It’s the truth: human beings lie. In fact, the average person lies up to 200 times a day, according to Jerry Jellison, a psychologist at the University of Southern California.
This “selective memory” is often used by people reporting their health and fitness behavior. From “forgetting” to add that last square of chocolate to our MyFitnessPal app or downplaying the number of alcohol units consumed per week, we commonly lie to others (and ourselves!) about our health, sleep, diet choices and exercise levels. It’s worth noting that not all lying is intentional; many lies are founded in denial, misplaced optimism or lack of awareness.
People’s tendency to lie about their intentions and behaviors are sabotaging health club operators’ best efforts to recruit and retain members. But help is at hand by using technology and data to monitor and manage your members’ behavior.
The most common intention lie presents itself as the “buying hurdle” while the most common behavior lie is about commitment. Artificial intelligence can help you tackle both.
The Buying Hurdle Lie
The buying hurdle lie is when someone says, “Yes I’m definitely going to sign up. I just need to go and think about it.”
It can be a crushing moment when a lead says this. For the last hour, since they entered your site, you have been smiling, your trainers have given them a great free trial and the gym looks immaculate, yet they still need to “have a think” about it. For all your best efforts, you didn’t manage to tick their intention to join.
Imagine if you knew before they entered your club what their intention was — if you knew the moment you met a new lead whether they were definitely going to join or whether they had potential but needed more attention. AI can help you do just that by reading and giving a conversion score to every lead that shows an interest in your gym before they even walk through your doors.
Armed with AI, your staff can work more productively (and, in the eyes of the member, sensitively to their needs). Put simply, AI helps you target your sales process and guide your team's energy toward leads that want to be part of your community.
Knowing you’re on safe ground with your “definitely” lead, you can offer the six-month or even 12-month plan. Reinforcing their intention to join by offering a favorable rate over a longer period will aid the conversion.
The definitely member has set their first intention — to sign up to regularly attend for six or 12 months. But this is only half the story; the other half is about commitment.
The Commitment Lie
The commitment lie is when a member says, “Yes I will still be attending by the end of this year.” Such a claim from a new member may be absolutely genuine. But then life gets in the way. AI can help you spot lifestyle changes so you can anticipate their impact and suggest alternatives to keep your member on track.
What if your member changes their job and their office is on the other side of town? Or if their favorite trainer is leaving? How do you stop these inconveniences from snowballing beyond the point of return, causing them to cancel their membership? You spot them early.
Taking Preventive Action
A key indicator that a member’s habit is changing and tracking negatively is attendance. With AI you can track this precisely — and take preventive action.
Imagine that you have a member whose attendance has dropped subtly the last few weeks — maybe from four times per week to four times in the last fortnight. You can’t expect your team to spot a subtle drop in attendance. It’s hard to do this and impossible to do at scale.
However, AI will spot a trend even before the member has realzed they are doing it. And way before they have accepted their change in intention.
Many areas of that member's behavior play a part in predicting they’re slipping away, as opposed to just being busy the last two weeks working on a deadline.
AI Is Ahead of Your Members (and You)
Again, AI can spot and factor in other behaviors that may contribute to the negative tracking pattern — a change in secondary spend, lesser engagement with member communication, the updated office location. And then it can prompt your team to take action.
From automating an offer to entice that member to remain — such as a flexi-membership plan with your site closer to their new office — to notifying your front of house team to chat with them to determine an authentic way to keep them coming back, AI can help you tap into what the member is consciously (or even subconsciously) thinking.
AI can predict varying intentions of a member throughout their lifecycle with your gym, such as when they will leave, if they would accept an upgraded package and if they would start personal training. It does this every second of every day and is ahead of the member.
It sounds futuristic, but operators are using AI right now. AI is the biggest non-human asset in your business because data, unlike your members, never lies to you. Or itself.
BIO
Olivia Milne is APAC sales and marketing director for keepme.ai, a business dedicated to increasing fitness operators' revenue through AI-powered insights and tools. With a background in marketing, Milne was working in social for an award-winning customer engagement agency in London before relocating to Singapore to become head of marketing at Vanda.fit and the largest white collar boxing event series in Asia. Milne joined Keepme in 2019 with the responsibility for the commercial offering in Asia Pacific.