As the health club industry becomes increasingly crowded and competitive, fitness operators the world over are looking for new ways to gain a competitive edge. They need to reevaluate their value proposition and look for new ways to resonate with consumers in a market where digital alternatives abound.
New fitness business models are providing more alternatives and choices than ever before, and creating more competition for the traditional fitness club membership model. In addition, consumer expectations are high and fixed contracts are out of favour, so operators need to find new ways to innovate their fitness offerings to become more attractive.Â
And all of this in the aftermath of a pandemic, with the prospect of global recession now looming large on the horizon. Any investment must be well thought-through.
There are, of course, many strategies clubs might use, with obvious ones including trend-based innovation, driving efficiencies through technology, building communities people don’t want to leave, and developing powerful brands with marketing.
But what else can fitness operators do to gain a competitive edge? Here, we share seven member-centric strategies you might consider implementing at your club.
Strategies To Gain A Competitive Edge
1. Embrace Wellness
Wellness is dominating the conversation in our sector these days, and for good reason. Wellness is a $1.5 Trillion(USD) market that’s growing by 5–10 percent a year. In addition, wellness is now an everyday priority for 50 percent of all consumers and 81% agreeing it is important, according to global consultancy firm McKinsey.
Health clubs must respond, evolving to meet members’ mental, emotional and spiritual health needs, as well as their physical ones. In fact, embracing wellness is such an important factor today, we might consider it a requirement of entry into the fitness market,rather than a way to gain a competitive edge. Either way, it’s clear that clubs must now play in the wellness space.
So, how might wellness look in a health club environment? Adding services like mindfulness and meditation classes, stress management workshops, breathwork sessions and nutrition coaching would certainly be a great start–but of course, not every club has the in-house expertise to develop such a holistic offering.
This is where the power of partnership comes in. You might consider renting space to respected local experts. One example might include renting space to therapists who can deliver everything from massage and acupuncture to life coaching and counselling. You could also reach out to local businesses such as health food stores to explore opportunities for collaboration.
You might also turn to Wexer, which prides itself on having the world’s biggest (and ever-growing) wellness library. In addition to fitness, the content offering includes holistic wellbeing, Sleep Stories, meditation, mind-body, Breathe channel, Self-Care by Sweat Factor, and Mind123’s wellness education. With this extensive content library available to your customers, you can deliver all the wellness content your members want, safe in the knowledge it’s led by the world’s top experts. You can also white label the content with your brand to drive member loyalty.
Now is the time to find trusted partners who will help you deliver a far more rounded wellness product than you could hope to create on your own. Gain a competitive edge in your local market immediately!
2. Content Availability 24/7
Having fitness and wellness content available anytime and anywhere is crucial to remaining competitive.
Of course, we’re talking about the need to embrace digital technology to meet consumers’ expectations of flexible and convenient access to the programming, services and expertise of their chosen health club.
Digital live and on-demand content is the main component that can transcend all geographical limits, flowing beyond your club walls into people’s homes and on their mobile devices. Choose a partner with a powerful line-up of virtual and mobile solutions that integrates with clubs’ own digital ecosystems. For example, the popular Wexer Web Player turns any connected device into a source of constantly refreshed fitness and wellness content. In addition the Wexer API and SDK offerings allow you to pick and choose from over 1,600+ classes you want to offer within your own apps and digital platforms.
3. Harness AI & Data
Gyms and health clubs hold vast amounts of member data, yet they don’t always harness it ‌to help those gyms gain a competitive edge. This is a huge missed opportunity and one that’s easily rectified by introducing AI (Artificial Intelligence).
AI providers are already having a major impact on the fitness sector, taking the data that lies dormant in fitness businesses and turning it into actionable insight that’s directly relevant to the membership of each club.
We’re talking optimised marketing–exactly the right messages to exactly the right people at exactly the right time. Optimised marketing helps to ensure higher customer satisfaction and LTV (lifetime value) of members. This also drives higher uptake of secondary spend promotions, for example.
We’re also talking about an optimised product, based on data rather than gut feel. Stop guessing or wasting money following trends, and hoping it’s the magic decision. With AI, every possible scenario and millions of variables can be considered to produce accurate predictions for each scenario driving innovation and product development.
But even without investing in AI, there are ways to use data to gain a competitive edge. Wexer, for example, allows you to track exactly which classes your members are choosing to take part in, both via our mobile platform or in the club. You can monitor not only what content they are using, but also when and for how long. In turn, this allows you to create and schedule exactly what your members want and when they want it, based not on reported interests but on actual behaviours.
4. Create Signature Experiences
Speaking of creating what your members want, another important way to gain a competitive edge is to develop signature experiences that build your brand through your own Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Identifying your USP can be hard in the crowded and competitive fitness sector.
Signature experiences can be delivered in-person, of course: building immersive, emotion-provoking spaces in your club and filling your studio timetable with unique branded programmes. But someone can also deliver digitally them, using your in-house superstars to create content that members can’t get anywhere else.
Your staff, especially your group exercise instructors and trainers, are your loyalty-driving USPs. They always were, in fact, but post-pandemic they are even more critical to your success with exercisers now comfortable with digital content and on-screen instructors.
Wexer allows you to unleash this power by uploading and streaming your own self-produced content alongside our third-party library. That means signature experiences delivered to members at home or on the go: your own content led by their favourite instructors. And it means virtual classes where your members can train with your top instructors even during off-peak times, on the big screen of your virtual studio.
5. Virtual Drives Off-Peak Usage
Virtual group exercise has always been a fantastic tool to drive usage of group exercise studios during off-peak times when live, in-person instructors aren’t a cost-effective option or they simply aren’t available to teach. In turn, the round-the-clock availability of high-quality virtual classes has been shown time and again to be both a powerful sales tool and a powerful driver of member satisfaction and retention. Virtual classes can be led by a global authority or your club’s own stars.
This isn’t the only way to drive off-peak usage to help your club gain a competitive edge.
One simple and well-established option is to approach community groups and charities to use your club’s facilities during off-peak times, not only maximising off-peak yield, but it also helps you gain a competitive edge by gaining relevance among new audiences.
Some clubs are even implementing dynamic pricing using software that tracks occupancy and usage data to adjust your pricing in real-time and encourage members to use the club during quieter periods. The payback: improved usage, maximised revenues and higher customer satisfaction thanks to higher perceived value for money.
6. Become The Hub
From wearables to fitness apps, your members are likely to be using quite a bit of technology to support their workout routines these days. It means the amount of data they’re carrying around in their phones and their personal clouds is vast, but many of them won’t know how to interpret or apply it to improve their health and wellness. This is where your club can come in. This is where you can gain a competitive edge by becoming the fitness and wellness Hub.
What do we mean by creating a Hub for your fitness and wellness data?
Your members will be active outside of your club, and even outside of the digital world you create. And that’s OK. You shouldn’t try to control it all.
But you can add value across the board by analysing and interpreting their data, then using this to offer tailored advice, programming and monitoring progress. You can be the hub that draws their fitness and wellness life together and helps them make sense of it.
All of a sudden, you aren’t just a gym. You’re an indispensable part of their life. How’s that for a competitive edge?
7. Focus On What Matters To Members
Another way your club can gain a competitive edge is to authentically embrace the causes your members embrace, for example. Sustainability ranks high on this list and are certainly areas clubs need to be exploring.
Actually, there’s one simple thing that really matters to members on a day-to-day basis, which is good customer service. Yet all too often clubs aren’t delivering the customer service that members expect. It’s not just dealing with the customer when a problem arises. In fact, it’s even simpler than that. We’re talking a smile and a ‘hello’ at reception, greeting the member by name, knowing when they were last in and chatting to them about what they’re going to do that day. Customer service should involve touching base with members on the gym floor. All the way to the exit by asking ‘hello, how was your workout and when will we see you next?’
It’s unbelievable we still have to mention basic communication skills in this day, but digital technology alone doesn’t deliver a genuine customer service experience like one-on-one communication. Yet this also means there’s an easy win out there for clubs who employ the right people and create the right culture. You can gain a competitive edge by smiling and genuinely caring about your members.