How to Increase Retention Rate for Your Gym? 

Retention is the holy grail of any successful gym. It is essential for both cash flow and net income. We’ve all seen clubs invest heavily in attracting new members, only to lose them within months due to disengagement, frustration, or a lack of connection. As the saying goes, “It is easier and less costly to keep a member than it is to acquire a new member.” 

This couldn’t be truer in the fitness industry. To grasp the true cost of acquiring new members, consider this:

1. Add up your total sales representatives’ labor costs—including base salaries, commissions, payroll-related expenses, and the Sales Director’s salary and bonus, if applicable.
2. Include all marketing costs allocated to membership sales.
3. Divide this total by the number of new member acquisitions to get your actual cost of sale.

This is a reminder that every member lost can significantly impact your bottom line.

With average attrition rates for full-service health clubs hovering between 36% and 41%, and the average length of membership only around 24 months, the importance of member retention becomes painfully clear. 

Yes, life happens; sometimes members move away or face financial hardships. Yet, this should not serve as an excuse for high attrition rates. The bulk of member retention depends on how we, as club owners and operators, manage the member experience.

“Measuring retention and its associated factors are a vital element of running any successful health and fitness business.” 

– Dr Paul Bedford, Retention Guru

Without a robust retention strategy, your gym’s profitability is dead on arrival. With IHRSA research showing churn rates as high as 50% within the first year for many fitness clubs, the numbers don’t lie—poor retention equals poor business.

If you’re serious about long-term growth, retention has to be at the core of your strategy. In this blog, industry expert Mike Alpert shares his insights on how to increase retention rates effectively. He’ll explore how to increase retention rates by focusing on strategies that create lasting member loyalty, build a strong gym community, and drive long-term success.

4 Strategies to Boost Member Retention in Your Gym

Build Stronger, Personal Relationships with Your Members

Today’s members demand an experience that goes beyond access to equipment—they want to feel seen and understood. Strong relationships between staff and members are the backbone of retention.

Building such rapport starts with listening to your members. As simple as that. Educate all employees and managers on the importance of being good listeners and always being accessible to members.

• Listen and don’t interrupt: Let them express their feelings.
• Focus on making them feel heard: Regardless of the outcome, they should feel part of the decision-making process.

‘Gyms can greatly benefit from proactively engaging their members. Even those who drift away are seeking more interaction.’

– Dr Paul Bedford, Retention Guru

To further double down on the listening strategy, implement these steps:

• Staff Interaction as a Key Touchpoint: Every interaction counts. Training your staff to remember member names, ask about progress, and follow up on specific goals fosters a deeper connection. It’s not enough to nod politely or offer a perfunctory “hello.” Your front-line staff needs to engage on a personal level and show genuine interest.

• Feedback Loops that Lead to Action: Feedback is often treated as a bureaucratic checkbox. When was the last time you implemented something directly because a member asked for it? Most gyms wait until there’s a mass exodus before even considering that something might be wrong. By that point, you’ve already lost. Proactive feedback loops, enabled by real-time data from member-facing software, can catch issues before they become problems.

Moreover, retention strategies shouldn’t rely on data alone; human interaction is still the most powerful tool in keeping members happy. If your team isn’t fostering these connections, you’re missing out on one of the most cost-effective retention strategies available. 

Ultimately, if you want to know how to increase retention rate, remember that genuine listening and relationship-building are the keys.

Onboarding: More Than Just a Tour

 63% of new members stop attending the gym within three months.

Onboarding is not the perfunctory tour and sign-up routine that so many gyms get wrong. This is your one and only chance to make members feel like they’re stepping into an experience, not just a facility.

Do you want to be the gym they casually sign up for? Or do you want to be the gym they commit to long-term?

The majority of gyms treat onboarding as paperwork. You’re already losing the game if this is your approach. Instead, do this:

• Discover their motivations: Understand why they chose your club.
• Make them feel welcome: Help them feel like part of the club family.

The most successful gyms are crafting personalized, thoughtful onboarding programs that hit members where it matters—their goals. In essence, this is a key strategy in learning how to increase retention rate effectively.

• Goal-Based Onboarding: A great onboarding process starts with understanding exactly why a member is joining in the first place. If they’re interested in tennis or pickleball, introduce them to the Tennis Director or one of the pros. Offer a complimentary rating session. If group exercise is their thing, take a class with them and introduce them to other members. Perhaps offer them a free smoothie or a 30-minute massage. The goal is to ensure they see the value of their membership from day one. You need to tailor their first few experiences to align directly with these personal goals.

• Early Success Touchpoints: The first 30 days are critical. If you haven’t engaged your new member in meaningful activities—whether it’s a complimentary personal training session or personalized class recommendations—you’re losing them. Simply put, get them active and engaged early, or lose them.

If your onboarding experience doesn’t create momentum for the member, they’ll leave without ever getting started. Your focus should be on establishing a clear path for their success, making it unmistakable that your gym is essential to achieving their fitness goals. To truly understand how to increase retention rate, it’s vital to recognize that effective onboarding is the foundation.

Offer Community-Centered Programs

“The social aspect of being a member is very important. Not all members will want to use their club just as a utility.”

– Dr Paul Bedford PhD, Retention Guru

Fitness is increasingly social. If your gym isn’t building opportunities for members to connect, engage, and create friendships, you’re missing out on the biggest driver of retention—community. People want to be part of something bigger than themselves, and the most successful gyms are tapping into this need by offering more than just workouts.

From my time as President of The Claremont Club, I also initiated programs that benefitted the community and provided support to cancer patients and their families, as well as those with neuromuscular paralysis. The involvement of our staff in these initiatives fostered a deep sense of purpose, which directly translated to lower attrition rates—our staff turnover typically ranged from 8% to 12%. Our surveys showed staff valued their work because it held meaning beyond the job itself.

Members also benefitted from this culture of purpose. We routinely received feedback that we had fostered shared values within our community, which contributed to our member retention rate of 16% to 19%, a significant improvement compared to the industry average. Here’s how you can get started too:

• Community Challenges that Drive Engagement: Running monthly or quarterly fitness challenges can spark incredible engagement. These challenges do more than just offer a fitness goal—they build camaraderie among participants. Whether it’s a weight loss challenge, a strength-training competition, or a team-based event, creating shared goals fosters relationships and, ultimately, a deeper connection to the gym.
• Exclusive Events and Social Gatherings: Beyond challenges, your gym should regularly offer exclusive events—whether it’s workshops, member appreciation days, or fitness mixers. These events help members feel like they’re part of a community rather than just participants in a solitary workout.
• Wellness Beyond the Gym Walls: The leading gyms are no longer just focused on in-gym activities. They’re creating wellness ecosystems that extend outside the gym—whether through outdoor workouts, virtual classes, or member-led community initiatives. 

If members feel connected to both the gym and the community within it, they’ll stay. And more than that, they’ll become advocates for your brand, driving growth through word of mouth. Overall, understanding how to increase retention rates hinges on fostering this community spirit and ensuring that every member feels valued and involved. 

Culture is Your Competitive Advantage—Gym Atmosphere is as Important as Equipment

If your gym is a cold, transactional place, members will find a warmer, more engaging community elsewhere. The Global Wellness Summit’s Future of Wellness report for 2023 echoes this, revealing that the demand for experiences focused on shared in-person connections is at an all-time high.

Gym culture isn’t a buzzword; it’s a critical differentiator in a crowded market. And if your staff culture isn’t aligned with your member culture, your retention efforts will fall flat.

• Staff Culture Drives Member Experience: Your gym’s culture starts from within. If your team isn’t fully invested in the gym’s mission and values, your members won’t be either. You can see it in gyms where the staff are disengaged, going through the motions, offering lackluster service. Conversely, when your team is energized, motivated, and aligned, that enthusiasm spreads to members. Staff happiness equals member happiness—it’s that simple. This alignment is crucial to how to increase retention rate; engaged staff are the frontline ambassadors for your gym, directly impacting member satisfaction.
• Creating an Inclusive Environment: Inclusivity is non-negotiable. In 2024, the gyms that thrive will be the ones that create spaces for all fitness levels, ages, and backgrounds. This is especially true as fitness trends shift towards wellness and holistic health. If your gym feels exclusive or cliquey, you’ll alienate the very members who need your services the most.

Your culture is what will keep members engaged long after the novelty of a new treadmill wears off. If your gym feels like a second home—a place where they belong—they’ll be far less likely to leave.

What Makes Good Clubs GREAT?

In my experience, one needs to cultivate a culture that prioritizes meaningful and purposeful work for staff. This concept took root for me when I established The Athletic Club of Bend in July 1991. Two years after opening, I was inspired by a Para-Olympian to create a program for severely physically challenged children. The profound impact this had on our staff, our members, and the community was life-changing.

I very clearly remember the day I created a job for that remarkable young man who was paralyzed from the neck down and could only navigate his power chair by blowing through a tube. One afternoon in the spinal cord injury (SCI) studio, I had a heartfelt conversation with his father, who was visibly distressed. He confided in me that his son had begun to regain some movement in his left hand—just enough to press a 2½ lb dumbbell. 

Yet, he was deeply concerned. If his son were to regain movement in his right hand, he feared he might consider taking his own life. The weight of depression loomed large for this young man, as he felt stripped of purpose and essentially removed from the game of life.

Recognizing the need for meaningful engagement, we offered him a few hours of work each week in our childcare area, where he could read books to children aged 5 to 7. In this nurturing environment, the kids didn’t see his physical limitations; they saw his heart, his enthusiasm, and his genuine care for them. They loved him for who he was, and the connections he forged with them were profound.

Parents often expressed their gratitude, sharing how their children were learning essential values like compassion, empathy, and acceptance—not from a classroom but from the beautiful interactions at our Club. This young man became a beacon of inspiration for both the children and our staff.

I always believed that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of the business. Create purpose and meaning for your staff, and you’ll see them create magic.

This brings us to a crucial question: how to increase the retention rate? It’s about doing the basic things better than your competition, but also going further. Create meaning for your staff and a sense of shared values for your members. That is the true secret sauce to successful member retention.

FAQs: How to Increase Retention Rate for Your Gym