Some gym owners have members who bring their friends, stay for years and rave about the gym everywhere they go.
Other gym owners fight retention problems every single month.
Most owners try to solve that problem with more events, more challenges, new equipment or better programming. Those things are fine. They won’t fix the real issue, though: You’re treating every member the same way.
Your members aren’t all the same. Some need encouragement. Some need a roadmap. Some need recognition. And some need a tough conversation.
Treat everybody identically and you’ll lose great clients while pouring your time into the wrong ones.
After decades of running Catalyst and working with thousands of gym owners through Two-Brain, I’ve found that every member falls into one of four groups. Each group needs something specific from you.
1. Champions: Build Your Gym Around Them
You already know who these people are. You probably pictured a face when you read the word “champion.”
Champions:
- Show up early and stay late to hang out.
- Sign up for every nutrition challenge, six-week program and bring-a-friend event.
- Post about your gym on social media without being asked.
- Recruit their coworkers to do the Open with them.
- Buy the new thing first when you launch it.
- Bring people in with them.
Champions are the batteries in your gym. They power the energy in every class. New clients watch them and think, “I want to be like that person,” or “I want to know that person.” Your coaches love them because they make coaching easy.
Your job with them is simple: Build your gym around these people.
That means your schedule reflects when they want to train. Your programming reflects what challenges them. Your events are things they’d actually want to attend. When you’re deciding whether to add a service, change a format or buy equipment, ask one question first: Will my champions value this?
That’s counterintuitive, because most gym owners spend their time trying to please the loudest, most demanding clients. The loud ones are rarely your champions. Your champions aren’t complaining in the lobby.
Your goal with champions is to multiply them. Find out who they hang out with, who’s in their family and who they work with. Those people are the ones most likely to be just like them.
2. Loyalists: Help Them Feel Seen
Loyalists are the quiet backbone of your gym.
They show up. Rain, snow, a brutal week at work, a bad night of sleep: They’re there, on time. They never complain, never cause drama and pay every month without a second thought.
They also skipped the holiday party. They didn’t do your intramural Open. They’ve never referred anyone, as far as you know. And if you asked them for a Google review, they’d say “Of course!” and forget before they reached the parking lot.
Loyalists are deeply engaged with their fitness. They’re just not socially engaged with your community. Your gym is an important part of their life without being their whole life. They see you the way some people see a great coffee shop: They’re in every day, they love it, and they have zero interest in following it on Instagram.
Good news: Loyalists are much closer to becoming champions than you’d think.
Your job is to help them feel seen. A Goal Review Session is the perfect tool:
- Acknowledge their consistency.
- Show them their progress.
- When they’re feeling proud and connected, ask if anyone in their life could benefit from what they’re getting at your gym.
- Ask if they’d record a quick testimonial on your phone right then.
Champions talk about your gym on their own. Loyalists need you to start the conversation for them. They’ll be happy to help. They just need a guiding hand.
A loyalist who’s seen, celebrated and highlighted on social media becomes a champion. That can happen over and over, but only if you pull them into the limelight.
3. Wanderers: Give Them a Roadmap
Wanderers came to you looking for something new. Maybe they hit a plateau at another gym. Maybe they saw your Instagram and got excited. Maybe a friend dragged them in.
They arrived with a big burst of energy. Then, around month two or three, the energy started to flicker.
They aren’t unhappy. They’re not about to quit and write you a bad review. They’re just inconsistent:
- Their attendance has slipped to about half of what it should be.
- They signed up for the nutrition challenge and dropped out in week two.
- They keep meaning to book their goal review and never get around to it.
Wanderers aren’t bad clients. They’re unanchored clients. They haven’t yet connected what you offer to something they deeply care about, so they can drift away if you’re not careful.
Your job with a wanderer is to turn them into a loyalist. Don’t ask them for referrals yet. Don’t pile on invitations to events or hand out badges. And definitely don’t survey them about what you should change. People who don’t know what they want for themselves shouldn’t be steering your business.
Just get them showing up consistently.
This is where a client success manager earns their keep. If you don’t have a CSM, give your most relationship-focused coach a few extra hours for this work. That person reaches out and books a goal review, and the tone is curiosity, not accountability:
“Hey Jim, I noticed the last few weeks it’s been tough for you to get in. What’s been going on?”
Then just listen.
The wanderer’s problem is usually simple. They set a goal at intake that didn’t connect to anything real, and nobody checked whether it still mattered to them. Fix that and their attendance often jumps.
A wanderer who gets a roadmap becomes a loyalist. Rebuild their commitment first. Champion status can come later.
4. Critics: Get Them to a Decision
This group is the hardest for me to write about. I’ve called them “canaries” before, like the birds miners carried to detect toxic gas. Critics are the first to react when something’s off, but their reaction usually tells you more about them than about your gym.
Critics are engaged in a way that doesn’t help you. They notice every problem. They have opinions on your programming, your coaching style, the music, your attendance policy, what your coaches wear, the parking, the temperature and the color of the walls. They’ll mention these things to you. Quite often, they’ll mention them to other members first.
And critics look like they care. They seem invested. They have strong feelings, and it’s easy to mistake that for loyalty. Caring about your gym and wanting to turn it into something different are two very different things.
The real danger is that unhappiness spreads. One critic in your 6 a.m. class can poison the room for everyone else. “These wall balls are always flat. We need new targets.” You know exactly how that sounds and how it makes the class feel.
I’ll confess: I’m a people pleaser. I want everyone to be happy with me, my coaches and my gym. Many times in my career, a client complained about one thing, I fixed it and they took that as an open invitation to complain about the next thing. Before long, they saw themselves as the conscience of the gym and the spokesperson for other members.
“Chris, everybody’s talking about that Saturday class. They all wish you’d bring back the 10 a.m.”
Everybody? Usually it was one person, exaggerated.
I listened to those people for way too long. While I fixed imaginary problems, I neglected the champions and loyalists who would actually grow my gym. I was playing defense all the time, and you can’t win a championship playing defense.
So here’s how to handle critics:
- Be friendly. Always.
- Don’t confuse friendly with friends.
- Don’t give them a front-row seat to your decision making.
- Don’t send them surveys or ask for their input.
- Listen, but don’t set the expectation that you’ll act on every complaint.
Every unit of attention you give a critic is attention you’re taking away from a champion or a loyalist.
Your goal is to get the critic to a decision. Either they become more committed or they leave. Sometimes, sadly, that means saying, “I don’t think we’re a great fit. Here’s a refund for the rest of the month and a recommendation for another gym.”
That conversation is hard. It’s also one of the best things you can do for your other members.
Move Everyone Up One Level
You don’t need to turn critics into champions. That won’t happen. You don’t need wanderers to suddenly become your loudest advocates, either.
Your job with every client, every week, is to move them up one level:
- Wanderer to loyalist.
- Loyalist to champion.
- Critic to committed, or out the door.
Culture doesn’t improve through big dramatic gestures like moving to a new location or taking everyone on a pub crawl. It improves through steady, intentional tending of your garden. You notice where each person is right now and give them what they need to take the next step.
The gym owners who’ve been at this for 10 or 15 years, the ones whose clients stay for three or four years on average, aren’t doing anything magical. They know who their champions are, and they protect and invest in them. They ask champions for friends and family. They ask loyalists how they can extend help into their circle of care. They ask wanderers, “How can I get you better results?” And they ask critics to make a decision.
If you move everyone up a level every couple of months, your culture will improve.
So pick one member from each group this week and have the right conversation with each one.
And if you want a mentor to help you build the systems that level up your entire gym, book a call here.
