As we’ve mentioned previously, retaining existing members is five times cheaper than going after new ones. Keeping the existing relationships you’ve built with the members you do have is a business tactic most companies focus on, because once the bond is built, they will feel more loyal to you as a gym owner or trainer.
If you’ve established a strong base customer group, you should seek new ways of improving their member experience, and increasing your bottom line. It will save you time and money, and build advocates for customers, not consumers. This will all lead up to creating powerful testimonials you can use in your selling process. These testimonials will do you a major service and are fairly easy to gather.
Merchandising existing member success will show your current clients that your products, classes, and services truly work. The power of the testimonial is quite impactful, and we’re going to show you how best to utilize this marketing tactic.
Building a Foundation of Customers
If you’re going to work towards using existing success stories to upsell additional customers, you’ll have to have a smart and cohesive way to track member success. Check out our guide to improving your fitness tracking progress for clients. This can be anything from tracking weight loss to muscle gain to pinpointing specific points on the body your clients wish to change.
Once you’ve gathered a good base of customers you’re going to track, you’re going to have to stick to accuracy. This should be your number one priority in gaining strong results. 1. Because it solidifies your expertise and professionalism, and 2. Because hard numbers are what’s going to make your client into brand advocates.
What do we mean by brand advocacy? Think of some of your favorite brands. It’s likely you appreciate the product or service they provide, but it’s also likely you enjoy the surrounding experience even more. You find yourself so wrapped up and impressed by the brand as a whole, that you would be willing to share your experience with whomever crossed your path. This is a brand advocate – and a free means of marketing and advertising for you and your health center.
The easier and more enjoyable your tracking experience is, the more likely it is that your clients will boast your service to other people. This is what’s going to show your test clients that what you do at your health and fitness center is making an actual change in their fitness journey and health.
Track the Smart Way
The best way for you to track the clients’ fitness progress is by keeping an online or cloud-based software that shows measurements from start to finish. At the beginning of your decision to track changes, perform a 3D body scan that will show you in seconds every measurement on your member’s body. It’s a non-invasive, amazingly accurate tool that doesn’t involve any dunk tanks or wonky tape measures. Styku’s 3D Body Scanner gives you real-time results and projects a 3D image of your client’s body on screen. Additionally, it tracks your measurements for you, so the hard work is stored in its software.
After the trial period is complete and you’ve recorded the results you need, make sure you present this information in a visual way to your members. With the permission of your clients, set up tabletop cards or banners for your existing members to view in the locker room, on the way into your club, and in high-traffic areas. Additionally, these visuals can be used on Facebook and Instagram. By utilizing social media to post member testimonials and progress reports, your reach is higher, and they’re able to share the post directly to their followers. So, inadvertently, you begin to market to non-existing clients. Win!
Tips for Effective Testimonials
Don’t stop at just creating the testimonial – be sure to use it in actual sales pitches. Mention to existing customers that your way of tracking fitness has taken a new direction that focuses on hyper-accurate measurements, and follow it up with a mention of a client they may know.
At the end of the day, testimonials are a way to build trust while sparking up word-of-mouth about your club. If you’re a testimonial master already, consider taking short-but-sweet videos to play on your website or social media pages. This has been proven to increase conversion rates by 86%. Whatever method you choose to implement the testimonial, make sure your results are accurate, engaging, and visually focused.
Want to learn more about how 3D body scanning tools make the fitness tracking journey easier and help drive customer retention? Read more about Styku here.
