Getting inside the mind of the modern gym-goer can be challenging; customer demands are only increasing, and pressures to provide a seamless, personalized experience are higher than ever. In this article, we are covering why tracking members’ activity is key to increasing your revenue. 

Understanding what your members want is no easy task, so tracking some of their activities can give you important insights into their goals, challenges, likes, and dislikes and help you to understand what they’re looking for in a fitness facility, so you can keep them coming back time and time again. 

With all of the technology available today, the information you need to boost your business is literally at your fingertips. The key is knowing what the numbers mean, and what to do about them. 

We’ll walk you through the data points you should be paying attention to and show you how you can turn that data into dollars. 

Benefits of tracking members’ activity

As a business owner, you need to know your numbers. You’re probably already zeroed in on your revenue and expenses, but if you want to see some serious upward momentum in your earning potential you’ll want to start tracking member activity. 

Building a clientele requires you to foster personal relationships with each individual member. Whether they frequent your facility once a day or once a month, every member wants to feel prioritized and valued. While it’s certainly important to get some face time in with members now and again, as your client base grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to develop those one-on-one relationships. However, it’s still important to ensure you’re regularly collecting feedback, as this will be key to your business’s success. 

The latest customer experience tools keep you connected to your members in a multitude of ways, making it possible to automate the data collection process, get instant feedback from gym members about their experience at your facility, and let you respond to any questions, comments, or concerns. This fosters the creation of a valuable feedback loop between you and your members. By understanding what’s working—and what’s not—you put yourself in a position to take action before it’s too late.

Members’ activity to track

Once you start tracking your customer activity, you’ll want to make sure you know what you’re looking for. The more information you have on hand, the better position you’re in to make informed decisions that will positively impact your business.

• Acquisition: How did this person come to set foot in your fitness center in the first place? Understanding who your customers are and where they’re coming from can give you valuable insight into your marketing activities, and help you to determine where to boost your efforts. 
• Classes and personal training services: Tracking the popularity of your classes and PT services will show you where member interest lies, and which offerings are keeping members engaged and helping to grow your business. 
• Member satisfaction: As a business owner, it’s a great idea to check in regularly with clients and implement a simple feedback system that allows them to rate their experience at your facility. Learn more about what members are enjoying and what could be improved. 
• Inactivity period: This is one of the most important metrics to track as it tells you when a member might be falling off track. Whether they’re losing motivation, or scoping out a new gym, with this data in hand you’re now in a position to reach out and retain the customer. 

Determine a specific threshold, say 7 days of inactivity, at which point you can set up an automated check-in by text or email to re-engage members who have been inactive for a certain amount of time. 

• Renewals: You’ll want to keep track of where people are in their membership cycle so that you can actively re-engage them when their membership is up for renewal. If they choose not to renew, this is a valuable opportunity to understand why and what you may be able to do differently next time. 

How tracking members’ activity boosts revenue?

By keeping an eye on your member’s activities, you’ll start to notice patterns, enabling you to make informed decisions to guide your business activities. 

Firstly, solid data gives you feedback about your current marketing activities, how they’re paying off and where you could stand to focus more of your efforts. This helps you to allocate your marketing spend in ways that benefit your business, while reducing your budget in areas that aren’t bringing results.  

Tracking metrics lets you get to know your members on a more personal level, understand their habits, likes, and dislikes. You can use this information to create a tailored member experience for each individual. 

For example, if you notice one of your regular members hasn’t been to the gym in a week, this might be a prime opportunity to send them a check-in text to keep their fitness goals top of mind. Not only might this prompt the member to come in for a workout, effectively re-engaging them as a client, it also shows them that you’re paying attention and you value their presence, helping you to build the foundations of customer loyalty.

It’s this kind of relationship building that keeps members coming back year over year. Increasing your average member length of engagement (LEG) will in turn increase recurring revenue, which is integral to the long-term success of your business. 

How to track members activity?

Tracking member data may seem like a full-time job, but it doesn’t have to be. The key to making tracking manageable is setting up systems through automated dashboards so you can collect, analyze, and start seeing the results of your tracking efforts ASAP. 

First, you’ll want to consider your needs. What metrics are you looking to track, and why? Understanding every business is unique and ready to implement tracking in your facility, but not sure where to start? FLiiP’s automated dashboards are designed for the unique challenges facing today’s gym owners, to track the numbers you need to set you up for success. Book your demo today to learn more.