» Retention
What Do Members Expect from Your Club?
When someone buys a membership to your club, it’s crucial to meet—and ideally exceed—their expectations in order to keep them as a long-term, satisfied club member.
BY KRISTEN WALSH N
obody knows more about member expectations, be- haviour, and retention than John McCarthy, the former
executive director of IHRSA, who has authored several IHRSA publica- tions on these topics. Here are some of McCarthy’s tips, which are valuable for any club operator, whether new or seasoned.
Motivation is the trigger that ignites club membership People join a club because they are motivated to get fit, or play squash, or get involved with yoga, or spend more time with certain people. Implicit in
20 Fitness Business Canada January/February 2018
the motivation that inspires a person to join a club is an expectation that the experience of being a club member will sustain and support that motiva- tion. When the motivation that ignited the membership decision is not sup- ported or sustained, then the rationale underlying the membership decision is also undermined. This implies that clubs need to be
clear on the motivation that under- lies every member’s joining decision. Inevitably, this motivation will be emotional rather than intellectual. It will be a desire to lose weight, to stay healthy, to firm up, to look better, to keep one’s children active, etc. It is
desires such as these that underpin membership decisions. Unless these desires are supported and sustained, the membership decision will wane.
Membership retention in- volves at least one intractable issue: behavioural change Every year, the industry sells millions of memberships to men and women who, though they earnestly wish that they could become regular exercisers, have not yet developed the discipline or habit of regular exercise. As behav- ioural scientists will attest, developing such a discipline is no easy accom- plishment. It is difficult for everyone and impossible for some.
Understanding—and leveraging—the member’s motivation affects retention In many cases, the transaction that occurs when a person joins a fitness
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