The first 30 days in a member’s lifecycle are arguably the most important. This is when their motivation for change, progress, and achievement is at its peak. If you capitalize on that motivation effectively, you’ll set them up for success and prevent them from quitting in their first few months.
In this 3-minue video, I'll discuss the CAP Principle and how you can put it to use at your club!
You can read the full transcript below:
Hi, Andy Pete here from Fitness On Demand, and we are going to spend the next three minutes talking about arguably one of the most important parts of member retention, and that is the onboarding process.
When a member first joins a gym, it is definitely the time to spend the most amount of time with that person at any given part of their membership journey with you. It's when they're the most motivated, it's when they'll listen to you the most, and it's ultimately when they'll attend the gym the most in those first couple of weeks.
But their onboarding process really is about the first 30 days. And if I can give you anything to take away from this, it is to stick to what I call the cap principle: connection, attendance, and progress.
Connection is really, really important. When someone first joins the gym, they could be intimidated, they could be unsure about what to do, and ensuring that they're connected to a fitness professional and another member in the first couple of weeks is crucial. You can achieve this through group fitness. You can achieve this through personal training or even just introducing members to other members. You could do this through technologies or in person, but highly critical that they become familiar with the people in their surroundings.
Attendance. Attendance is crucial in the first 30 days. How do you get someone to actually attend the gym Now when they first join? Most gyms will just offer the basic free personal training session, let the member say yay or nay, and then they go off on their day and they're never actually sure whether someone will come back in the first 30 days. It's important to get them booked in for at least four sessions from day one.
These can be, I recommend four personal training sessions, but these can be group fitness sessions. These can be digital group fitness sessions. These can be stretching or technique sessions or community events. If they have an appointment set, they, they're more likely to turn up than just winging it as to when they're going to come. But studies show four sessions in the first 30 days will prolong their lifespan within your facility.
And the last one is the P principle. Progress.
Arguably one of the most important as humans, we enjoy progression. We like learning, we like feeling that sense of joy that we get when we are getting slightly better at something. Fitness and wellness is no different, so ensuring that from day one there is some element of testing that the member can see that they are getting better in. It might be a cardio test, a strength test. It might be a body scanner. It might be just turning up to the gym three times.
Giving them a little goal to achieve and then be rewarded in the first four weeks of their member journey will allow them to see some sort of progression in their fitness experience, and it will ultimately make them want to stick to it.
Think about the last time you learned something and progressed in it, how obsessed you became with wanting more and more and more. It becomes addictive, so ensure that from the minute they joined, there is some sort of progression laid out for them.
That is my three minute overview of onboarding. Stick to the cap principle and we'll chat with you next time.
Author
Andy Peat
Andy Peat is a visionary with a rich background in product innovation, operational management, business expansion, and over 10 years of leadership experience in the fitness industry. He spent a couple of years refining his strategic and management skills as the Chief Product Officer at Lift Brands, before pivoting to expand upon his leadership skills and passion for fitness as the CEO of Fitness On Demand.