Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Table of Contents Introduction
4
Who Did We Survey?
5
How Would You Describe the Business in Which You Work?
5
Which Facilities Does Your Club Offer?
6
What is Your Current Job Title?
6
What is Member Engagement and How Important Is It to Business Success?
7
How Would You Define ‘Member Engagement’?
7
On a Scale of 0 - 10, How Important Do You Believe Customer Engagement is to the Success of Your Business? (With 0 Being Not at All Important and 10 Being Absolutely Integral to Your Business’ Success)
8
Engaging with Members
9
Overview
9
Which Channels Do You Currently Utilise to Engage with Your Customers?
9
Social Media
10
Which Social Media Channels Does Your Business Have a Presence On?
10
Does Your Business Do Any Paid Advertising Through Social Media?
10
How Often Does Your Business Post on Social Media?
11
12
12
How Often Does Your Business Email Members?
Feedback and Measures of Success
13
How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of Customer Engagement in Your Business?
13
On a Scale of 0 - 10, How Would You Rate Your Business’ Engagement with Members? (With 0 Being Poor and 10 Being Exceptional)
13
What Do You Believe is the Biggest Barrier to Achieving Exceptional Customer Engagement in Your Club/s?
14
How Does Your Business Collect Customer Feedback?
15
Do You Use Customer Feedback to Make Business Decisions?
15
Do You Use Customer Feedback to Generate Referrals?
15
The Future
16
What is Your Business’ Top Priority for the Next 12 Months?
16
What is at the Top of Your List of Things to Invest in to Improve Your Member Engagement in the Next 12 Months?
17
Approximately How Much Did You Invest in Member Engagement Last Year and How Much Do You Plan to Invest in The Next 12 Months?
18
References
18
Conclusion
19
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
in the Global
Introduction In the spring of 2018, the Customer Engagement Academy (CEA) worked with health and fitness club operators from across the globe to conduct a survey into how they engage with their members. The results from the survey are set out in the following report and provide a picture of the current state of health and fitness club member engagement in 2018, with the goal of informing, educating and providing a benchmark against which to measure future practice.
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Who Did We Survey? How Would You Describe the Business in Which You Work? Survey respondents represented a multitude of operator types from across the globe. Just over a third of respondents (38%) represented facilities categorised as not-for-profit (in the UK this is Leisure Trusts); the second largest groups represented in the survey were Local Government run facilities and Private Single-Site operators (both 10%).
3%
3%
3% 10%
3% 7%
10%
38%
Premium Chain
Private Chain
Boutique
University/Collage/School
Private Single-Site Local Government
Corporate
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Which Facilities Does Your Club Offer? Clubs in the survey offered their members a wide variety of facilities, as would be expected when we see the large proportion of Not-For-Profit and Local Government facilities represented in our sample – as these are very often large multi-activity community venues. Research shows that members who take part in group exercise are 26% less likely to canceli, so it is great to see 90% of clubs offering this to their members.
100% ------------------------------------------------------------------
97%
90%
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80%
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70%
76% ------------------------------------------------------------------
60%
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50%
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40%
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30%
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20%
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10%
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79%
Cafe / Restaurant
Swimming
Other Sports
Group Exercise
72%
------------------------------------------------------------------
Gym
0%
90%
What is Your Current Job Title? Roles ranging from Duty Manager to President took part in the study. of respondents in a
81% 63%
managerial position or above of respondents working in an
operations focused role
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
What is Member Engagement and How Important Is It to Business Success? How Would You Define Member Engagement? Respondents to the survey defined ‘Member Engagement’ as consistent proactive communication across multiple channels or ‘touch points’ throughout the member journey to deliver great experiences; increase visits; create a welcoming, friendly, fun club community; provide value; breed loyalty; encourage referrals; build strong, lasting relationships; offer ongoing exercise support and assist in the achievement of fitness goals; better understand customer needs; and increase members’ secondary spend.
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
On a Scale of 0 - 10, How Important Do You Believe Customer Engagement is to the Success of Your Business? (With 0 Being Not at All Important and 10 Being Absolutely Integral to Your Business’ Success) The average survey respondent rated the importance of customer engagement to the success of their business at 9.4 out of 10, with almost two-thirds (64%) giving a maximum score.
Score (Out of 10)
10
64%
9
25%
8
4%
7
4%
6
0%
5
4%
4
0%
3
0%
2
0%
1
0%
0
0%
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Engaging with Members Overview What Channels Do You Currently Utilise to Engage with Your Customers? There was a wide spread of engagement channels respondents reported using in their clubs. Research shows that almost 90% of members value gym staff speaking to themii, a channel which 83% of the clubs surveyed report utilising. The joint most commonly cited channels at 86% were social media and face-to-face engagement from reception staff; with the latter - compared to members who say they are always spoken to by reception staff, members who are never spoken to cancel at a rate 2.8 times higher, equating to an extra 21 cancelled memberships each month for every 1,000 membersiii. It is interesting here to note the relatively low levels of utilisation of mobile-first channels such as Club Branded Mobile Apps and SMS Text Messages.
100% ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------90%
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80%
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70%
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60%
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50%
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40%
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30%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------34%
20%
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10%
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0%
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86%
83%
86%
83%
72%
62%
Customer Feedback Surveys
Member Workout Activity Tracking Apps
28%
Gym Staff Face-to-Face
Reception Staff Face-to-Face
Telephone Calls
Social Media
SMS Text Messages
Club Branded Mobile App
48%
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Social Media Which Social Media Channels Does Your Business Have a Presence On? Facebook is clearly the most popular social media platform for clubs in the survey (used by 90% of respondents). Twitter (66%) and Instagram (62%) sit in second and third place respectively, both being used by around two-thirds of clubs surveyed. With this the first annual report, it will be interesting to see the rise or otherwise of the younger channels Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat in the coming years – particularly with the recent introduction of IGTV (Instagram TV) and the impact this may have on YouTube’s stronghold on video sharing. It will also be interesting to chart the introduction of any new channels which break into the mainstream in each survey period.
Does Your Business Do Any Paid Advertising Through Social Media? Just over ¾ of respondents say their club takes part in paid advertising through social media, whether this be ‘boosting’ organic content or delivering display ads in sidebars and elsewhere. Adding this to the survey’s other findings, social media is clearly an important channel of engagement for the industry which operators are willing to invest resource, both human and financial, into.
Yes
77% No
23%
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Customer Engagement Academy
How Often Does Your Business Post on Social Media? 8 Comments Comment
Like
27%
More Than Once Per Day
27%
Once Per Day
23%
5-6 Times Per Week
Like - Reply
Like - Reply
Like - Reply
CEA Replied
100k
Clubs are regularly posting on social media, with 77% of those surveyed reporting doing so more than 5 times per week. Like - Reply
12%
3-4 Times Per Week Like - Reply
0%
Twice Per Week
4%
Once Per Week
8%
Less Than Once Per Week
Like - Reply
Like - Reply
Like - Reply
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Email How Often Does Your Business Email Members? With 86% of respondents reporting utilising email to engage with their customers, it was surprising to see almost a quarter (23%) of clubs only using the channel ‘Rarely and Randomly’. Over half (54%) of those surveyed report emailing their customers once per month or less.
40%
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30%
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20%
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10%
15% ------------------------------------------------------------------
0%
------------------------------------------------------------------
31%
31%
86% Use email to engage with their customers
23%
0%
Automated Email Tool
Twice or More per Week
Weekly
Monthly
Rarely and Randomly
54% Engage with their customers via email less than once per month
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Feedback and Measures of Success
Net Promoter Score®
How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of Customer Engagement in Your Business? 70% of clubs in the survey use Net Promoter Score® to measure the effectiveness of their customer engagement – almost three times as many as reported any of the other options given; highlighting both the importance of the loyalty metric to the industry and its power as an indicator of the delivery of exceptional member engagement.
70%
Other Customer Feedback
25%
Retention / Attrition Measures
25%
Company’s Financial Position
5%
Sales Numbers
5%
Attendance
5%
Score (Out of 10)
10
4%
9
4%
8
23%
7
15%
6
15%
5
19%
4
15%
3
0%
2
0%
1
0%
0
0%
On a Scale of 0 - 10, How Would You Rate Your Business’ Engagement with Members? (With 0 Being Poor and 10 Being Exceptional) On average, clubs in the survey rated themselves 6.4 out of 10 for the quality of their engagement with members. There is clear room for improvement which the industry is aware of, and, with the average respondent assigning member engagement an ‘importance score’ of 9.4 out of 10, will be looking to advance in order to further success.
Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.
13
Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
8% 8% 33%
What Do You Believe is the Biggest Barrier to Achieving Exceptional Customer Engagement in Your Club/s? Respondents cited ‘Lack of Human Resources Required’ (33%) as the greatest road block on their path to consistently delivering exceptional customer engagement, with ‘Lack of Understanding of What We Need to Be Doing’ (25%) and ‘Other Priorities Take Precedence’ (25%) following closely behind.
25%
25%
Lack of Human Resources Required Other Priorities Take Precedence Lack of Understanding of What We Need to Be Doing Money
14
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
How Does Your Business Collect Customer Feedback?
88% In Person Face-to-Face Conversations
88% of clubs report gathering customer feedback via face-to-face conversations with members when they visit. While faceto-face communication with your members is incredibly valuableiv, this method may lack the measurability, sample size, scalability and diversity (in terms of involving members who visit less frequently or only during peak hours when staff are very busy) that the Net Promoter Score® methodology offers. This may be why NPS® (73%) is the second most cited method in the survey. In fact, 74% of respondents who utilise face-to-face conversations with members to gather feedback also utilise NPS surveys for the same purpose.
Do You Use Customer Feedback to Make Business Decisions? 100% of respondents utilise customer feedback to make business decisions
100%
utilise customer feedback
73% Net Promoter Score® Survey 54% Traditional Electronic Survey / Questionnaire 54% Suggestions Box in Gym or at Reception
Do You Use Customer Feedback to Generate Referrals? Maybe surprisingly, only 54% of respondents also use that feedback in the generation of referrals – shining a light on a significant opportunity for the industry to better leverage member stories, testimonials and recommendations in the recruitment of new members.
54%
46%
Yes
No
15 Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.
Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
The Future What is Your Business’ Top Priority for the Next 12 Months? It is great to see such a focus from the industry on improving customer engagement planned for the next 12 months, with improvement to equipment and facilities taking a back seat showing an emphasis on value created through experience rather than features.
44% 31%
6% 19%
Improve Customer Engagement Increase Sales Improve Member Retention Improve Equipment and Facilities
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
8% 4% 33% 4%
Retention Strategy Facilities and Equipment Marketing Technology Staff./Staff Training
46%
What is at the Top of Your List of Things to Invest in to Improve Your Member Engagement in the Next 12 Months? Technology and Staff/Staff Training are far and away the most popular areas of investment planned by clubs in the next 12 months to improve member engagement. 46% of respondents say they will invest in technology (whether that be member facing or back-office), followed by 33% of respondents who say they will invest in their staff (recruitment and/or training).
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Approximately How Much Did You Invest in Member Engagement Last Year and How Much Do You Plan to Invest in The Next 12 Months?
Plan to Spend Same Plan to Decrease Spend
40% of clubs surveyed plan to invest more in member engagement in the next 12 months than they did in 2017. Taken all together as a group, those surveyed plan to spend 19% more on member engagement in the next 12 months than they did in 2017.
40%
Plan to Increase Spend
40%
20%
References i. https://trpcem.com/research/what-impact-does-group-exercise-have-on-retention-whitepaper/ ii. https://trpcem.com/research/what-forms-of-communication-do-your-members-value-most-whitepaper/ iii.https://trpcem.com/research/what-influence-do-your-reception-staff-have-on-retention-whitepaper/
18
iv.https://trpcem.com/research/what-forms-of-communication-do-your-members-value-most-whitepaper/ -see Firgures 2 and 4
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Member Engagement in the Global Health and Fitness Industry Survey Report 2018
Melvyn’s View
It is great to see that operators and managers of health and fitness facilities see the value in member engagement whilst also seeing that there is always room for improvement, and it is encouraging to see that investments in staff and technology are being utilised to achieve higher levels of engagement.
Thoughts on the Findings from CEA Honorary President, Dr Melvyn Hillsdon “It is great to see that operators and managers of health and fitness facilities see the value in member engagement whilst also seeing that there is always room for improvement, and it is encouraging to see that investments in staff and technology are being utilised to achieve higher levels of engagement. It feels as if one challenge for the industry is to better define the member experience and what types of experiences are most strongly related to Net Promoter Scores® and member retention. This could then inform club/operator level polices to enhance the experiences of all members. The research community is recognising that understanding the thoughts and feelings of people about the events that happen to them in their everyday lives is difficult to achieve long after the event. Thoughts and feelings are best captured ‘in the moment’ - as close to the end of an event as possible. App based technologies are now being utilised to capture a person’s experience of an event as soon as it has happened. Such technologies may help the health and fitness industry to understand how members experience their clubs when they visit and how experiences are associated with higher Net Promoter Scores® as well as membership retention.”
19 Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.
The Customer Engagement Academy (CEA) The CEA exists to provide the global health and fitness industry with a go-to, robust, reliable resource for learning and development in customer engagement. Our ultimate goal is to help support operators to provide their members with exceptional club experiences which lead to business success. The Academy believes in the importance of operators developing a deep understanding of customer engagement based on real research carried out by experts in the field, quality member feedback and real-world examples of best practice.
TRP TRP are the founders of the CEA. They provide customer engagement software to the global health and fitness industry, designed to help operators effectively deliver great member experiences which create raving fans of their clubs. TRP has a long and established history at the forefront of knowledge around gym member experiences, behaviours and characteristics and their relationship with member loyalty; regularly sharing valuable insights with the industry through talks, research reports and blog posts since their establishment in 2002.