The Art of Retaining Clients in a Competitive Market

Feeling the pressure of a competitive market? In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield dives into the crucial topic of client retention. 

Learn proven strategies to keep your clients coming back for more, from delivering exceptional service and building lasting relationships to overcoming common challenges like market saturation and pricing pressures.

Discover the Art of Client Retention and gain the tools you need to build a loyal fan base and ensure your studio thrives!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Have you ever wondered why some clients stay loyal to a studio for years while others drift away, come back again, leave again? Building a loyal clientele is critical for any boutique fitness studio business and in today's competitive landscape, retaining those clients can often feel like an uphill battle. There is a lot of choices out there, so today on the Pilates Business Podcast, we are talking all about the art of client retention, and I'm going to be sharing strategies that will not only keep your clients coming back, but also turn them into passionate advocates and brand champions of your studio. Well, hi there, I'm Sarah. In Glenfield, I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you. If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact, you're in the right place. All you need are a few key strategies, the right mindset and some support along the way. Join me as I share the real life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio.

Speaker 1: 1:16

This is the Pilates Business Podcast. Welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm Sarah, and thank you so much for joining me here again this week. I'm so happy that you're here.

Speaker 1: 1:29

I today I'm talking about a topic that truly lies at the heart of every successful studio, and that is client retention. Now, what I have found and observed is that oftentimes studio owners or Pilates studio owners, specifically, I should say who work really closely with your clients, are really usually excellent at retention. And so many of you might think I'm not sure I need to list this podcast, sarah, but hold on, wait right there, because I do think this is something that, even if you don't feel like this is a problem for you right now, it is important, I think, for everybody, or for you, to really understand what it is that drives retention in your business, because what we know is that keeping clients engaged and loyal truly is essential for your long term success. And what I have to say, I have observed is that many studio owners are phenomenal at client retention, but there comes a point often, especially when you start to hire other teachers, that we start to see retention becoming an issue, and there's a lot that I could dive into there. I'm going to kind of try to avoid going off the tangent, but we want to make sure that you understand, you know, I want to make sure that you know exactly what is driving your retention numbers right now and how you can perhaps improve them. Is that you can actually see what you're doing and how you can perhaps improve them or be in control of your retention numbers going forward and I think in today's world you know you heard me talk about how much competition is in our space You're probably seeing studios open up in your town and we're seeing a lot of choices when it comes to wellness and well-being, and we know that people don't just pick one exercise method these days.

Speaker 1: 3:26

People are usually mixing things up a little bit, moving from thing to thing, place to place. Sometimes they will do various things across at all times, and sometimes they will go in sequence, in series, and they'll go from one studio to the next, to the next. So when you have this much happening in a market, when you have this much choice, how do you ensure that your clients keep choosing you? How do you stand out and build a community of clients who choose you over and over and over again? Because what I've seen is that this is not just about customer satisfaction, right, it's actually about truly creating a deep relationship and a bond between you and your clients that they can't find anywhere else. And that's truly where client retention is an art, because when you can understand your client's needs and you can not only deliver on their expectations but exceed their expectations, and you are very intentional about their experience in that it is a very positive one and very deliberate. You can truly create very lasting relationships that will stand the test of time, no matter how many other options are out there or what those options may cost. Okay, so this is where we want to be. I want you to be in a place where you are fully in control of your retention of your clients, and there is a lot that can be done here and I think that every single week, month and year, we're finding more and more ways that we can engage and connect with our clients. That helps us to support retention in your business.

Speaker 1: 5:14

So why does client retention matter anyway? Because you know, I know I talk a lot about getting new clients in the door, which is also super important, but retention truly is the backbone of your success, because a couple of reasons. Number one is what we know about getting new clients in the door is that it is more expensive eight more times more expensive to get a new client in the door than to retain an existing client. Okay, for various reasons. Number one being a retained client is paying you your full amount and a new client is probably paying you an incentivized discount price point, right, an intro offer price point. A new client might require you to spend a little extra time with them that you're not getting paid for, whereas a retained client is coming in for your session that you are getting paid for, your studio is getting paid for, and then leaving so across the board.

Speaker 1: 6:06

When we think about, how does it really stack up? When we say this, a lot of people use this statistic about how it's cheaper to keep a retained client than it is to get a new client. But that's what it looks like in your business, and I haven't even touched on the cost of advertising and marketing. Right, so new clients are more expensive for your business. Retained clients are much easier and much more, I would say, profitable for you as a business. Okay, so more cost effective to retain your existing clients. Now we also. What we also have found is that those loyal clients tend to spend more frequently and are more likely to refer new business to you. This leads to increased revenue. So client retention is not only a driver of revenue, because that client keeps coming back and buying more sessions and more classes or is an ongoing member, but those are the people who are also more likely to send their friends your way, so they are all bringing you more revenue into your business.

Speaker 1: 7:08

But perhaps the most important reason from a business perspective as to why you want to focus on client retention is to do with predictability of your income. A stable client base provides a foundation for sustainable growth and long term success, in that your business income and your revenue becomes very predictable, and when your income and your revenue is predictable, you can plan around that. You can decide how much you want to take out of the business for you. You can decide how much you want to invest in new equipment or how much you want to pay your instructors and your team. If you have not got predictability around your revenue or your income, then you start to find yourself in a bit of a feast or famine type of situation, which is like you are on this kind of rollercoaster revenue rollercoaster where things are up and down, some months you're making a lot of revenue and some months you're kind of well well under your expenses, and this doesn't really facilitate your ability to be able to budget effectively and it makes managing your cash flow a lot more challenging. So we love retention because it creates stability in your business and predictability in your business, so it cannot be ignored. It's super, super important, all right, so how do you get really good at retention?

Speaker 1: 8:27

Well, like I said, many of you guys who work very closely with your clients and that you have perhaps one on one sessions with them or you're in very small group classes, many of you already have really good relationships with your clients and let's just talk really quickly about why that is and how you might be able to leverage some of those things that you do in those sessions elsewhere in your business. Number one the reason why one-on-one sessions have such an exceptionally high level of retention is that they are very personalized. Right, if you are working one with one person, you're going to help them do their thing their way. That, for whatever it is that they're looking to do, and you're tailoring the session to them and their needs and you're responding to what you're seeing there. That personalized experience helps your client feel like they are in a great spot, that they have a great rapport with you, that you see them and their needs. And if we can take that and perhaps elevate it across more of what you're doing, then you probably will find that your retention increases and improves.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Catering to individual needs and preferences really really does help develop that strong bond, that strong relationship, and creates a strong sense of connection and belonging. So you want to personalize the experiences as much as possible. Now, if you have larger classes, you can still do that. Make sure you know everybody's name that walks in the door makes you know everybody's name, who's in the class. This is kind of fundamental in this world that we are living in today. You want to make sure that everybody in your class gets acknowledged and that's how you kind of establish that personalization in your classes.

Speaker 1: 10:03

Outside of your classes, when people are coming into the studio or leaving the studio, make sure you know their names, welcome them by name, say goodbye and then, outside of the walls of your studio, you want to make sure that you're personalizing a lot of the communication that you're having with them through all of the amazing automations and tools that you have at your fingertips to do that. So you want to personalize that experience as much as possible. You also want to make sure that the service and the way that you deliver and fulfill on your offer, the delivery of your services is exceptional. There is no room today for a mediocre or below average experience. Every single class has to be exceptional. You have to go above and beyond to ensure that you are meeting your client's expectations, but ideally, you are surpassing them, and you have a lot of opportunities to do that from the moment they find you to the moment they walk in the door, to the moment they walk out of their class, out of your studio and into their car. There is a lot of touch points that you can use to help elevate that experience for your clients. It's critical. This is where your competition is going to become, going to be a problem for you if this is not the way that you're doing things right now. So you want to make sure you're delivering exceptional service and you want to make sure you're personalizing the experience as much as possible.

Speaker 1: 11:28

Now, retention is also about communication. All right, and I cannot stress how vital the ability to communicate effectively is for any business In the world that we are in today. It is impossible to be successful if you are not a good communicator. So the more that you can invest in the way that you communicate with your clients the words, the language, the phrases, the copy, the stories that you are using is impactful and influential, and so you want to make sure that you are communicating effectively about what's happening in your studio, who your clients are when they are in your studio, what they, what you have happening in your studio and what it means to be a part of your studio. Community Communication is key. We cannot overlook this, and if you are delivering a phenomenal experience and you're personalizing that experience, then you're kind of part of the way there.

Speaker 1: 12:29

But the best way that you are going to be able to keep your clients active and engaged in your business is if you are able to communicate about that exceptionality that you have of your experience and about how personalized your experiences are. So you want to make sure that you're doing all of those things. Now, the big component of being really good at communication is about understanding your clients right, and if you've been through any one of my programs, you know that I am a big believer in not just knowing the demographics, like how old your clients are or what they like to eat for dinner, is not going to help you to build your business, but truly understanding what motivates your clients and understanding what their hesitations might be is going to help you to be able to be a better communicator. So you want to make sure that you are engaging and interacting with your clients on a regular basis in a way that helps you to understand some of those things more effectively, and this can look like surveys and feedback, for sure, but what I found is that the conversations if you are able to actively listen and perhaps get a little bit curious about their experience and their thoughts, will open up a whole new world and you might see things through a totally different lens. That might really support the way that you talk about what you do with your clients. Now, a community is also critical for your studio, and building that sense of community is going to be one of the things that will help to boost retention and keep retention high. So fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment where clients not only feel a connection to you as the studio owner, or their teacher, as the instructor, but also to the other folks within the studio this is where we find this is sort of like that secret source where you can create that sense of community in your studio. You'll find that people come back for more than just the workout. People develop friendships, people develop quite deep connections with people that they actually move with on a regular basis in a way that perhaps they may not do in other parts of their life, so it's important for you to observe that and to encourage how you can facilitate that in your business.

Speaker 1: 14:49

Now a couple of the challenges that you might be facing right now when it comes to retention. The one is market saturation. We are seeing quite a lot of competition. We are seeing people evolve and adapt and innovate around the way that they communicate with their clients and market as well, and I want you to be at the forefront of that, which is why I'm talking about this with you today. But there are people with very, very deep pockets in this industry, and I want to make sure that you are able to be relevant and profitable regardless of how deep your pockets are, and you can stay competitive and it truly is possible if you are focused on the right things in your business, and these things I'm talking about today are the right things. Focus on building strong client relationships, an exceptional experience, and make sure that you are personalizing that as well, and that will really help you to stand out perhaps from some other studios or larger franchises or larger organizations that don't quite have that same passion that you do. Okay, so that really is your secret superpower. Okay, so we are not going to worry about the competition, but we need to know it is there and we need to make sure we are not overlooking some of the things that we could be doing to make sure our business stays successful and profitable.

Speaker 1: 16:11

Now you might also see others play with their pricing and offer different pricing levels. Right, that you might feel impacts your business, and that's fine. We can let other people price whatever they want to price. I want you to price in a way that is profitable for your business, and let your amazing marketing messaging take care of the fact that you are actually different and unique, and what you do in your business is not done anywhere else, so your pricing is not comparable to the pricing of anyone else. All right, so the pricing pressures often come into play when we don't distinguish ourselves as unique and different from others. If people are pricing comparing you to others based on price, it's probably because you're not distinguishing yourself enough, either in your marketing messaging or in the service that you are delivering.

Speaker 1: 17:02

And I want to send you back to perhaps episode 157, which I shared a couple of weeks ago, about how you can innovate your programming, if you're looking for some ideas, okay. So I hope this was helpful to you, and you know, client retention truly is the lifeblood of your business, and when you can really hone in on the art of client retention and perhaps implementing some of these strategies that I shared with you here today, you can build lasting relationships, build that really strong, loyal client base and make sure that your studio thrives even in the most competitive world. Please, please, please, do not underestimate the power of very genuine connections and that wonderful and amazing and exceptional way that you do what you do. Like I said earlier, that really is your super power. So I hope this was helpful to you as you build your boutique fitness studio business.

Speaker 1: 18:03

If you enjoyed what you heard today, I'd be so appreciative if you could take a quick minute, go to wherever you're listening and rate and read this podcast. It really truly would mean a ton to me and would help to make sure that you continue to be supported alongside others in the industry and you are encouraged on your journey forward. Did you love this episode and want more? Head to Spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business. And, before you go, one last reminder there is no one way to do what you do, only your way. So whatever it is that you want to do, create or offer, you've got this. Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day.