For most independent gym owners, attendance drops in summer. There are rare exceptions but most have come to expect it. So today we are going to be looking at how to work around this inevitability and what actually determines whether those members will return come September.
Most of the members who train less in July are not having second thoughts about their membership. It is more likely that they are either on holiday, or their children being home has evaporated the schedule they have been relying on, or their social calendar has filled up in ways that we all know they don’t fill up in February. Life expands in summer, and the gym often gets squeezed. That is not a loyalty problem. It is a logistics problem, and the distinction shapes everything about how a gym should respond.
Summer Communication
A common instinct that gym owners have when footfall drops is to push harder on their comms and motivation. More content, greater urgency, pushing reminders about goals, benefits and features. This logic is understandable but the outcome can to be the opposite of what they intended.
For one, members are largely already aware they are training less and most likely do not need their gym to underline it for them. When your communications carry the implication that anything short of full commitment is falling short, some members will just stop engaging with those comms. This approach works for some, but too often we see it as the central message of an e-mail-blast, and at a time when many are feeling guilty for not attending due to a disrupted schedule, it is often does more harm than good.
So what is the move here? Well, the gyms that come out of summer with their membership numbers intact and their retention rates in the green are usually the ones that did not spend June to August pretending that nothing had changed.
The key to preserving and even growing member retention rates over summer is acknowledging what will happen, adjusting around it, and making it easier for your members to stay connected to your facility.
What the 'Realistic Summer’ Looks like for Independent Gyms and their Members
The fitness industry has been trying to shift away from this all-or-nothing, no guts no glory mentality when it comes to fitness for years, and for good reason.
Summer is a good time for independent gyms and fitness clubs to demonstrate that they are there to support members as they navigate their busy lives. Any gym that can demonstrate that through its messaging, scheduling, and the attitude of their staff will be making a statement to their membership.
The simple message that showing up matters more than how long you stay or how often you come, will hold more members through disrupted months than one that implicitly rewards only the full-programme regulars.
It has been recognised for decades that inactivity is a massive public health challenge for the UK, linked to one in six deaths and costing the economy billions each year. Regular exercise, even at reduced frequency or intensity, delivers massive benefits for both physical and mental health. Two gym sessions a week is not a consolation prize. For many members, maintaining that through a busy summer is a genuine achievement and the thing that keeps the habit alive long enough to rebuild in autumn.
Thirty-minute sessions are better than nothing and can represent a tangible benchmark to your membership. So can dropping to twice a week or swapping a gym session for a long run or a bike ride when the weather makes that the more appealing option. Members who feel the gym is on their side when they make those adaptations are considerably more likely to return to their usual routine when September arrives.
For many, flexibility and understanding will win out over pressure.
The Scheduling Gap
Summer also changes when people can train, not just how often. The member who was in every weekday at 7am may find that impossible once children are home and the school run is gone but the predictability has gone with it. Where once your members were able to fit their evening sessions neatly into a winter routine with little light, now they find them clashing with afterwork social plans that take advantage of that glorious summer sun.
This is where a flexible class timetable (and the ability to quickly amend your class schedule on the fly) can make all the difference. We aren’t talking about shifting it around at the drop of a hat for individual members, but adapting it around the seasonal demand is a great way to fill spaces that might otherwise get left vacant with a static, year-round pattern.
Whether it is earlier classes in the morning or an increased weekend offering, small tweaks can bring members back into classes that would otherwise not work with their summer routine.
With the right membership management software this doesn’t need to be a large, time-intensive structural change but across a summer it can give your members the opportunities to train that they would not otherwise have had. The session a member almost skipped but managed to fit in because the time was right is the one that keeps the habit going.
Keeping the Connection
We have already focused on habit, now we are going to focus on the other side of that same coin, keeping the connection to your gym alive even if the habits falter.
Keeping your members connected through summer doesn’t need to rely on a complicated strategy. A single message that is genuinely low-pressure, that acknowledges the season and asks nothing of them can work wonders. One message that sounds like a person sent it is worth more than four that sound like a system triggered them.
Where freeze and pause options exist (and where your membership management software has capacity for them), members should know about them before they feel like they need them. A member who cancels in August because they felt they were paying for something they were not using might well have stayed if someone had mentioned the option to pause for a couple of weeks at the right moment. It is reasonable to assume that most members will not ask about an option they do not know about, the default, especially in the UK, is to assume it is just not on the table.
The Longer View
We have known a lot of independent gym and fitness club owners in our nearly 30 years operating in the fitness industry that have bristled at the idea of giving membership pauses and freezes. We can understand why, it feels unintuitive initially but in the long run it not only results in greater revenue, but better member satisfaction and retention.
Increasingly the fitness industry is being built around, and signalling the value of, sustainability and that protecting and growing revenue is easier when our members know they are supported and valued.
The independent gym or fitness club that was able to treat their members sensibly when life gets busy, rather than making them feel guilty, is the one where members are more likely to stay. The independent gym that offered flexibility when a member’s schedule becomes overwhelmed is one that is more likely not to go.
So this summer we say, show your members that common sense, flexibility and that personal touch are most often found from local, independent fitness providers.
Focus on What Matters
Here at Ashbourne Membership Management, we have been helping independent gym and fitness club owners in growing their business for nearly three decades. Whether it is managing and chasing membership payments, installing cutting-edge access controls, or creating, setting up and maintaining their websites, we have ensured that thousands of gym owners have been able to spend more time growing their business.
If you want to see how a company made by and for independent gym owners could help you deliver even more value to your members, book a demo with our in-house, UK based team today.
Fair Rates For Fitness
If you are reading this, you are likely someone who cares about the UK’s fitness industry. If so, we ask for another minute of your time as we discuss something important to all of us within the fitness industry.
Here at Ashbourne Membership Management, we have been proud to work in this dynamic, innovative sector for nearly three decades. At time of writing the UK government has decided to increase business rates as part of the latest budget. While we are always happy to pay our way, we believe that these rates do not acknowledge the incredible benefit that independent gyms and fitness clubs bring to society.
Every party manifesto claims that they want the people of the UK to be healthier, happier and more active. But when the time comes to match action to rhetoric, our industry is too often left out.
So if you want to make your voice heard alongside the hundreds who have already acted, follow the link here to Fair Rates for Fitness, a campaign being championed by our partners over at the Gym Owner’s Forum.
