CWA Blog Archive-6 Ways To Retain Your Members

6 Ways To Retain Your Members

Pdf Summary

This article addresses the challenge of member retention, keeping new members engaged so they become loyal, long-term members, noting that retention for a niche climbing audience is more nuanced than for conventional fitness clubs. While conventional clubs track well-established patterns (membership spikes after the holidays, then drops off a few months into the new year), climbing's niche audience makes retention subtler. The article draws secrets from managers at gyms successfully retaining members even in slower months. The first and foundational way is to build a community. There isn't just one magic incentive or trick, says Rich Breuner, Director of Operations at Bend Rock Gym; rather, community has to be a core value applied across all aspects of the gym's facilities, operations, and services. Breuner explains the gym's number-one goal is to support and facilitate an amazing community experience, which translates directly to people wanting to become and stay members. The results validate the approach: Bend Rock Gym saw member attrition rates drop significantly since 2016, when they began examining programs gym-wide (the text continues into the remaining retention strategies). The throughline is that member retention, especially for climbing's niche audience, depends fundamentally on building genuine community as a core, gym-wide value rather than relying on isolated incentives or tricks. Because climbing members aren't retained by the same predictable patterns as conventional fitness clubs, gyms need a deeper approach, and the managers who succeed point to community as the foundation. Rich Breuner's insight is that community can't be a single tactic but must be a core value woven through every aspect of the gym, facilities, operations, services, with facilitating an amazing community experience as the top goal. This community focus directly drives retention, people want to become and stay members of a gym where they feel they belong, as evidenced by Bend Rock Gym's significant drop in attrition after prioritizing community gym-wide. For operators, the article argues that retaining members requires cultivating authentic community as a pervasive organizational value, not just running promotions, and it offers six strategies, beginning with this foundational community-building, to keep members engaged and loyal through slow seasons and beyond, transforming new sign-ups into the long-term, committed members who sustain a gym.

Asset Caption

This piece addresses member retention for climbing's niche audience, drawing secrets from successful gyms. The foundational strategy: build community, not as a single trick but as a core value applied across all facilities, operations, and services. Bend Rock Gym's Rich Breuner credits this gym-wide community focus for significantly dropping attrition since 2016.