Wodify is a leading all-in-one fitness management software, trusted by 5,000 of the world’s top businesses. With one of the largest & most accurate datasets in the industry, we decided to create this blog series in order to share specific metrics that are proven to drive results, insights from the most successful gyms, and how Wodify customers can track their progress.
In our first blog of the Behind the Numbers series, we dove into our discovery of the 90 day retention rate and how 45% of clients will cancel within their first 90 days of joining your gym. Previous data shows that, of the 55% of clients that stay, only 53% of them will stay throughout the remainder of the year.
What this tells us is that the experience you create during the first 90 days of your clients’ journies is incredibly important to increasing long term retention, and ultimately, revenue & profitability.
So, the question we will answer in this blog is: what actionable steps can you take to increase that retention rate?
We dug into our data from thousands of gyms in order to uncover what gym owner’s are doing to achieve higher 90 day retention rates.
Drum roll please…
We found that gyms who are maximizing their use of client performance tracking via Wodify Perform have significantly higher retention rates than gyms that are not implementing client performance tracking. Wodify Perform is an add-on for Wodify Core that unlocks the ability for clients to track and log their workout performance over time.
Our finding that utilizing client performance tracking increases 90 day retention rates is two-fold, so let’s break it down:
Data shows that gyms that have Wodify Perform and utilize the performance tracking feature have a 10% higher retention rate than gyms that do not have Perform.
This may sound like a small difference at first, but it means that gyms that start using performance tracking go from losing more than half their clients before 90 days to keeping more than half their clients beyond 90 days!
Digging into the data further, we learned that gyms who encourage performance tracking frequently (let’s say every class) have 10% higher 90 day retention rates than gyms that use performance tracking less frequently (let’s say every other class).
The graph below shows that the more active clients are with their performance tracking (average perform activity grouping), the higher the 90 day retention rate will be.
In summary, a gym’s 90 day retention rate has the potential to increase by 20% if that gym goes from not having clients track performance whatsoever, to then maximizing their adoption of client performance tracking.
In order to predict how much value Perform will add to your business, you’ll simply need to use this equation:
… We’re kidding, this is the equation we formulated behind the scenes, but we’ve simplified it for you in this free tool, so you can calculate how much additional revenue you’ll make per year by implementing client performance tracking. You’ll only need to input 3 values from your business:
Remember, you can find your current 90 day retention rate in the Wodify Insights dashboard:
By ensuring your clients are utilizing the performance tracking feature of Wodify Perform you are also ensuring that your retention will improve and, therefore, annual revenue will increase. You can use our simple calculator to predict how much your revenue will increase after a year of performance tracking.
Fully utilizing performance tracking within Wodify Perform increases engagement amongst gym clients due its gamification of fitness. Gamification has two components that keep clients coming back to class:
Another aspect of performance tracking within Wodify Perform is the ability for clients to like and comment on each other’s performance results. Social validation has a huge impact on why people make the decisions they do: clothes they wear, food they eat, things they post online. This need for social validation leads to stronger communities and, therefore, higher conversion & attendance rates.
If your clients engage with each other’s performance tracking posts, they will not only be held accountable for coming to class, but they will feel supported in their fitness goals as well...and maybe get a laugh out of some friendly smack talk.
We asked Wodify gyms around the world with the highest performance tracking adoption for tips that you can apply to your business.
Bryce Wood, owner of BTY Training Lab, creates his weekly workouts so clients know what to expect each day of the week. For example, Monday is back-squat day, Tuesday is bench-press day, Wednesday is deadlift day, etc. This way, clients will want to know their weekly stats, so they can beat the previous week’s results...and maybe someone else’s in the class too.
“One great community builder and motivator is the social aspect of consistent performance tracking. Everyone knows that everyone is going to post their results after class so people know to go like and comment on other people’s results. We end up with over 500 likes and comments at the end of each week.”
Looking for consistency, high-quality programming without the hassle of coming up with all the workouts yourself? Check out our Workout Marketplace!
David Gionta, owner of Buffalo Nickel CrossFit, knows how important attendance tracking is to running a successful gym, so he charges a fee of $5 to each member that doesn’t check into class. Clients associate checking in with recording performance results since they are included together in the on-ramp process, so similar to how clients don’t want to miss checking in, they also don’t want to miss recording their performance.
Rewards don’t have to be physical, they can be something as simple as making your client feel a sense of accomplishment. Bryce Wood likes to post an Instagram story of a client that PR’d and tag them.
“The client can then go and repost the story and think to themselves ‘I’m not bragging, someone else is bragging for me’, and it also helps advertise our gym as well.”
When other clients see this, they will be more inclined to record their results so they can be rewarded as well. Try this at your gym or perhaps offer complimentary swag, a free buddy pass, or a personal training session!
Similar to Bryce Wood’s clients, David Gionta’s clients frequently comment on other people’s performance results to support them and to talk some friendly smack.
“Really Mike...by 2 reps?!” is what one of David Gionta’s clients commented on their classmate’s performance result.
No one will want to be the odd one out if everyone is recording their performance after class, so let your community lead the way!
We hope you found these insights & advice useful for your business! Keep an eye out for more posts in this series as we continue to explore the data in Wodify.
If you are a Wodify customer, you can learn more about Wodify Perform.
If you aren’t using Wodify yet, you can book a free consultation here.
Want to keep learning? Check out our other Behind The Numbers posts:
