One question
I always get asked by gym managers/owners is…”Should we contact our sleeping
dogs or not”? For those of you who aren’t familiar with that term, sleeping
dogs are your members that haven’t been
visiting your club for 2 months or more and who are still paying their
membership while being over their minimum term….meaning they can cancel at any time
if they want.
The tactic
that seems to be the most popular is to quietly step around these members. “Shhhhhh
if we don’t contact them then they will keep paying us because they have
forgotten they even have a gym membership mwah haaaa haaaaaaa”
Here are my
thoughts on this
·
Your
‘sleeping dogs’ are not complete morons! They do realise their payments are
still coming out and yes they do know it’s for the gym….think about it, do you
have any payments around $15 a week constantly coming from your account you
have completely forgotten about?
·
Just
because you don’t contact them doesn’t mean they have forgotten about you….they
still live in your community, they still see your marketing, they still talk to
people who come to your club, heck, and they probably even drive past your club
every day!
·
Do
you value culture and service in your club? Look after your members do you?
Think taking their payments and not contacting them aligns with those values?
Don’t be that club!
Here’s the facts people….these members of yours are keeping their gym
membership because they do want to come back….you just
haven’t motivated them to do that yet!
Think not contacting them will do that? Fact is by not contacting them
you are almost guaranteeing that they will eventually cancel because you are
proving you really don’t give a crap about them.
Here’s what you definitely don’t do… (also what most gyms do!)
“Hi Bob we haven’t seen you for ages and would
love to see you back! Did you know Bob that your fitness levels will be
currently plummeting and you are moving further away from your goals?”
Well done….you have just reminded Bob what he currently knows, he is
lazy, unfit and fat and he feels crap because he has failed in his original
goal of coming regularly to the gym , getting fit and losing some weight. Now
Bob feels even crappier about this.
Here’s what you do….
Contact them in a ‘not in your face’ way. Maybe send them some healthy
recipes and some info about what’s happening this month at the club. Why not
send them a video with some ‘at home’ exercises they can do, along with a
message saying you understand that this maybe a busy time in their lives and
you want them to keep active and maintain their fitness and hope they can find
the time soon to get back regularly into your club. All adding value while
keeping the relationship alive.
Sleeping dogs are still valued members of your club, get them back and
you just may find they wake up and stay on for a long time!
