When someone cancels their gym membership it’s tempting to write them off and never contact them again.
That’s a mistake.
A former member might be one email away from rejoining. You’ll never know until you try. You might not know the real reasons they left your gym and you definitely don’t know exactly what will inspire them to return, so it never hurts to stay in touch.
Andy Arra understands this firsthand.
Andy is a nutrition coach at Friendship Fitness in central Ohio. The gym, which has close to 400 members, recently expanded into a second 10,000-square-foot space. They signed on with UpLaunch in October 2018 because the coaches, who are responsible for making their own Google calendar reminders and balance many personal training and nutrition clients, were having trouble keeping up with appointments.
“I think at one point we were using MailChimp,” Andy said, “and our systems were all over the place.”
The Switch to UpLaunch
Friendship Fitness got set up with UpLaunch and entered all cancelled members in the former client campaign. This reactivation campaign includes 15 emails and one SMS message over 380 days and focuses on information, including workouts and a nutrition guide, and low-key connection. No hard sells or even any discounts.
(One of the most popular emails is a simple offer to buy the former member a cup of coffee.)
A former Friendship Fitness member who’d cancelled years earlier got one of these emails and decided it was time to do something about his health. He returned to the gym and dedicated himself to exercising and eating better.
After almost two years at the gym and year of focusing on nutrition, Andy said he’s lost close to 100 lbs.
“His relationship with his family has gotten so much better and his work-life balance has gotten so much better,” he said.
Through this process Andy became good friends with this man outside the gym and witnessed his transformation, which wouldn’t have happened without that one email from the former client campaign.
“It hit him at the exact right moment. He hadn’t come to the gym in a couple of years,” Andy said.
“It’s just so cool to see because of that email he’s come back in and it’s literally changed his life. It’s little things like that, where even if it’s one person, that makes it so worth it,” he said.
"Leave no Crumbs"
Now that he’s been using UpLaunch for over a year, Andy said his favorite UpLaunch feature is the broadcast center, which he uses to communicate with custom groups of people using both email and SMS.
Friendship Fitness has four nutrition coaches, and they use the custom group feature to put their personal clients in custom groups.
“We can say, ‘Hey this is Coach Andy. I’m checking in on your week. Tell me how you are doing.’ I can blast those out all at once as opposed to reaching out to each client individually,” he said.
Andy said he loves that he can communicate with members and schedule appointments in a centralized place.
“Everyone’s schedules are so busy, we have so many irons in the fire at one time, and UpLaunch is so simple. I use that task feature all the time,” he said.
Andy said he starts every day by pulling up UpLaunch to see what he has to do that day.
“I think that’s helped me immensely to leave no crumbs,” he said.
“It really shows our clients that we are trying to provide them a high level of accountability and be almost like a boutique type of facility that is really going to continue checking in with you and not just let you go by the wayside,” he said.
This attention to detail is the key to Friendship Fitness’ success, and why they’re expanding to a second location. They focus on people who want to make big lifestyle changes, who are looking for the help of a dietician, or who want to get back into shape, maybe after knee or shoulder surgery.
Andy said this personal attention, which is made easier with UpLaunch, sets them apart from the competition.
“We just do a really good job,” Andy said.
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