DR JOHN MORGAN

PHOTO: WWW.SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/ANTONIODIAZ
Members who interact with
staff are more likely to make
progress against their goals
Figure 3.
Proportion of members reporting the frequency of fitness
staff interaction by length of membership
cancelling Yes it does: for members
who report either high or low progress
in recent months, the risk of cancelling
each month reduces with the frequency
of fi tness staff communication (see
Figure 5, p58). However, the impact of
fi tness staff communication is greatest
among members who report lower
levels of progress. Members who report
lower progress but who are always
spoken to by fi tness staff are half as
likely to cancel each month compared
to members who report low progress
and who are never spoken to by fi tness
staff. In fact, if all low progress members
were spoken to at least frequently, 10
per cent of cancellations each month
would be avoided. This is equivalent to
16 saved memberships each month for
every 1,000 members you have.
The risk of cancelling and the chances
of making good progress with goals are
strongly related to how long people
have been a member and how frequently
they use the club – so it’s possible
these two factors are what explain the
reduced risk of cancelling, rather than
fi tness interactions and progress alone.
However, Figure 6 shows the absolute
risk of cancelling during the seven
months following the completion of the
TRP 10,000 questionnaire, after taking
account of how frequently members
visit and their length of membership.
For members who report high progress
and always being spoken to, there’s
approximately a one in 10 chance they
will cancel, compared to a more than
one in fi ve chance of cancelling among
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
12.4
17.8
39.0
30.9
15.2
18.4
37.1
29.4
17.1
20.6
38.3
23.9
21.5
23.5
35.0
20.0