The clock starts as soon as the name is on the line — 30 days on a month-to-month, 12 months on an annual. Whatever the terms of your agreement, retention is a countdown and a test of sorts to see if you and your staff can earn a member’s continued business on the next go around.
All too often though we don’t really know how we are doing. It is key to get it from the horse’s mouth so to speak. Using an annual membership as an example I’d encourage you to time service calls at regular intervals to keep track of how the member is doing, if there is anything they need and how much progress is being made. So in this case we’d touch base after one week, two weeks, 30 days, 60 days, three months, six months, nine months and then after months 10, 11 and 12. Notice, there are more touches in the beginning and the end so we can always have some insight into where a member is at with their program and ramp up the support during the pivotal times in our relationship.
Frank Emanuel
Health Club Marketing Contributor
