.png)
Are you looking to boost your member engagement? Keeping your members happy and providing a unique offering can be a challenge. Luckily, there are many ways technology can help to attract new customers and keep existing members engaged.
Gym owners and operators need to look to the future to attract and keep their members. Even affordable, no-frills gyms and fitness facilities offer various apps, workout plans, incentives and discounts to their members in 2024. Premium or specialist providers will have to go above and beyond for their customers.
Incorporating the AI into your digital health and fitness offerings can separate you from the competition and add value for your customers. Whether it’s offering personalized workout plans and fitness tracking, AI-driven goals and milestones, or motion analysis and form correction, embracing 21st-century technology can transform your business.
In this post, we explore some of the top member engagement tools for fitness app developers and gym owners. But first, let’s look at why.
Modern consumers demand the best user experiences and results from any subscription service. What’s more, brand loyalty is dying. A study conducted by Sitecore in 2021 revealed that 57% of American Gen Z’ers are less loyal now to brands than before the COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK in 2023, this figure was 61%.
Similarly, TechSee’s 3rd annual State of Customer Loyalty and Churn report in 2022 showed a “significant loss of product-dependent brand loyalty”, revealing that “38% of US customers [state] they did not feel any loyalty to [a] brand and switched to a competitor after being approached.”
Therefore, it’s essential to cultivate member engagement to guarantee long-term success. Speaking to Red Brick Research in 2019, Amanda Watkin, General Secretary for Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland said:
“Without engaged members, organisations do not exist. Those groups of like-minded people never meet, never decide anything and nothing is achieved on any scale. It becomes a waste of time and money.”
In the same article, Kerrie Fuller, Associate Director of Engagement at MemberWise Network says:
“We know that an engaged member is more likely to renew their membership. One of the key principles of membership is renewal first, and recruitment second as it costs less to keep a current member than to recruit a new one. Membership organisations will run more efficiently and effectively if they focus on keeping their current members happy and engaged.”
These principles all apply to the fitness, health and wellbeing sectors as well. So, with that in mind, let’s explore some ways you can keep your members coming back for more.
By incorporating user health and fitness data, as well as their short-, medium--, and long-term goals, gym owners and fitness app developers can create hyper-personalized workout plans. Whether it’s muscle gain or weight loss, improving endurance or creating explosive speed, complex algorithms and human data models can devise effective workout plans that drive results.
What’s more, users can also input any health conditions or injuries, or undertake fitness tests at the beginning of any program to establish a baseline to compare progress against. Algorithms can also factor in a user’s time constraints and other everyday commitments to fit workouts into a daily or weekly routine. Lastly, when combined with wearable tech such as smart watches, heart rate monitors, pedometers, smart rings, and even sleep monitors, personalized workout plans can be modified and adapted in real-time to ensure targets are met.
For premium gym owners, partnering with forward-thinking app developers and then supplementing the service with in-person training sessions could help members achieve their goals more quickly.
AI motion analysis can have a transformative impact on member engagement for gym owners and fitness buffs. For everyone from experienced fitness enthusiasts to keen beginners, everybody can benefit from having a personal trainer on hand to provide feedback and guidance on exercises.
Whether it’s a user’s running gait, weightlifting form, or yoga pose, there’s often a right and a wrong way to do everything. Having a trained professional on hand can help maximize results and correct poor form that could lead to injury. However, not everybody can afford to commit to a personal trainer, or their schedule means they work out at unusual times.
By incorporating AI motion analysis into any member engagement offering, you make effective exercise much more convenient and valuable. A study in 2021 by McKinsey identified that 71% of digital consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and AI motion analysis can provide real-time, accurate feedback via virtual coaches.
For gym owners, equipment maintenance is a fact of life - albeit a boring one. Machines and equipment naturally degrade and get damaged over time, especially when they’re used every day.
However, waiting until a machine malfunctions not only presents health and safety risks to users, it can also lead to downtime for the machine which is both inefficient and expensive to the gym. Understandably, your members expect to be able to use the equipment when they want. As do you!
AI could make that a reality. AI consultants Toronto Digital suggest that AI could generate predictive, preventative maintenance schedules for gym owners. Either through sensors embedded in equipment or by using the data from user fitness tracking within the gym, alerts can be triggered before the equipment fails which allows it to be repaired at a convenient time. Alongside the benefits for members, gym owners can extend the life of their equipment through regular maintenance, helping to avoid costly repairs, or even worse… an expensive insurance claim!
AI is delivering so much potential in the world of fitness, and the future is looking very promising. The possibilities are incredibly exciting for both users and industry professionals.
The businesses that succeed will be the ones who adopt this technology in the right way. Gym owners can keep one step ahead of the competition and be seen as trailblazers in the fitness industry by offering AI-powered member engagement solutions. These tools can help offer customers more value, increase acquisition and also improve retention.
Whether it’s AI motion analysis as part of personalized workouts or fitness and performance tracking using wearable technology, now is the time to embrace the future. If you’re interested in incorporating AI technology into your fitness offering, don’t hesitate to contact Sency.ai today.
.svg)
