What to do with Sleeping Dogs.

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!