Challenge
A local gym approached me looking for help rebuilding their customer base after moving to a new site had led to a sharp drop in membership. The gym faced two main challenges. Although it hadn’t relocated far from its original location, the new site was far enough away that many members could no longer fit it into their existing routines. Additionally, the new setup was different, which affected the customer experience and could have led to further losses.
Approach
I consulted with the business owner in twice-monthly check-ins and quarterly planning and prioritisation sessions, and conducted a series of time-bound sense-making activities to unpack and understand the key issues at play. These included a service blueprinting exercise that helped us identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the current service, and a customer feedback survey that helped us identify customer needs. From this, I was able to create customer-led marketing messaging and help the owner develop a programme of prioritised site and service improvements.
These included low-budget development to outdoor areas such as adding overhead cover and matting, a customer onboarding email series to introduce the gym’s culture and type of training, and a performance tracking trial. Our messaging leaned into ideas of community and inclusivity as these resonated strongly with existing customers. We also stopped running Meta ads and switched to a referral campaign, which proved to be more effective.
Outcome
We grew our membership base by 63% in 6 months and retained 92% of existing memberships in the same period.