4 Effective Ways to Refocus your Sales Strategies Post COVID-19: Fitness and Recreation Industry
The Covid-19 pandemic has hit most industries like a tidal wave. Some businesses have drowned, some have been aimlessly floating on a sailboat and some have chosen to pick up a surfboard and ride the wave the best they can. Most businesses who have been surviving, have realized they need to pivot from their best-laid plans in order to adapt to their new circumstances. The Fitness and Recreation industry is no different. In my 4 years of working in the Membership Sales department for a local recreational facility, I have seen countless ups and downs, trends, and purists. But one thing remains the same, people care about their health and how they can maintain it or improve it. Here are 4 effective ways that the Fitness and Recreation industry can refocus their sales strategy for a post Covid-19 reopening.
1. Retention of Current Members
Keeping your current members has NEVER been more important than now. This should be your top priority. “Statistics show that by boosting customer retention rates by 5%, businesses can increase profits by 25%-95% due to compounded sales and increased lifetime value”. Simply put, members who stay longer represent a higher lifetime value (membership fees) and it is substantially less expensive to retain current members than it is to obtain new members. There is also the element of familiarity, which increases the likelihood of loyalty and referral to others.
There clearly is value in analyzing and reducing your membership churn rate.
So, how do you do it?
One of the top ways to keep your customers is to ensure high levels of customer service. Your front desk team is the first and last impression that your member will experience on each visit, and therefore should be outstanding. Ensuring you have hired and trained your team to provide a genuinely personal and meaningful experience for each and every one of your members, will help to build relationships and loyalty to your facility. Your customer service team should be knowledgeable in their job and empowered to make decisions that will help make the members experience effortless.
Listen to your members. Do your best to resolve any pain points they may have. This is the time to make changes so they can feel heard and valued. Prioritize your customer experience at all levels. Consistently going above and beyond member expectations will give you a competitive advantage.
Another aspect of retaining members is recognizing the impact this pandemic has had on your members; mentally, emotionally, and especially financially. Being able to offer an opportunity for financial assistance to your current members, who may have had their situation change over this pandemic, is a strategy that is in alignment with organizations that choose relationships over income. One organization that excels in this mindset is YMCA Calgary. Although they have always offered a financial assistance opportunity, they have made some additional allowances to help those in need due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
2. Make your Members Feel Safe
Communication of your revised health and safety practices is an important step to making your members feel safe to return to your facility. Assuring their safety is your top priority, and showing what proactive changes have been made helps to build trust in the relationship. Organizations such as Goodlife and YMCA Calgary has shown true leadership in this area by posting videos explaining the changes in their facilities. The communication that is available on each site tells and shows their members they are ready for them to come back.
The additional step of setting up text messages to be sent out to your members allowing them to receive automated Covid-19 updates as they happen as well as utilizing the social media channels helps to keep members connected. Processes and requirements are constantly changing, the faster you can update your procedures and share them with your members, the more secure they will feel with your efforts.
3. Adapt Program Offerings to Increase Engagement
Make your facility new again for your members! Introduce new social distance options that will still allow them to reach their goals and remain connected to the community they love. Various changes include Virtual Personal Training and Outdoor or Online classes. Many At-Home fitness videos popped up during the quarantine era, because as stated earlier people care about their health. In order to say relevant and accessible, it became a necessity for fitness facilities to adopt an online presence to connect with their members to fill this glaring need.
An interview with Alex Cibiri, Fitness leader in the CrossFit World, has shown the industry how to adapt during this pandemic. His facility has been offering virtual experiences via the online platform Zoom. His offerings go beyond the expected and serve the community in a healthy way, while still allowing them to connect. The experiences include not only fitness classes but virtual coaching, interactive cooking classes, game nights, and wine tasting events.
Cibiri states:
“Just like Spotify doesn’t replace the experience of going to a concert, rather it adds to it; virtual workouts will add to the in-person fitness experience and will likely be an important consideration when clients are making new membership decisions.”
These new offerings can be temporary, or they may be a new way of connecting with a previously unreached group of members who don’t always have time to visit a gym and may appreciate the option of home support.
4. Collaborate with other businesses
A quote by Jess Rufhus in an article written about surviving the pandemic:
“There has never been a better time to collaborate with other brands. Businesses need to band together, cross-promote, and tap into collaboration marketing as a strategy.”
This is a time to re-evaluate your standard business processes and to make the necessary changes to maintain and eventually grow your business.
Collaborations can be as simple as adding a gift with membership purchase or a rewards program. Any sort of external product or service that will enhance the experience of your members or your community, could potentially be a win for both collaborative partners as well as your patrons. An example of note is the ongoing collaboration between the City of Calgary and YMCA Calgary. Most recently they have worked together to expand the distribution of free masks across the city. This benefits all who are involved; The City provides assistance to uphold a new mandate for mask-wearing indoors, the YMCA receives more traffic to their locations, and the communities have convenient locations to pick up the items they need.
Gone are the days of simply filling the funnel. That hamster wheel mentality will not be the best course of action for the fitness industry any longer. Quality member experience will mean investing in the relationships with your current members, proving your safety standards are of the utmost priority for them, providing new ways to meet their needs and achieve their goals, while working alongside other likeminded businesses to create value and benefits for all involved.
Recognizing members have heightened needs during this pandemic including basic health and financial needs, as well as the psychological needs of being connected and feeling accomplished. They still want to be a part of the gym community but in a different way, so they will now be more discerning when making their choice.
Be aware of what they want. Be what they need.
References
Coombs, A. (2018, June 4). How to Increase Gym Member Retention: Strategies & Tips. Retrieved from perfectgym.com: https://www.perfectgym.com/en/blog/club-owners/gym- member-retention-strategies-tips
City of Calgary. COVID-19 — Free face coverings and mask locations. (2020, August 8). Retrieved from City of Calgary: https://www.calgary.ca/csps/cema/covid19/safety/covid- 19 — -free-face-covering-and-mask-locations.html
DeVries, H. (2020, July 28). How to Find New Clients During Pandemic. Retrieved from forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/henrydevries/2020/07/28/how-to-find-new- clients-during-pandemic/?subId3=xid:fr1595999649017acc#16ef4c7545a6
Gallo, A. (2014, October 29). The Value of Keeping the Right Customers. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-value-of-keeping-the-right- customers
Geller, V. (n.d.). 10 Gym Membership Retention Strategies. Retrieved from wholesale.rdxsports.com: https://wholesale.rdxsports.com/blog/10-gym-membership- retention-strategies
Gendusa, J. (2020, August 3). 24 Fitness Marketing Strategies to Grow your Gym or Training Business. Retrieved from postcardmania.com: https://www.postcardmania.com/blog/fitness-marketing-strategies/
Goodlife Fitness. (2020, August 8). Retrieved from https://www.goodlifefitness.com/
Kana, J. (2020, May 18). The New Modern — Reshaping the Fitness Industry with Alex Cibiri.
Retrieved from modernmississauga.com: https://www.modernmississauga.com/main/2020/5/18/the-new-modern-reshaping-the- fitness-industry-with-alex-cibiri
Lang, P. (n.d.). Increase Gym Member Retention with Better Customer Service — How to Guide. Retrieved from uhurunetwork.com: https://uhurunetwork.com/gym-member-retention- customer-service/
Rufhus, J. (2020, April 29). How Collaborating With Other Businesses Helps Everyone Through Coronavirus. Retrieved from startupdaily.net: https://www.startupdaily.net/2020/04/how- collaborating-with-other-businesses-helps-everyone-through-coronavirus/
YMCA Calgary. (2020, August 8). Retrieved from ymcacalgary.org: https://www.ymcacalgary.org/membership-benefits/financial-assistance/
