Gym Memberships: Top causes why you might be losing them

Attracting new gym memberships is an important part of any fitness facility’s business growth curve. Gyms and fitness centers that can successfully attract new memberships while retaining old memberships always have an upward growth curve.

There can be times when you cannot help but lose gym memberships due to certain external reasons (like the recent pandemic). But if your gym or fitness facility is losing memberships that you can control, then you must try to control and lower them as much as possible.

In this blog, we will be discussing the top causes why you might be losing gym memberships. Keep reading to find out more.

Why are Gym Memberships Important for Your Fitness Facility?

Regular increases in gym memberships can help your gym grow. Attracting new members is not an easy task. However, with the right tactics, retaining those members is easier as well as cheaper. Gym members are the clients of your fitness facility that pay for the equipment they use and the training they receive to achieve their fitness goals.

With the fees they pay, you can ensure that your gym thrives and earns its profit. However, if you are losing memberships, then your gym will be running on losses and you may not be able to keep it running for long.

That is why attracting and retaining gym memberships is important for your business. But what could be the reason for losing them? Theoretically, there could be many reasons for losing memberships. Where some of them are inevitable, you can change the others to turn them in your favor.

Let’s discuss these reasons and how to solve them in the next section.

Most Common Reasons for Losing Gym Memberships

What are the most common reasons your gym loses its memberships for? Let us know in the comments below.

Below, we have discussed some of the most common reasons why gyms may lose memberships. With the right approach, you can stop losing them or at least reduce the number of memberships lost.

Costly Gym Memberships

One of the most common reasons for people to leave the gyms and fitness facilities is that they think the gym membership is too high. If your members feel that the fee they pay is unreasonably high then they may want to leave your gym.

There are a few things that you can do to ensure that your members do not leave your gym facility because of this reason.

The first thing you need to do is to make sure that your members know why you are charging what you are charging. Let them know how you justify their fees. Other than this, offer them the value for their money.

If you are charging them high fees, it should show in the facilities you offer them along with the results for which they strive.

Low attendance

Member attendance is one good way to know whether they are interested in continuing to keep coming to your gym or not. Apart from this, it can also lead to not achieving their fitness goals. When the attendance is low, members often leave thinking that they are not achieving anything out of this.

To combat this challenge, you must keep constant contact with your gym members. If they are missing their workout sessions, then contact them and ask why they are not attending them.

You must motivate your gym members to attend the gym regularly for them to achieve their fitness goals. When they see the results, they will be more encouraged to come to the gym and less likely to leave it.

Wanting to workout without spending money

Another popular reason why members may want to leave your gym is that they believe that they can simply work out at home or park for free of cost while they pay at the gym for exercise.

Again, if this is one of the reasons why your gym memberships are dwindling, then there are chances that you are not giving them results and facilities worth their money. So, you must give them the reason to stay and pay for the services you offer. This could be the equipment, trainers, diet and exercise routines, workout expertise, and similar other services and offerings.

Make them understand how your gym and the facilities it offers will give them superior results as compared to working out alone.

Gym anxiety or being uncomfortable with the gym equipment

A gym is a place where people go to improve their physical health and fitness. However, gym anxiety can be one of the reasons why members may buy the memberships but do not turn up at the facility.

If the members have initially come to your gym and now are not showing up because of their anxiety or something that is making them feel uncomfortable or out of place, then, you should talk to them to understand what it is.

This may help you in knowing what you need to change to make your gym members feel more comfortable. Additionally, if you know that a person may feel uncomfortable or anxious being in the gym, you can give them some tips that may help them relax and enjoy working out.

Look for how you can make them feel more comfortable. For you to do this, you need to understand your members and your gym services. The better you understand your gym members and prospects, the better services you will be able to provide them.

FAQs

Why do gyms lose members?

There are many reasons why your gym may lose its members. While there are some you can’t do anything about – like the members moving away – there are other reasons which can be changed to ensure that you retain your gym members.

What stops people from joining a gym?

Many factors may stop a person from joining a gym. Lack of motivation, not wanting to spend money on exercise, feeling anxious about going to a gym, etc could be the main factors behind people not joining the gym.

If you are looking to combat these factors and gain more clients then you can check out how messaging apps like WhatsApp can help you attract prospects.

How many gym memberships go unused?

According to the stats from USA Today, around 67% of gym memberships go unused in the US alone.

EndNote

Retaining gym members costs you significantly less than attracting new members. Hence, while you may want to come up with new ideas to attract gym members, you also have to pay attention to your existing members and their needs to retain them well.

With gym management software like VFitnessClub, you get to manage the gym functions and other processes while being in contact with your gym members.

Connect with your gym members and make them feel like a part of your gym community with a dedicated member application from VFitnessClub, or send rich multimedia messages on WhatsApp and similar other messaging applications.

Explore more features and modules with a free gym management software demo. You can also connect with us to know more about client acquisition through gym management software.

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