Most answers fell into these 2 categories
- Gym management and culture
- Facility maintenance (cleanliness, broken equipment, etc.)
Let’s break these down
Gym management and culture
Management and culture complaints were by a wide margin the most common reason people left their last gym and canceled their memberships.
Comments from these people included things like; extreme diet culture, corporate ignoring cleanliness issues, owners who infused highly political topics into the culture, rudeness, discrimination, and social media/image-focused culture with people constantly filming.
Gyms that endure and reliably make money intentionally construct their culture around their ideal clients and the outcomes they provide.
When an ideal client walks in the door and experiences the culture, they feel supported and at home. They feel aligned. They put down roots.
Facility Maintenance
The second most common reason people left their previous gyms was due to facility maintenance issues. The equipment was either constantly broken and poorly maintained, or the facility was “filthy,” and cleanliness was a far more common issue than the equipment.
How clean are your facilities? You likely spend a lot of time there, so you might not notice some things that are turning your members off and creating a less-than-professional training environment.
Walk through your facility as if it’s the first time you’ve ever been there, or better yet, bring someone in who HASN’T ever been there and have them rate its cleanliness. Ask your members how they feel about the cleanliness and take their feedback seriously.
Both of these variables are well within your control as a gym owner.
You’re in charge of the culture. You set the standards for appropriate behavior.
You set the priorities for cleanliness and maintenance.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in your town or city who need help from you and your staff to turn their lives around. Make sure you’re creating an environment where that kind of transformation not only can happen but is LIKELY to happen.
