choosing whether to look for gyms near your home or whether to check on the ones around your workplace. You also need to make sure that your chosen gym is within walking distance, and not out of the way by even five or ten minutes on public transportation. The key is to make it as easy for you to go as possible, since even experienced gym rats have days, or entire weeks, when they might be looking for any excuse not to go to the gym.

After location, the most important consideration in choosing a gym is price relative to the amenities you will actually use. Using your Internet browser on your mobile broadband service can provide a great way to quickly review all the information posted on the websites of various gyms to let you know what each establishment has to offer. With this information in hand, you can visit a few gyms in the area where you will work out in order to compare amenities to prices before making a final decision. In general, it is a better idea to sign up at a smaller, cheaper gym whose facilities you will actually use rather than paying for exotic equipment that you will likely never touch.

Marketing dollars are often thrown towards large scale recruitment efforts at fitness facilities in order to attract new members. Creative marketing and advertising campaigns are created, special promotional pricing and other incentives are doled out, and flashy customer service is shown to prospective new members. How do you think that makes your current membership base feel? The answer is undervalued. Retention efforts are just as vital to the operation and profitability of a fitness facility as recruitment efforts. So how do you convince current members to keep gym memberships? Follow these tips for effective ways to keep gym memberships up at your facility.

Get Your Members Invested
If your gym is only stocked with equipment, then you are missing fundamental opportunities to keep gym memberships up by getting your members invested in your fitness facility. Members like to feel invested with their gym. Staff your facility with trainers who are personable and engaged with the membership. Create a fitness class schedule that includes a variety of classes. Add a cafe to your gym to create a social space for members.

Watch for Signs of Drop Off
Are your members dropping off without any efforts to retain them? You can keep gym memberships up by watching out for member drop off through administrative programs. These programs allow fitness facility owners and managers can monitor monthly check-in habits of members to see if any irregularities arise. Watch out for members who only come to the gym a few times a month. Ask your facility’s personal trainers if they have clients who have phased out their services or talk to instructors to determine if regular members have stopped coming to their classes. Stay on top of member usage habits in order to keep gym memberships up.

Offer Member Only Incentives
Consider offering member only incentives to keep current members happy while you are brainstorming your next recruitment marketing campaign. Member only incentives let your current members know you appreciate their business and care about their health and well being as much as you do prospective members. You can even tailor benefits to specific member habits or try to entice them to try new services by offering discounts on personal training, massages or cafe items. Member only incentives are a great way of saying “thank you” for continued business.

Retention efforts are an easy and effective way to keep gym memberships up by investing in your current clientele.