3 Ways Top Gyms Create Raving Fans Using Their Net Promoter Score

Gyms that excel at capitalizing on their Net Promoter Score tend to implement the same three strategies.

Your health club’s raving fans might be hiding in plain sight.

Knowing your Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the best ways you can identify the raving fans who will promote your brand, spend more money at your club, and recommend their friends to join.

Better yet, your NPS will also help you determine which members are indifferent and which are unhappy with their relationship with you. Why is that a good thing? Because that knowledge sets you on the path to turn those groups into more raving fans.

“People who are indifferent are a prime target group to move from indifferent to raving fans,” says Mike Hills, general manager for The Retention People. “And at the other end of spectrum you have the people who are really not fans—they’re not happy with their relationship with you. And knowing who those people are means you can do something about that.”

“Knowing your Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the best ways you can identify the raving fans who will promote your brand, spend more money at your club, and recommend their friends to join.”

In his experience, clubs that excel at extending the power of NPS have implemented three primary strategies:

1. They put NPS at the very center of their business.

“They’re wholeheartedly invested in the Net Promoter process, and part of that is applying a very systematic approach to gathering feedback and acting on it and responding it to it,” he says. “Although NPS stands for ‘Net Promoter Score,’ we talk about the ‘Net Promoter system,’ because where it’s used most effectively people are implementing an entire system around NPS.”

That means running surveys at different times for different reasons. Leading clubs will survey certain members about their relationship with the club, particular visits, and interactions with staff members.

2. They close the feedback loop.

“Once you have feedback, the people who are setting the example have got really creative ways of closing the loop,” Hills says. “They take the score and act on it by responding to the customer.”

This response can range from a software-generated thank you email to the manager calling the member directly.

3. They act on the feedback insights.

Once all the feedback has been gathered and the loop has been closed, leading clubs make changes based on their members’ complaints, concerns, and suggestions.

Club owners who make investments based on NPS feedback tend to improve their score, Hills says. That's because if, say, several members bring up concerns about the locker room showers, odds are even more members feel the same but aren’t speaking up. Instead, they're quietly unhappy with their experience. So by investing in new tiles, plumbing, and fixtures, you're paving the way to turn a good amount of indifferent members and detractors into fans.

Author avatar

Marianne Aiello

Marianne Aiello previously served as IHRSA's Senior Digital Content Manager—a position focused on crafting and monitoring IHRSA’s digital strategy and covering IHRSA events.