Building a Sense of Community in Your Gym

We all agree that building community in a gym is one of the very best ways to retain your current membership base and attract new prospects. If I know you, if you ask about me, if I feel included, and if you foster a sense of connection with others in your community, I will be more active and will stay.

In part one of this two part series, we will give you some tips for building a robust sense of community in your gym or box.

Write social posts and blogs that tell a little bit about yourself. I want to know you!

Write social posts that encourage your members to tell their stories. Asking questions is the best way to do that.

Know my name when I walk in your door. Zen Planner makes this easy by providing a built-in cheat sheet. Using the Faceboard kiosk will allow you or your customers to check in by clicking on their picture. This makes it easy for you to remember my name when I walk in or attend your class. If I don’t feel invisible or nameless, I stick around.

Foster community at check-in.Use our Faceboard at check-in because it creates a sense of community within your group by allowing everyone to see who is coming in that day. If you use it for workout tracking and allow people to post their results as they leave in a public way, it tends to create a sense of encouragement, competition, and some good-natured smack talk as well.

Notice when I am not around. Zen Planner makes it easy for you to notice this and reach out for retention purposes. You can set up automations in Zen Planner that are based on trigger events. So, for example, if I am your current customer and I haven’t attended a class or a session in, say, two weeks, I am considered an at-risk customer. You can easily set up an automation in Zen Planner that is based on the trigger of non-attendance by a current member after 7-14-21 days (whatever duration you like). You can have the automated email go out to the customer saying something like, “Hey Nicole, I haven’t seen you in two weeks. I hope all is well with you. Can’t wait to see you back! ” (from you specifically). Or you can send the automated email to yourself as an alert to call Nicole personally and check in on her. There is nothing more effective than personal attention. Everyone wants to feel noticed.

Building a strong community should be the most important component of member retention strategy at your gym. Looking for more ways to better your retention rates? Get your copy of our free guide, 7 Essential Strategies for Athlete Retention.