Speaker 1: Retention is is a really important one and this is this is the It's not the easiest number to influence, but it's it's the number that matters the most Right, like it's the it's the number that matters the most and we'll talk about this when we start talking about, you know getting people into your fitness business, but it's a lot cheaper to retain a client than it is to add in that new client and You know understanding that retention percentage is extremely important again this is one that I think most people don't understand. They feel bad when they lose a client. I talked to gym owners and coaches. There's one that's in the back of my mind right now where I talked to her a couple weeks ago and she was super down on herself. We kind of talked through it and she's just like, you know, I'm just losing clients here and there. We actually broke it down and her retention percentage was like 97-98% month over month. I'm like, what are you talking about? You're crushing it. your retention percentage is almost 100% which is like yeah I get it I guess but the ones that I'm losing that they hurt so bad because I have such good relationships with those clients so she got down on herself because she thought her gym was falling apart because she was losing these clients that meant a lot to her but it's like you're going to churn out clients it's sometimes it's within your control right we'll talk about that in a second sometimes it's outside of your control like they can't afford it anymore they have other their priorities, and that's okay. When they leave, just high five them and say, hey, I'm always here if you wanna come back, right? But if we wouldn't have had that conversation on what is your retention percentage, we would have probably gone down this black hole of like, how do you improve keeping clients in the system? Instead, it was like, you're at 98%, let's focus on this other metric that you can improve and influence because you're not going to get that up to 100% month over month, it's just impossible. So understanding one's retention percentage is really, really important.

Speaker 2: Gosh, I mean, understanding it speaks, that example speaks so much to the importance of metrics in general and like looking at the numbers and the cold hard data because as humans, it's so easy to get caught up in the emotions of the day to day and really blow out of perspective things that actually aren't making a huge impact on your business, but they feel really big in the moment. So stepping back and looking at the data is so important. Same thing goes in exercise. You might have a bad workout and you think that like you're off track. I think everyone's had that conversation with a client where they didn't get the back squat one RM they wanted to. But then you step back and you look at their progress over the years and like where everything else is going and the other things that they've shown improvement that might not be directly correlated to performance in the gym. And then you start feeling a little bit better.

Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. And yeah, when you guys are trying to track retention and you're asking yourself, how do I do that? What you don't wanna do is you don't want take that absolute number at the end of each month and divide it by the previous month. I've had conversations with people where they're like, my retention percentage is a hundred and ten percent. It's like, how is that possible, right? Because they're just taking absolute numbers and they're dividing it by the previous month. So we talk about that in the professional and how to actually get to that number, but you have to take into consideration how many clients you added in that month. So those the clients added in that month, you just remove them from calculation. You look at where did you end the previous month and where did you start this month without looking at net new clients and that's how you get your retention divide by the previous

Speaker 2: month. Yeah you don't want to be high-fiving yourself if all you're actually doing is churning a massive number of clients but onboarding a massive number of clients because that's tiring. Yeah like not retaining clients is exhausting as a coach because we all know this like the hardest part of the coach client relationship is the first few months when you're getting to to know someone, you're taking them through assessments, you're figuring out their routine, they're figuring out how best to communicate with you and understanding how to read tempo and like all of the little things that we have to spend more time on. And so if you're constantly doing that, that just gets really old. So that's a really important reason to prioritize retention.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And relationships, right? It's like we, I mean, I don't want to speak for everyone listening, but I think most humans want to build really good relationships, long lasting relationships with people that they're coaching, right? So just like the example I talked about, it sucks when you lose that relationship, right? Not that the relationship is fractured, but when you lose that coach-client relationship because someone decides that they're just going to move on. So the more that you can keep those on, yes, it's great financially, right? It's great efficiency-wise because you don't have to onboard, you don't have to replace that client to keep your revenue where it is, but it also feels good, right? it also feels good to continue to build those relationships over time. So there's a lot that goes inside of retention percentage. And usually if you see a really high retention percentage, what are you going to see? You're also going to see a lot of referrals, right? Because the people that are inside of your business, they've been there for a while. And those are the people that are going to talk about you positively because they're having a positive experience because they've been with you for a while. And when we start talking about acquisition, referrals are it right referrals are it and fitness so yeah retention is powerful you want to

Speaker 2: talk a little bit about how to influence retention yeah give your clients a fucking good service right yeah yeah well it's so important like we're not Planet Fitness we're not charging ten bucks a month for for fitness coaching and people can just like forget they still charge ten I have no idea like

Speaker 1: inflation has to head maybe I think it is still ten they're not even moving with inflation they need to get their shit together we'll talk about average price point per client what Planet Fitness is doing in a second.

Speaker 2: People can be paying that $10 a month and like just forget that it's coming out of their bank account every month. It's not the same case with a personalized fitness coach like some of our coaches are charging north of 500 bucks a month. No one is going to forget that that is coming out of their bank account so they better see value in what they're getting for that $500 or $200 or whatever it is because there is a big variation depending on location experience of the coach so yeah give him a good freakin service yeah I think it's

Speaker 1: to simplify it right it's like when we look at that value exchange just think about the last time you went to the grocery store and you look at something and you're like that looks pretty good and you look at the price of that thing maybe the grocery store isn't a great example for us because I think we just blow a lot of money at the grocery store think about the last time you're at a clothing store right and you looked at this thing and you're like you look down you look at the price tag. Lululemon is a great example, right? You look down, you look at the price tag, you're like, does this thing bring me more value than I'm willing to spend on it, right? Or that I'm able to spend on it. And you know, you look at those Lululemon shorts and they're like $75 and you're like, oh my god, but you're like, I wear those things, you know, very often. They last a long time. They just feel so damn good. Okay, there's my, take my $75, right? You know, in any industry where someone's making a decision at the end of the month if I want to continue to do this thing or not, whether it's a subscription or if I'm paying you to coach me, people are making that decision constantly. Every time they look at their bank statement, they're like, ooh, that $500 came out. It's like, do I feel like I'm getting $501 of value out of that thing? Because if they feel like they're getting $450 out of it, they're probably going to cancel, right? Because the value exchange isn't there. So the question is, how do I continually prove my value, right? And that should happen naturally through systems and the way that you coach and the way that you build relationships. And proving that value month over month over month should become like second nature to a coach, right? I think we've all, you know, either been in a spot or have seen coaches that had to really work to convince clients to stay month over month over month, whether it's like, I'm gonna give them, you know, five touch points a day, I'm gonna check in on them, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, those are people that, those are coaches that don't feel like they're giving a service, that $500 service, I keep throwing 500 bucks, I think it's because you said 500. Sorry, glad we're not, big number. Yeah, they don't feel like they're giving that, right? So they're proving to themselves, right? Where it's like, okay, I need to continually, we're not saying do that, right? It's just like, create a really good coaching system. And in that system, build really good relationships. And don't forget about the client that you've been coaching for three years. Because that's the client that you really want to keep. You want to retain that client. Because we do have coaches that they'll onboard a new client. That client is more time and effort. And they'll forget about the clients that they're already coaching. The clients that they're already coaching feel that. They're like, well, fuck you. I'm leaving then. I don't feel like we're connecting anymore. I don't feel like I'm getting personalized, individualized attention anymore. and that client churns out. So we always have to be careful in ensuring that we're giving an adequate amount of attention to all of our clients, and that's done through having systems as coaches.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I think in personalized fitness as well, setting really clear expectations for progress and how the client can expect to develop over the months and years is really very important also, because I have seen it in place where people arrive and they may have unrealistic expectations and goals, and what they think that they're going to get in a month or two months or three months just isn't going to happen. Like, it's going to take them two, three years to get there. And the fitness industry does a really good job of pushing 12-week challenges and 30-day challenges and quick fixes down people's throats. And so sometimes they arrive with that marketing and that idea as to what they're going to get when they come to you. And so number one, it's figuring out, is this person actually the right fit for me? And then number two, in that onboarding process and in the goal setting and in the monthly consultation, having the conversation with, are you moving towards your goals? What does realistic timeline look like to achieve your goal? And making sure that people don't think shit's gonna happen overnight, especially if they're not compliant and don't put in the work.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny, because you see it almost, sometimes you see misaligned expectations that up at the on the front end as well and you see this more in group facilities where it's like you know the the gym owner the coaches inside of that facility they feel like something's missing so they're on ramp or onboarding process they're always trying to refine that thing like how can we make this experience fucking great right and they'll make that thing so great but they actually don't have follow-up right so it's like okay when you when we onboard you this is what it looks like we're gonna do two personal training sessions. We're going to get you ready for classes. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to, I want to understand your goals. I'm going to put that nice and neatly in your file." And then it's like three, two, one, three, two, one, go every day. And that they never end up in that office again. And they never, that the goal sheet that they set out is like packed with dust and it's never pulled out. Right. So it's, it's setting realistic expectations from both sides. Like, can you uphold those expectations? Are you going to continue to do these things? or are you even setting those expectations to start uh to begin with so i've seen that a lot as well where it's like a very nice uh you know onboarding process and then no follow-up yeah

Speaker 2: as one final thought um on the retention side i do as well see coaches and gym owners compensating for a lack of results with the nice-to-haves so community events and like real like rah-rah-rah like building up the like community aspect, bar nights, like things like that, that people do see value in and they enjoy, but it's covering up for the fact that people have been with them for a year and a half and haven't got the results they want. So I think that's like something to consider, right? You can do it, like you can be that gym or that coach that leads with the nice shiny things, the, I don't know, like the washed towels and the moisturizer in the bathrooms, like good to have all those things for sure. I think a well-stocked gym bathroom is important but don't be prioritizing that stuff if you're not getting your clients results. Yeah on our cohort call this week we

Speaker 1: had a coach and he's I think he's a group coach right now and he was he was telling a story to the group where he was we were talking about expectations and goal setting and having the ability to actually sit down and speak with each and one each and every one of our clients and He was he told a story of a client that he had for like two or three years and the the client eventually quit he turned Out and when he asked them why his answer was well, I never got that six-pack I wanted and it was like a light bulb moment for this for this coach and he was like Why didn't I know he wanted a six-pack right? Like I didn't know he was coming to classes every day to get a six-pack He's like we're not doing anything to get this guy a six-pack I never talked about nutrition with this guy nothing and he's like I'm leaving because I never got a six-pack, right? so it's just like Those conversations have to be had at some point, right? And when we look at retention just to stay on track here, and I know we'll wrap it up after this thought But just to stay on track here. It's like when we look at retention. We have to understand why our clients are there That's super important And hey that shit changes right like a client may come for this reason and in six months It might be they're staying for that reason, whatever the case is, but we have to have some sort of alignment ongoingly or we're going to lose them and we're going to have no idea what it would have taken to keep them.

Speaker 2: And it shouldn't be free pizza that's keeping people in your gym to bring it back to Planet Fitness.