About TRP 10,000™
and most comprehensive survey of member behaviour ever carried out in the health and fitness industry: 10,000 health and fitness members completed a baseline survey of their exercise habits and membership behaviour between July and September 2013. During regular intervals over the coming years, they will be followed up to measure changes to their habits and membership behaviour. The results reported in this
C
article are for members who completed the survey between July and September 2013 and who were followed up until the end of January 2014. During the follow-up period, 1,526 of participating members cancelled their membership. For more details of the
methodology, see part one of the series – HCM April 14, p38.
Young male gym-goers aren’t talked to by fitness staff as often as female members
communication and the hassle of queuing for equipment. It can be seen that, for each level of the queuing hassle, cancellation rates are lower if fitness staff regularly communicate with members. Although not shown, the same is true for the parking hassle.
Summary Operational matters such as broken- down equipment, dirty changing facilities and having to queue for equipment are the hassles members most frequently report annoy them. The first two are mostly reported by regular, long- standing members who by definition are most inconvenienced by them. The problem of queuing for
equipment is an important predictor of cancelling, but is a hassle primarily restricted to young males. In previous reports, we’ve shown that young males are also least likely to be spoken to by fitness staff, compounding the problem. Apart from queuing for equipment,
it seems operational hassles are less important predictors of cancellation rates than interpersonal hassles. While club cleanliness and maintenance must not be ignored and must clearly meet satisfactory standards, face-to-face communication should also be a priority.
September 2014 © Cybertrek 2014 A similar pattern is seen with club
uplifts. While members frequently enjoy challenging workouts and meeting their fitness goals, not doing so has little impact on their risk of cancelling compared to the failure of reception and fitness staff to talk to them regularly. A compelling story is emerging
about the power of reception and fitness staff to increase the longevity of memberships, even when other aspects of the club are less than perfect. In an era of fancy technological solutions to everything, this may not be perceived as a very fashionable, or even welcome, finding – it’s perhaps much easier and more tangible to install a ‘hardware’ or ‘software’ solution to the problem than it is to train staff to skillfully and consistently interact with members each visit. But while technology solutions will form a piece of the member experience puzzle, clubs can’t ignore the value of staff conversing with members. But it may require a culture shift for
all levels of management and staff to fully realise the retention benefits of always communicating with members: research results, however compelling, have thus far not led to a noticeable difference in the number of members reporting frequent communication with staff.
Recommendations ●
and cleanliness. ●
Ensure excellent levels of maintenance Develop an equipment purchasing
strategy, facility design and equipment layout that satisfies the needs of young
males who like to work out. ●
understand the value of communication. ●
noted above, and understand they can compound the problem by ignoring
people or alleviate it by talking to them. ●
Encourage staff to be aware of the
uplifts noted above and understand that the power to delight a customer lies in their willingness to hold a conversation. ●
Melvyn Hillsdon is associate professor of exercise and health at the University of Exeter, where he researches physical activity and population health. Since his landmark retention report in 2001 (Winning the Retention Battle), his research into retention and attrition has led to the development of appropriate measures of retention, attrition and longevity that provide data for operators that can directly inform business decisions. In partnership with TRP, he has published numerous reports into membership retention.
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 45
Develop a strategy to ensure all staff Encourage staff to be aware of hassles
onducted in partnership with The Retention People, TRP 10,000™ is the biggest
PHOTO:
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