Three Simple Ways to Improve New Member Experience in your Gym

Many people are just now getting back into the gym. It’s as important as ever to provide your members with a positive experience in your gym, so they’ll be sure to get over the initial shock of returning to the gym and transition into becoming everyday members. Providing this positive experience is critical, and there’s a number of super simple steps you can take to instantly increase your gym's desirability. Here are four of them. 

Keep It Clean

Picture this: you’re returning to the gym after a summer of pool outings and beach days, and you walk into a facility that smells like a locker room; has weights all over the floor; and sweat all over the benches. Are you coming back? Probably not. It’s so easy to keep a gym clean, it just needs constant management and attention. Have wipe stations all over the gym, ensure staff is constantly re-racking weights and other equipment, and perhaps invest in an air purifier. The Aair 3-in-1 Pro Air Purifier  by iRobot is an affordable, effective air purifier that will keep that musty gym smell out of your facility, and maximize its cleanliness.

Play Music

So much of having a positive member experience in your gym revolves around atmosphere. Do you want your members walking into a quiet gym, only to hear the sound of running treadmills, weights slamming, and people grunting? This sense of silence and ambience can often create a ‘dead’ atmosphere in your gym, and turn new members off to your facility as soon as they walk into your doors. A National Library of Medicine study shows that some upbeat music can have a positive effect on the tempo of one’s workout, as well as their heart rate. So, by playing music, not only are you making them feel more welcome, you’re also improving their workout! It’s important to keep this music at a reasonable volume, however, as you don’t want your music to be heard over the music that members may be hearing in their own headphones. 

Invest in Systems

One of the most common things that turns new members off to the gym is that they simply don’t know what to do once they get into the gym. There are a bunch of machines, free weights, and other products, but it's often overwhelming to gym newcomers. We need to simplify this. A great way to do this is to arrange your products into systems. That is to have a very defined program and usage of specific products that members can use to get a great workout without even having to think about it. For example, the Six Minute Ab Zone™ is a six minute interval workout that uses six pieces of ab equipment for the ultimate core workout. The beauty of this program is it’s simplicity. Members don’t have to design their own ab workout off the top of their head, they just hop on the first product in the system and move down the line every time the light changes. This type of direction and guidance in a workout is exactly what new members are looking for, and will drastically increase their chances of becoming a regular in your gym. 

It’s not hard to make minor upgrades to your gym that will yield major results when it comes to new member experience. It truly is the little things that stand out to individuals who are walking into the gym for the first time, and by staying on top of these things you’ll greatly increase your member retention.