Zen Planner is turning the tide on gym member retention by providing personalized communication and strategic touchpoints during critical membership phases

For 10 years, Michael Wuest successfully managed a CrossFit gym in Columbia, Missouri. Despite generating 50-100 new leads per month, he faced a stark realization about retention in his first year: 50% of his membership base churned, predominantly around the six-week mark. 

This alarming trend prompted a deeper investigation into the customer experience. Wuest discovered that the primary reason for member departure was the overly busy classes, which led to inadequate individual attention and a disconnected experience. To address this, he focused on the critical first 100 days of membership, identifying key communication needs to enhance personal engagement. 

He found that 30% of departing members felt neglected in the bustling environment. He designed a framework for the first 100 days, mapping out the customer journey to identify key interaction opportunities supported by strategic touchpoints via email and SMS. He created feedback loops, prompting member check-ins at the 2-week, 30-day, 6-week, 60-day and 90-day marks.

These comprehensive measures significantly improved member retention by seamlessly integrating new members into the gym community and ensuring a consistent and personalized client experience throughout their journey.

Being Solution-Oriented 

For a CrossFit owner or any gym owner or operator retention is the castle, and the right type of deeply customized communication at the right time is the key.

The issue then becomes time. What CrossFit owner or yoga studio operator has the bandwidth to maintain highly personalized strategically-timed communication with every member? 24/7?

Enter artificial intelligence (AI).

Wuest set out to develop a solution, and 4 years later, co-founded UpLaunch, a marketing automation and CRM platform that utilizes AI for personalized communication, marketing campaigns, and more.

Using UpLaunch, his retention rates jumped to 90%. UpLaunch – now called Zen Planner – grew to $1.5MM annual recurring revenue (ARR) and was acquired by Daxko in January 2020 with Wuest becoming the vice president of marketing for the SMB Division.

Wuest says that given his past, he is determined to help gyms win at the retention game, and he believes AI is a key component to making that happen.

Michael Wuest, VP of Marketing, SMB

Creating Stickiness

“AI can be used in so many ways, and can act like an owner or operator’s right-hand man, picking up much of the work that goes into communication, marketing, follow up and more so gym owners can be on the floor – where they want to be – working with members,” he says.

He points to the critical first 100 days of membership previously mentioned.

“When I realized the impact of the right communication and touch points in those first 3 months, I saw a huge opportunity to transform new members into brand ambassadors rather than losing them.”

Wuest touches on the psychology involved in the onboarding process, and how critical it is to be supportive. 

“Anyone joining a new gym typically has a little anxiety,” he says. There are thoughts of ‘Am I fit enough?’ “Do I view myself as a CrossFitter or a student of the Dojo?” These individuals are vulnerable, but they joined the gym for a reason. If you keep fueling that fire, you can turn it into an inferno.”

Wuest created a way to communicate and share information that makes it easy for fitness business owners to understand and use. It is Zen Planner’s Engage feature, and it meets each new member where he or she is and cultivates them with highly personalized content at just the right pace and cadence.

“This playbook helps gyms virtually walk alongside members, orienting them, checking in, and more,” he says. “After 6 weeks, once members have found their footing, we prompt them to write a social media review, solidifying their membership mentally and publicly while promoting the gym. It continues from there.”

Clearly, once a member moves past their first 100 days, retention measures don’t stop. Wuest says AI gives gyms the power to execute highly personalized life cycle marketing campaigns that continue strategically throughout each membership.

“It’s important to remain in lockstep with members even when they aren’t in the gym, and AI can do this by delivering customized content, check-ins and more,” said Wuest.

AI Assistant 

Wuest says AI is a valuable asset that provides operators and owners with continuous, critical feedback on each member’s experience, allowing for refinements and enhanced retention rates.

“AI can monitor a member’s attendance consistency, results, engagement in different areas, and more,” he says. “If a member’s attendance drops, AI can alert the owner or operator and even handle communication to get that member back. It’s a built-in trigger.”

AI-powered chatbots are another valuable tool for gyms.

“Bots can handle typical Q&A, answer questions about the gym, membership packages, pricing, and more, and identify leads, placing them into the sales funnel immediately.”

Wuest sees great value in this for both gym owners and prospects.

“The name of the game is speed to lead,” he says. “The faster a prospect’s questions are answered, the better. Often, these questions come in late at night. It’s impossible for a gym owner to respond 24/7, but a bot can.” 

Bonus: The bot also compiles the types of questions they receive so the owner can address pain points in their marketing. 

Digging into the Data

Gyms have long used CRM tools and software to gather data on their members. That’s marketing 101. Now, gyms can use AI to act on that data, eliminating time spent pouring over reports.

“AI can build predictable models to determine when someone may be considering canceling their membership, versus an owner or staff member mining the attendance data and guessing when a member might be on his or her way out.”

Beyond retention, this ability can translate to upselling.

“These predictability models can help gym owners identify which members might be ripe for PT, or other services the gym offers.”

The Virtual Road Ahead

So what does the future of the fitness industry look like, with AI?

“AI will continue to unlock more tools for gyms to build profitable businesses,” Wuest says. “It will save owners an immeasurable amount of time while helping to foster deeper, more personal relationships between members, the staff and the gym.”

He also says AI can feed into other marketing resources for significantly better results and efficiencies.

“Systems like Zen Planner can be integrated with paid media for deeply-targeted prospecting – reducing costs and delivering superior results,” he says.

In the end, Wuest holds true to his passion and mission to help gyms win.

“I have lived the life of a gym owner and it’s not easy. Not by a longshot. So we use technology and AI now to make gyms more profitable, buy back time for owners and operators and help them to live a better life. That’s been my mission for many years.”

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