IHRSA EUROPE UPDATE A note from Finland • Anna Rounaja • Owner and development director • Hukka Oy T
he economic situation in our region has been challenging for the fi tness sector, with massive layoff s. However,
at Hukka Oy we’ve been able to grow our net memberships by 24 per cent in a year. I see three key drivers that explain this. T e fi rst driver is our strong customer-
driven management style. Customer surveys, crowd sourcing, active social media presence and planning for the future to positively surprise our members are all everyday tasks for us. T e second driver is a core value of ours,
namely our focus on turning our clubs into communities. When unemployment hits, social circles change. If a member has a habit of training and meeting friends at your club, they do not want to lose that social engagement as well as losing their job. T anks to active programming, our cancellations are currently at 20 per cent. T e third driver is that we’ve talked to
the best consultants in the world. T eir know-how and vision have given us that extra confi dence we needed to make the right decisions and have defi nitely contributed to our success. Our advice to health club operators is to
design services for the people who want to be part of your club. Be clever in collecting and using the information you get from
Hukka Oy puts its success down to strong customer relations and building a sense of community in its clubs
your members to enhance your club, and you’ll see it refl ected in your bottom line. Don’t forget the big picture. For
example, small decisions can signifi cantly reduce energy consumption in your club, which can help you make your business
Ask the experts: Rewarding member referrals
What’s the best way to reward a health club member who refers one or more new members to our facility? Justin Tamsett, owner of Active Management in Australia, offers his insight on this topic:
“Many years ago, I read about a health club promotion where a different promotional product was given away each month to those who referred new members. A referral was the only way to obtain the item. “We decided to try this, and our club
invested over A$7,500 to have several items branded and for the supporting marketing material. All of this resulted in no change to the number of referrals.
22 “So I asked our members what they
wanted (perhaps I should have done that first) and they told me ‘free memberships’. We then made that our standard referral gift: one month free for each referral. We sent the voucher in the mail as a thank you gift and the member had to bring it in to redeem it and get their free month, thus allowing us to say a personal ‘thank you’. I’ve heard of clubs offering A$5 off the
referrer’s monthly dues as long as the new member stays a member, which I like – but your CRM had better be able to deliver this, or it will turn into an administrative nightmare. My overall suggestion: give the members what they truly want when they refer others.”
Read more answers to this question at
www.ihrsa.org/industryleader
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital Ask members what they want if they refer a friend November/December 2013 © Cybertrek 2013
sustainable and more aff ordable. You don’t want your club to be the gas-consuming Humvee nobody wants to buy in two years.
T is piece was excerpted from T e IHRSA European Health Club Report 2013.
NEWS
PHOTO:
WWW.SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/IOFOTO
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