As we continue our march through a year in the fitness industry, we get to another key part of the calendar for any independent gym or fitness club. March. We’ve already witnessed the tidal wave of good intentions that is January, followed by the February grind.
But then March arrives, and as if on cue the sun reappears for more than five minutes at a time. Daylight lasts longer, the air smells different and people, your members included, have more energy. It might all disappear in a round of showers come April but after the winter we have just had, people will take any amount of sun.
For independent gym owners across the UK and Ireland, spring isn’t just another month on the rota. It’s a crossroads for their member’s behaviour. Understanding both this shift and how best to capitalise on it can be the difference between a quiet April and a packed house as we finally approach summer.
Marching Orders
As we covered earlier in the year, by March we generally find a portion of the New Year’s resolution crowd has thinned out. Anyone who is still attending by the time the clocks go forward can partially shed the label of January Joiner. By March and April, those are just members for most metrics.
So whereas for the first two months we focused on how to keep those joiners, now we are going to look forward. Because that is what your members will be doing. We’ve all been reminded that the giant orb in the sky can occasionally produce heat and that has people thinking about Summer.
Attendance in March and April tends to be steadier than the volatile spikes of January and February. It is less frantic but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hold attrition and retention perils for independent gyms.
Because March is also the time when the gyms and fitness clubs start to compete with the great outdoors. Emphasis on the word start. The evenings are slightly lighter and the temperature is a bit warmer. It isn’t the full-blown allure of Summer but the brave among your members will want to get out and smell the daffodils.
So whereas January and February are all about dealing with motivation in the face of optimistic life changes and trudging through bleak mid-winter, March is about dealing with the shift in not only member habits, but member focus.
The Class Schedule Shuffle
One of the most immediate changes we notice in spring is how your members want to move. The heavy, indoor-focused mentality of winter often gives way to a desire for leaner, more athletic conditioning. Suddenly being outside just seems more fun after a period of largely being either cold, indoors or both. And March is also where we usually start to see a shift in member timing.
When the sun is already set at four thirty in January, it is easy for members to convince themselves there is nowhere better to be. But by mid-March there is still well over an hour of sun left at 1630 and it might look awfully tempting.
This is where agility in your programming becomes vital. You don’t need to rip up your entire timetable, but a spring refresh can work wonders. It is important to not only look at your timetable but also what you are offering. Perhaps that will mean introducing more HIIT-based sessions, outdoor warm-ups, or even early-morning classes that cater to members who are now waking up naturally with the sunrise.
Ultimately your members know what they want best, which is why we have always suggested empowering your members.
This is where the right tools take the headache out of the transition. Relying on paper rotas or group chats to manage instructor availability for a new seasonal timetable is a recipe for chaos as your staff draw information from different, often misaligned sources.
This is why it is vital to have your gym’s class system integrated into class management software, allowing you to see exactly which classes (or even timeslots) are underperforming and which are jampacked, allowing you to reallocate resources instantly.
If your data shows a 35% drop in a Monday evening yoga class but a surge in demand for 7pm circuits, you can pivot your operation within the week with minimal confusion. Add in push notifications delivered by your members’ app directly to their phones and the scope for miscommunication is minimal.
Here at Ashbourne, our systems are designed to give you the visibility and flexibility required to respond to your members needs and improve your members’ experience. Whether it is allowing you to adjust your schedule on the fly without the admin nightmare. It turns the spring shuffle from a logistical burden into a seamless evolution.
For more information, contact our in-house, UK based demonstration team today here.
Community, The Outdoors and Keeping Members in the Gym
As March gives way to Spring-proper, the biggest competitor won’t be the gym down the road, it will be the beer garden, the football pitch, the jog through the park or the long evening walk. So, how do you convince someone to spend time under your roof when the world is calling them outside?
Spring is the perfect time to lean heavily into community events both inside your facility and even outside. Embrace the growing desire for movement, community and a shift in member goals to appeal as patterns and schedules inevitably move. Can you organise a Sunday morning run club that finishes with coffee and protein pancakes back at the club? What about an in-house community event hosted on a sleepy weekday evening. These are the events that will get members re-engaging with your gym even as their schedule starts to open up and change.
These events serve multiple purposes in combating and utilising the spring shift. They keep your existing members engaged by giving them a social reason to show up, they strengthen your community at a critical time and they can also act as a powerful recruitment tool. When non-members see your group pounding the pavements or taking over a local park, it sends a signal that your gym is alive and connected to the local area.
There’s a tangible energy shift when summer is around the corner. Priorities change, schedules change, goals change. By creating a calendar of social and fitness events and promoting it at the right time, whether it is a “Summer Ready” challenge, a charity 5K, or just a post-workout coffee break, you give your members a reason to stay locked in. It transforms the gym from a transactional place into a community that your members can feel they belong to.
A Time of Change
For independent gym owners, spring represents a second chance. The automatic pilot of the New Year is over, and you have a clear view of who your core members really are. By managing your class schedules in a proactive way with the help of new software and doubling down on your community connections and ties, you can carry that spring energy all the way through to the summer.
Do you feel like the fitness industry in the UK often gets the short end of the stick from our government in Westminster?
Here at Ashbourne Membership Management, we have been tirelessly working within the fitness industry for over 25 years and we think it is time that independent gyms and fitness clubs across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland made their voices heard. That is why we are a key supporter of the Fair Rates for Fitness campaign.
If you are a gym owner, manager, worker or even just a member of a gym or fitness club here in the UK, please click the link to see what you can do to help your gym or club. The societal and health benefits that our industry brings to the UK are huge, and we believe it is time the government recognised our contributions as such. If you feel the same, check out Fair Rates for Fitness and contact our partners over at the Gym Owner’s Forum.
