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When I first heard the term “ghosting,” it was during my dating app days (may they never return). For those of you who were fortunate enough to bypass dating apps to find your soulmate and don’t know what ghosting is, it’s a newer dating term used to describe a situation when a person suddenly cuts off communication without warning or explanation. The “ghoster” essentially disappears into thin air, never to be heard from again.
Fortunately, I was one of the very few who dodged that whole “left on read” thing (though I will caveat that I only could endure online dating for approximately 16 days before I deleted the apps from my phone). All that to say, I’ve never had to navigate the complexities of being ghosted before—until I became a gym owner.
When I became a gym owner, I experienced a rude awakening after spending consecutive eight-hour shifts sending out text messages, making phone calls and sending emails to countless contacts in our CRM, only to get a handful of responses in return. And these weren’t random people whose phone numbers I ripped out of a phone book—these were the people who filled out a form or scanned a QR code to express their interest in learning more about our gym. In dating terms, they slid into my DMs first.
If you’re not familiar with what it feels like to be ghosted by a lead or a trial, allow me to illustrate: imagine someone telling you they were interested in doing dinner with you tomorrow night and when you ask them what time they would like to meet, you never hear from them again. Confusing, right? And also…frustrating.
If you’re like me, you can’t help but wonder where you went wrong. You may then start to make up excuses on their behalf to justify the lack of response. Maybe their phone died or they were in the middle of a meeting or they glanced at your text on their Apple Watch and forgot to reply later. Whatever excuse you come up with and whatever actual reason is they didn’t respond, it doesn’t leave you with a good feeling. Especially when it happens repeatedly.
Give yourself 30 minutes or so to sit with that defeated feeling and then let’s dive into a few strategies to flip the script:
There’s a reason why “speed to lead” is a resounding mantra in the fitness business. It’s because the second your lead jumps off your website, they have shifted their focus to something else. If they don’t hear from you within MINUTES, they’ve already moved on. Minimize ghosting
What you can do with Wodify: automation, automation, automation. If you’re a Wodify customer, we’ve already pre-built workflows on your behalf so that your leads are contacted and nurtured the second they hit that “submit” button.
My team does a phenomenal job leaving detailed notes for any interactions they have with leads or trials. Injuries, previous fitness experience, goals, hesitations, objections — everything. If a lead or trial doesn’t respond to wide-net outreach, I wait a few days and follow up with a personal message referencing some of the points I know about them from the notes.
Example: Hey Sandra, this is Jenna from Basecamp following up with you. I know you had some concerns about a knee injury and worked with Coach Max on a few modifications. I’d love to hear how the workout went for you. Were you comfortable with the modification recommendations?
What you can do with Wodify: Throw away the sticky notes and spreadsheets tracking leads with their details. Wodify makes it easy to view notes about leads and trials in one place so that every member of your team can add to them and access them. From goals to injuries to objections, the more you know, the more you can personalize your outreach. Now when you follow up, you’re not sending a generic “just checking in” message (those never work, BTW). You’re reaching out with a touchpoint that feels personal.
Think about the difference between:
“Hey, are you ready to join? Here’s the promotion we’re running…” vs “Hey Sandra, I know you had some concerns about your knee injury. Did the modifications Coach Max showed you help?”
One feels like spam and could very well prompt them to reply with the dreaded “STOP” opt out. The other feels like you genuinely care and that’s the kind of follow-up that turns silence into a response. Wodify helps you and your team keep those personal touches consistent, so no lead falls off the grid.
Sometimes leads don’t respond to a text message or email because they don’t know you’re looking for a response. They assume communication coming from a business is automated and don’t always expect that there’s an actual human waiting by the phone.
A few questions that I’ve found work well with follow-ups:
If your lead or unconverted trial hasn’t responded to multiple touchpoints, don’t be afraid to ask them if they never want to hear from you again. Yes, seriously. If I haven’t heard back from someone after a few attempts, I straight up ask them if they would like to be removed from our list or to let me know if they are no longer interested in our gym. More often than not, the person will respond with an apology or explanation for why they didn’t reply sooner. And sometimes, they will let me know that they’ve found another fitness home or that our pricing is out of their budget. Either way, that information is far more useful than silence.
Again, think of this in terms of dating. It never feels great to hear that someone isn’t interested, but wouldn’t you rather know and move on than be left to wonder?
What you can do with Wodify: Use data to pinpoint patterns. Wodify has in-depth custom reporting, so you can pull data for unconverted trials or leads that never booked a class and see if there are any trends amongst them. With these insights, you can adjust your approach (messaging, channel, outreach cadence) to minimize ghosting over time.
Ghosting is going to happen. And honestly? It’s almost always about them, not you (cue the dreaded “it’s not you, it’s me” speech — but this time, it’s actually true!). Remember my confession about never being ghosted until I opened a gym? Turns out, it wasn’t a personal rejection (though it felt like one), it was a lesson I could learn from. Every unanswered message taught me how to refine my follow-up, get more personal and focus on the people who actually wanted to be part of our community. So if you take away one thing from this post (besides a little insight into my dating history), let it be that ghosting isn’t failure, it’s feedback. Use it, learn from it and continue building a gym people can’t wait to say “yes” to.
Ready to see how Wodify Workflows and Wodify Sites work together to capture and nurture leads for your fitness business? Book a demo!
Jenna Behnke is Wodify’s Content Marketing Manager at Wodify where she draws on her own fitness business journey to tell authentic stories and empower other owners to solve their toughest challenges. She currently owns and operates a boutique fitness studio in Minnesota and is the mom to Sophia and Hayden. And for those who are wondering, she did end up finding her soulmate.
