Getting members is one thing. Keeping them is another. Keeping members happy is yet another.
And it is a major part of keeping the doors open and the bottom line black. In fact, member satisfaction is one of the five most important key performance indicators that a health club needs to be tracking to ensure success. Unfortunately, gaining insights into customer satisfaction isn’t always top of mind for health-club and studio owners, making it difficult to know what is working and what isn’t.
However, finding out how satisfied your members and students are isn’t rocket science, and it just takes a bit of forethought and desire to learn the truth, good or bad. Here are three simple ways to find out what your customers think of you:
1. Ask Them What They Think: Nothing works better to find out what your members think of your health club than asking them what you are doing right; what you are doing wrong; and how happy they are with the facility, service, and staff.
Email Survey: Email your members a quarterly or semi-annual survey to find out what they think of your club and offer a chance at a month’s membership or gift card for their efforts. With technology and low-cost third-party providers, it is easy to not only put together a survey with the right questions but also compile the responses and measure them. Be sure to include a mix of multiple-choice, short-answer, and longer-answer questions to allow for both quantitative and qualitative insights. However, make sure not to make the survey too long, as this may reduce response rates.
Feedback Boxes: There is nothing wrong with going old-school with paper and pen at the front desk. Don’t call it a suggestion box but, rather, a real feedback box. Have preprinted sheets with a question such as “How do you feel about your visit today?” so that the member or class participant can give real feedback and not just vent about the lack of parking or about a class that is already full. Encourage your instructors, desk staff, trainers—pretty much anyone on your staff—to engage members and ask them for their thoughts or to fill out the feedback form. This not only helps them learn what your customers think, but it shows them that you and your staff care about those thoughts.
2. Monitor Social Media: You don’t always have to ask your customers what you are doing right or wrong; all you must do is listen to them or, in this case, read what they are saying. Monitor the name of your studio on social media and odds are that you’ll get real, honest feedback on your club and your staff. People are very willing to share their opinions with friends and family freely, and social monitoring allows you to “eavesdrop” and hear the real views of your members. If they do let you know directly on a social channel, be sure to acknowledge you are listening and that you value their opinions.
Related: Four Ways to Drive More Gym Membership Sales Through Social Media
3. Track Your Numbers: Does a particular class have high attendance? Is usage during lunchtime waning? Retention rates dropping following the opening of a competitor? These figures can give you insights on your customer satisfaction and what might be or not be working at your health club. At the very least, it’ll provide some direction on where to dig around and see what you are doing well, perhaps what the new competition (or any competition) is doing to drive business, as well as what might need some improving.
Keeping members and students happy is the first step of not only keeping members but gaining referral business by making sure you know what’s working and fixing what doesn’t.
How are you tracking your members’ satisfaction?
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash