Accountability and fitness go together like blender bottles and protein powder. When people join your gym, they’re looking for a place where they can confidently achieve their fitness goals — with plenty of support in tow.
So how can you help gym members with accountability? Merriam-Webster defines accountability as “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.” Whereas some of your members want to come in, workout, and never speak to another human being about their goals or workout, other members will need more support and guidance — they just might not verbalize it.
But we’ve got your back. This article has strategies that can help your gym encourage members to take responsibility for their health and achieve their fitness goals faster.
Get to Know What Motivates Your Members
The more you understand about who your members are, the more you can cater your accountability strategies to what they need and want. Consider adding the following questions to your onboarding questionnaire:
- What is your “why” for your fitness journey?
- What motivates you to achieve your goals?
- What are your hobbies? What do you do in your spare time?
- What does success look like at the gym, at home, and/or work?
- When you achieve a goal, how do you like to celebrate?
Understanding what motivates your gym members can give you powerful tools for motivating them and helping them achieve accountability and consistency.
Check In to Keep Members on Track
It’s not necessary to check in with every member every day, but the more you can catch up with your members, the more you’ll understand their goals and challenges so you can help them with accountability and consistency.
One way to gain insight into your members’ behaviors and goals is to use a member app that offers habit tracking. Then, you can ping members with in-app messages celebrating consistent tracking or reminding them about habit goals. If you don’t offer a member app, you can automate emails or texts that can be just as effective as in-app messages and notifications.
Celebrate Member Wins and Progress
You’d be surprised how many of your club’s members are sharing images and posts about their workouts and progress on social media. This type of content is called user-generated content (UGC), and it’s a powerful way to celebrate your members while also showing potential members what they could accomplish at your gym.
If a member tags your club in their Instagram Story, reshare it to your own stories. If they mention you in a public Facebook post, comment on it. If you notice a member hasn’t been to the gym or attended a class in a while, you can hop on social media and engage with their content so your gym and their fitness goals stay top of mind.
When you show an interest in what your members are doing at your club and encourage them in a public forum, they’re more likely to stick to their goals and keep coming in too. Why? Because they see that your gym is as invested in their fitness journey as they are!
Offer Incentives to Stay on Track
To help members with accountability, it’s important to get to know your clients. What are their interests and passions? Let’s say Steve, a fan of mindfulness, used to come into your gym five times per week. You look in your member management system and see that Steve is now only working out once per week. You might reach out to Steve via text or email:
“Hey Steve! We used to see you every M-F, and we miss you! To get you back in and on track, we’ll give you a free gift card for one month of Headspace if we see you five days per week over the next 30 days.”
Think about this strategy as creating a personal challenge for your members to keep them accountable and moving toward their goals. Here are other things you can use to incentivize members to reach goals, get back on track, and stay accountable:
- Gift card to a nearby coffee shop or smoothie shack
- Branded merchandise, such as T-shirts or hoodies
- Discount on personal training sessions or group classes
- Motivational or fitness-related books
Encourage Members to Find an Accountability Partner
One study found that people who tell another person about their goal had a 65% chance of achieving it and a 95% chance of achieving that goal if they committed to meeting up with that person.
Here are a few ways that you can help your members with accountability:
- Offer a free guest pass and encourage members to bring a friend or family member to a class or workout.
- Introduce members who are working toward a similar fitness goal and encourage them to hold each other accountable.
- Offer a free personal training session to get your members on the right track and ensure their goals and abilities line up.
- Create a Facebook group just for your gym members so they can share challenges, successes, and tips for other members.
Keep Members Accountable and Work Smarter with ASF
People join your gym to achieve their fitness goals and be a part of a supportive community. The more you can do to help keep your members on track, the more likely they’ll stick around (and tell others about your club too!).
But if you have a small team that wants to spend more time with members and less time on follow-up, outreach, and marketing activities, then you need software to streamline operations and deliver meaningful member insights.
Are you a personal trainer? Learn more about specific accountability tactics for personal trainers here.
With ASF, you get next-level gym and member management solutions to help you grow your membership, boost club engagement, increase revenue, and build a stronger club. Learn more and get a free demo.
