Gym management software streamlines processes, enhances communication, and offers personalized engagement, leading to better client experiences and increased loyalty.

It is no secret that client retention is the backbone of any successful gym. Without a gym management system, you will constantly find yourself chasing new clients and spending valuable time and resources to keep your numbers high that you could have spent on other key aspects of your business.

Here, we will discuss just how important client retention is for gyms and other kinds of fitness businesses, and how our gym management software can help ease the burden on your plate.

For more general retention strategies, check out our article on gym retention strategies that actually work.

The Value of Client Retention for Local Gyms

Before we dive into the various gym management software features that can help you improve client retention, we should probably address why this is so important for local gyms and personal trainers.

Financial stability

While the financial highs of working for yourself as a personal trainer or running your own gym can be extremely high, the lows can also be quite low.

Without a consistently stable client base, you may find yourself getting little sleep, anxiously worrying about where the next member or client will come from.

With a solid foundation of consistent clients, you can rely on the financial stability that brings, which will greatly reduce your stress and anxiety levels.

Loyalty & Trust

By keeping clients for longer, you also create more opportunities to instill loyalty and trust in you and your services, which in turn can earn more referrals and recommendations, and also more buy-in from your clients to your training methodology.

Reduced Marketing Costs

With a larger retained client base, you don’t have to spend as much money trying to gain new ones! Rather than putting money into advertising your gym services, you can save that money and focus on the day-to-day running of your business.

Community-building

Having a consistent client base week in and week out allows you to establish a community for your members or clients, which only further improves the value they associate with the service you provide.

Building a community ensures accountability, helps your clients or members meet like-minded people, and improves their overall experience with your brand and consequently loyalty to your gym.

The Value of a High-Quality Gym Management Software for Gym Member Retention

Now we have a better understanding of the value of clients staying for longer, we need to talk about the perfect management software to help achieve those retention goals.

Successful Onboarding

Odds are, your members will need to use your gym management software directly at some point.

They might simply use it to check into class and track their own attendance. Or they might use it to store and manage their payment information as well as their membership. More extensively, they might use it throughout the week as a source of supplemental content to maximize their training. 

Regardless of the level of usage, a professional, easy-to-use experience is essential. It makes your business look professional, and it ensures there’s no friction between your members and their ability to engage fully with your program.

For more information on how to put together excellent onboarding from end-to-end (not just the digital experience but in your gym, too), check out our article on onboarding for long term retention.

Professional Digital Experience

It turns out that tracking client progress, payments, and other key features are important for member retention. But a member’s direct interaction with your software affects it with arguably equal force.

A good GMS keeps you on top of client training. WIth data in a clearly laid out manner, you can tailor their training accordingly, helping them achieve the best possible results, and stay with you for longer.

Some software might sound great on the service but is incredibly confusing and tricky to use, demotivating you and leading to you giving up on it altogether.

An attractive, intuitive interface creates high-quality gym programs for your members, or creating weekly training schedules for them to know when their favorite classes are running, you improve their experience with your brand.

Gymdesk has an easy-to-use booking and scheduling function, which allows you to quickly and easily schedule in sessions with your clients, ensuring your calendars are always aligned.

Not only that, but the booking system also looks and feels much more professional than traditional methods, which ensures your clients continue to value the service you provide, building trust and loyalty.

Members-only Content Management 

Members-only and supplemental content are excellent ways to promote member success, increase member engagement, and ultimately strengthen member retention. 

Members-only content builds value into your programs and gives your members tools to amplify the efforts at your gym by equipping them to practice at home. Also important, it keeps you on their mind when they’re outside the gym living their everyday lives.

Gymdesk has built-in content management as part of its member management feature. You can gate content based on program level and other conditions, and it’s available from the member portal and our member app. It integrates perfectly with our complimentary website.

Email & SMS Messaging for Client Engagement

Constant contact is vital to keeping members engaged, saving them from falling out of touch, and reactivating them if their attendance begins to slip. 

Another way to utilize a GMS to improve client retention is by taking advantage of its email SMS messaging and automation features.

Here, you can either create emails from scratch or take advantage of the many templated email options to continue to communicate with your members at relevant times.

Some great examples of how this can increase client retention include the birthday trigger emails, welcome series, and confirmation emails. 

These emails, in particular, can help improve client retention by offering transparency, a clear line of communication, and professionalism, all of which increase your client’s confidence in your services, making them more likely to trust your coaching and stay with you for longer.

Creating these emails from scratch can be incredibly time-consuming and expensive if you need to hire a copywriter or graphic designer.

To help you out, Gymdesk has built-in email and SMS templates and a drag-and-drop design interface as part of its marketing suite.

Program Support

It’s important to know if your gym management software is built for the type of gym that you run because it affects how usable and useful the software will be for your members. It’s also important to support you in running your businesses, and how professionally you run your business affects retention too.

By providing clients with a detailed program, not only do you show off your professionalism and quality, but you also show them that you care and that you want them to succeed.

This level of care and attention will only improve their relationship with you as a gym and/or trainer, increasing their longevity in the process.

Gymdesk comes with programs that can be tailored to suit your programs and members, ready to go out-of-the-box. For example, within “Fitness Training,” there are a wide variety of options. The more specific you can make the training, the more impressed your clients will be.

Conclusion: Gym Management Software for Retention

The value of client retention for your business cannot be underestimated. Gym management software improves your retention by streamlining processes, enhancing communication, personalizing engagement, and supporting the fitness journey.

A good GMS should offer these features and experiences to support retention:

• Easy onboarding
• Intuitive member experience
• Email & SMS messaging (especially automation features)
• Members-only support content

By taking advantage of the ease of use and various tools and features available in your GMS, you can offer your members the best possible experience, ensuring each one stays for longer.