6 Ways on How to Retain Your Personal Training Clients

Marketing Nov 23, 2020

When thinking about how to increase business revenue, personal trainers can make the mistake of only focusing on increasing their customer base by attracting new clients. But this can be at the expense of neglecting valuable existing clients.

As a personal trainer, you don't want to forget about your existing clients because these members are the ones who contribute to the longevity of your business. Retaining clients should be high on your business plan, as just a 5% retention rate can increase your revenue by up to 95%.

Needless to say, the fitness industry is highly competitive, and so if you are struggling to retain clients then your revenue will ultimately suffer.

It is therefore worth understanding why clients leave personal trainers. These reasons can involve:

Lack of sense of belonging or community feel
Loss of motivation
No added value or benefits

Luckily, there are several ways you can work to retain your personal training clients. Here are our 6 top tips on how to retain clients:

Build a Sense of Community by Hosting Events

The more social connections a person has at a fitness establishment, the more likely they will remain a member, so try to encourage client relationships and create a community feel among them.

As a personal trainer, you can build a community feel among clients by:

Creating leaderboards and fitness challenges or contests for clients to get involved in
Encouraging customers to join private Facebook Groups to encourage each other
Organising social events outside of your personal training sessions

Building a community will help you retain your personal training clients, as a sense of belonging will encourage individuals to motivate and support one another.

Provide Free High-Value Content

One of the most low-cost efforts you can take to retain clients is to create engaging for your website and social media.

You can create high-value quality content by:

Conduct client surveys to find out what their biggest concerns or pain points are
From this information you can create informative and interesting content using your expertise as a personal trainer
Promote your content by sharing it on social media and in your email newsletters

By creating engaging, valuable and free content, you will retain more clients by adding value and authority as a personal trainer.

Ensure you are Providing a Personalised Experience

Acknowledging each of your clients as an individual with personal needs will go a long way as a personal trainer, and will help you retain your customers.

You can provide a personalised experience by:

Getting to know your clients on a first-name basis
Taking the time to sit down with your clients to find out what their goals are
Creating a personalised plan with regular check-in dates to generate accountability

Creating an individual plan for each of your clients will encourage them to return to your services as a personal trainer, as their value as an individual will be recognised.

Conduct a Referral Program

Referral marketing is a great promotional tool to gain new clients, as opinions of friends or family are trustworthy, but it can also be used as a tool to retain existing clients for you as a personal trainer.

You can encourage referrals to your personal trainer services by:

Providing a free consultation for friends or family members of existing clients
Charging 10 sessions for the price of 8
Offering a gift card to members who refer new clients to your business

By offering existing clients incentives to refer friends and family, you will encourage them to stay with you as a personal trainer by providing additional value to their package.

Demonstrate Added Value Through Workshops

Workshops are a great way to add value to your clients' packages for free by demonstrating your expertise and sharing your knowledge as a personal trainer.

You could host regular workshops for clients to attend, with sessions such as:

The best nutrition to complement your workouts
How to workout whilst travelling
The top 5 exercises you can do at the office

By providing additional value through workshops, you will retain more clients and even attract new clients to your services.

Set Up a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are highly effective in helping to retain clients and dissuade them from turning to competitive personal trainers.

These reward-based programs help increase client engagement, improve customer relationships, boost awareness of business or services and, of course, boost revenue.

To help your personal training services stand out amongst the competition, encourage your clients to stay with these ideas:

Provide gifts and rewards on client's birthdays
Offer a "buy-ahead" discount, such as 5 sessions for the price of 4 when clients pre-pay
Give coupons and freebies on milestones such as participating in competitions or being a returning client for 6 months

A loyalty program will make your clients feel special and valued, with rewards and gifts incentivising them to return to your services. You can find more loyalty program benefits here.

Send Email Newsletters with Exclusive Member Offers

You can encourage client retention by offering additional benefits as a personal trainer. Creating email newsletters with exclusive offers is a great way to do this.

Your email newsletter offers could include:

Exclusive access to health and fitness articles (see below for content ideas)
Discounts for local restaurants or fitness-related products
Competitions to win a month of free personal training services, apparel or similar

Make sure you communicate your newsletters with purpose - no one likes being sent too many emails or feeling like they are being "spammed" with offers, so make sure your emails are relevant, concise and genuinely valuable in order to retain your clients.

Encourage Client Feedback and Reviews

As a personal trainer, you need feedback to understand any customer pain points to help you improve your services. You won't be able to retain clients who do not feel fulfilled.

Reviews are also important as they work as "social proof" that you are a reputable and trustworthy personal trainer.

You can encourage client feedback by:

Encourage clients to leave a review online by contacting them via email following their session
Allow anonymous feedback - you could set up a SurveyMonkey asking what clients expect from your services
Be open to change - if clients are not happy with something, make sure you make a conscious effort to improve those aspects by listening to what your clients are saying.

Make sure you review and action feedback as well as engage with clients after their sessions to ensure you are providing the best services and encouraging client retention through continuous improvement.

Don't Forget...

The key to increasing client retention is providing valuable and personal services to all.

Delivering the best personal training sessions which are seamless in supporting clients whilst offering incentives will only aid in loyalty and positive feedback. Show each of your clients that they are valued and give them reasons to keep returning to you as a personal trainer.

Credits - Charlotte Osborn