So, you’ve taken the plunge, paid your fee and joined a gym.  Congratulations!  You have taken the first step on your journey of transformation. Nowadays, that fee may even be very low, as many fitness centers have chosen to take a very personalized service and turn it into a commodity.  In other words, they give you a pass to get in the door in return for paying a low membership fee. They have adopted the strategy to compete mainly on price with little consideration of their customer’s very personal goals and limitations (i.e. injuries, recent surgery, etc.,) not to mention key elements to any long-term fitness program such as proper nutrition and a long-term change in lifestyle to avoid the ever common ups and downs in weight management. While that strategy has been successful for several companies and may work fine for people who are experienced and simply need access to equipment, there is cause for improvement from the perspective of both the business owner and certainly, the customer. So, let’s talk about that from both sides: First, let’s face it, you’ve seen it or experienced it yourself – a person makes a New Year’s resolution or vows to finally get in shape – only to give up or become frustrated and quit.  In fact, the average gym membership at a traditional fitness center is 6 months or less. So why does that happen and what is the impact on the fitness center owner? Well, the new gym member is excited, but typically only knows that they want to lose weight or create a leaner, more muscular physique.  However, though they have a vague concept of the “destination” they desire, they lack the proper “roadmap” to lay out their journey of transformation, not to mention the ongoing coaching, mutual accountability and techniques to go beyond the limits of their personal knowledge and motivation. Furthermore, they are often neglected in the ‘big-box’ gyms and fail to receive the appropriate training to utilize correct form when exercising as well as the necessity of proper nutrition. As a result, the member either gets hurt due to improper form, gets bored or fails to accomplish their goals – then gets frustrated and quits.  Now, the gym owner loses revenue and is forced to spend more money on advertising to hopefully replace that customer. So, how is Tapout Fitness different? Tapout Fitness focuses on a simple equation for success – ATTRACT and RETAIN More Customers Faster. First, we leverage the awesome power of the Tapout brand – a global, iconic brand with powerful, household name recognition to attract more customers faster. If you are reading this post, then you probably know that brand recognition is one of the fundamental advantages of franchising. However, it typically takes a franchisor many years and $millions in advertising to build national brand awareness. On the other hand, Tapout Fitness offers the very rare opportunity to get in on the ground floor with a brand that provides immediate name recognition.  In addition, Tapout leverages strategic partnerships with entertainment giants such as the WWE and Roc Nation to enhance brand recognition, while selling a wide variety of Tapout merchandise through the world’s largest retailers.  This means greater brand awareness to drive more customers to our Tapout Fitness centers – all at no cost to our franchise owners. Click here to review our Tapout/WWE/Roc Nation Presentation: Power of the brands The Power of a Tapout Marketing Event: SummerSlam Event The second half of the “Success Equation” is increasing customer retention: As mentioned, one of the advantages of the fitness industry is the ability to create a recurring revenue stream through monthly membership fees that accumulates as you add new members.  This is a tremendous benefit over many franchise concepts that require the business owner to constantly advertise to replace customers as they are a “one and done” purchase, or must spend substantial advertising dollars to maintain top-of-mind awareness to compete for consumer expenditures on a daily basis. However, customer retention among fitness centers varies according to the franchise concept depending on a number of variables. Tapout Fitness utilizes a wide variety of strategies (too many to list here) to maximize customer retention to build recurring revenue. First, unlike many “boutique” fitness centers that only offer a singular, or very limited, fitness program – Tapout Fitness offers a wide range of fitness platforms including strength training, cardio boxing, personal and class training (and more), as well as  Tapout Martial Arts to provide an all-one-one fitness center for the entire family. Now, parents can take their children to Martial Arts while Dad lifts weights and Mom enjoys a cardio workout.  As a result, we increase recurring revenue through higher family memberships (i.e., increase “average ticket” per customer), as well as dramatically increase customer retention as martial arts typically enjoys an average customer retention rate of 4+ years. In addition, Tapout Martial Arts creates additional revenue opportunities for our franchise owners through belt testing, merchandise and equipment sales, summer camps, and more.  We are also able to promote lifetime “brand ambassadors” that are loyal to the Tapout brand starting at a young age. Tapout Fitness is offering Single, Multi-unit, Tapout Fitness Express and Master franchise opportunities.  Now is the time to learn more while the best locations and territories are still available.   Chris Otter SVP Development Tapout Fitness Call (912) 635-2928 Email: Franchise@tapoutfitness.com Website: www.TapoutFitness.com ← Marilyn Monroe Spas Shines at the Multi-Unit Franchise Conference Why Consider Fitness for your Clients? →