A Simple Tactic To Prevent BJJ Members From Cancelling

Many BJJ gym owners believe generating more leads is the key to growing a profitable Jiu Jitsu gym.

But retaining your members is the foundation of scaling a gym. If people are constantly leaving, you’ll only be playing catchup with new leads.

Keeping your retention rate high gives you a chance to actually build onto your membership and grow.

So, having systems in place to retain members is smart business strategy, and here are a few ideas for that.

But, there is one simple tactic you can use not only to keep members longer, but to learn why they leave in the first place.

Do exit interviews.

Why Do Exit Interviews?

An exit interview is a simple way to ask a leaving member about their experience at your gym. You can perform interviews in person, which has benefits but requires time, especially if you don’t have a dedicated person for this. It can also be uncomfortable for both parties.

People may be more inclined to be honest if the interview is not in person.

Instead, you can send them to an online form where they can fill out an honest evaluation of your business.

A few sample questions to ask are:

1. How would you rate your experience overall at (gym name)?

2. What would have made your experience more beneficial?

3. Why did you decide to cancel your membership?

You can ask anything you’d like to get a better understanding of how members perceive your business.

Then, identify any trends in the responses and address those things in your gym.

This gives you a chance to fix those issues to prevent people from leaving in the future.

Winbacks and Counter Offers

The exit interview also gives you a chance to win back departing members.

People won’t always be honest face to face about why they’re leaving. But the online form gives an opportunity to get to the root cause of their cancelation.

You can use this to counter their cancelation with a winback offer.  For example, if they are cancelling because of money, you can offer a temporary discount to retain them.

If they are cancelling because they’re not getting enough personal attention, offer a discount on private sessions.

If they are cancelling because they’re getting injured too often, offer them a strength and conditioning program, or connect them with a partner physical therapist to address their issues.

If they are moving, offer access to your online database.

The opportunities are endless to win back leaving members, but exit interview gives you the chance to do that.

Final Thoughts

The exit interview provides a ton of value to your business in the form of customer opinion data, as well as retention opportunities.

They also prevent an awkward interaction. Simply inform anyone who wants to cancel that the process begins with the form online.

Direct them to the link and tell them after they complete the form you can process the cancelation.

Then, use the data you collect to counter their reason for leaving, or process the cancelation and use the data to improve your gym so more people don’t leave for the same reason.

Overall, the exit interview will improve retention, give your gym a chance to grow, and improve your business overall.

If you need help setting up your exit interview, book a call here.