The Future of Loyalty & Rewards for Gyms
The fitness industry has experienced significant changes in recent years, mainly due to the 2020/21 pandemic. With gyms closed, fitness enthusiasts adapted by creating home workout spaces and using online classes. When gyms reopened in April 2021, many had shut down, but the industry rebounded and is now thriving, with the UK’s independent gym sector valued at approximately £625 million.
Despite facing challenges like the cost-of-living crisis and increased competition from public gyms, private gyms remain valued. Effective loyalty and rewards programs have been key in engaging members, improving retention, and attracting new ones. These programs must stay relevant and innovative to remain competitive.
The future of gym loyalty programs includes greater personalisation, integration with wearable tech and apps, and a focus on sustainability and social consciousness.
Personalisation
Personalisation to engage customers and consumers is of huge importance nowadays. It’s everywhere – on the adverts you see when you pick up your mobile phone, on all your social media, displaying the types of images and information you want to see based on your activity, it will even come to television advertising in the near future so it won’t be a surprise that loyalty programmes will become entirely personalised.
Technology is so advanced that thanks to artificial intelligence it knows you so well that it can pinpoint what you want to see, when you want to see it and why you want to see it. Thanks to AI, gym loyalty programmes will be easy to personalise, tailoring benefits to each individual based on their fitness preferences, their ability, their attendance, their likes and dislikes, restaurant/café use and even their preferred brands. So, rather than generic rewards, it will be possible to tailor all or some rewards according to each member
Wearable Technology
To follow on from personalised reward programmes above, wearable technology will be integrated into reward schemes in gyms, to track progress and to work together with AI to tailor the right rewards accordingly but also to incentivise the right goals for each gym member based on their own data.
We’re already doing this with some of our clients but it’ll develop massive in the coming years! Imagine a truly personalised fitness program that rewarded the member for achieving certain milestones, based on their goals, fitness levels, age etc.
Members are not a one size fits all and wearable tech will give you a whole extra level of data to create a more rewarding experience.
Better integrations
Loyalty reward programmes are already moving towards slicker integrations into gyms eco-systems, and these will become more important than before, especially in terms of the above (using wearable technology and personalising the entire loyalty experience).
A desire for a single source of truth for member data alongside better member experiences means poor integrations will become a thing of the past. Days of having to log in to a separate loyalty platform will be gone and we’ll be glad to see the back of them!
More exciting rewards
Going forward, more gyms will identify the rewards they offer as a way to differentiate themselves from their competitors and it is believed that more attention will be placed on the types of rewards members can access. The majority of rewards right now are on big brands like online retailers or travel companies.
We’re already seeing a shift to more relevant rewards that members actually spend money on, but this will go further. We’re talking hyper-local rewards, that take into account where your member lives. A discount on the coffee shop on the way to the gym? Yes please!
Also more gyms will empoy ‘experience-based’ rewards. For example when a gym introduces a new fitness concept or craze, they will be able to offer it as a try-it-first reward for their members.
Gamification
Gamification is becoming more important for rewards’ programmes and will increase. The integration of gaming into non-gaming environments (such as gyms and fitness clubs) will grow – members look for something engaging, this is the ideal way to keep them interested.
Introducing challenges and leader boards with your rewards creates an environment that entertains, encourages repeated engagement, boosts loyalty and its social too – because it builds community.
Encouraging Sustainability
Sustainability and an environmentally friendly world is of paramount importance today, especially for millennials and GenZ, so it seems logical that it will become part of the future for gym loyalty programmes.
People are genuinely concerned about a greener future, we’re seeing hotter, wetter summers, melting ice caps, wildfires, air pollution, extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels. Sustainability is a word used in every industry sector – and should also be used in gyms too. Loyalty programmes are a brilliant way to not only highlight the importance of an eco-friendlier world, but also to show that your gym is on-board.
Furthermore, adapting your loyalty programme to embrace sustainable ideas is a superb strategy in today’s environmentally-conscious market. This is because it displays shared values. People like to feel that the brands they use share their principles, especially as 88% of consumers change their habits according to social responsibility and environmental impact.
So you’ll see more ideas such as trading in old fitness gear in good condition for rewards or credits. For gyms with cafés, you will see more initiatives like using reusable cups to purchase coffee – 5 reusable cups = one free coffee!
Social Impact Incentives
Following on from above, another area that is growing in importance is social consciousness. Expect to see more loyalty programmes aligning with social impact incentives, for example, brands will become integral in giving back. Here’s one idea - encouraging members to complete 10 workouts and in return, the gym donates a meal to a needy person. This instils a sense of purpose for members (and your gym too), gets them into the gym, plus it gives back to the community – win-win!
To Wrap It Up
Loyalty programmes are only becoming more important for the gym and fitness industry. Going forwards, they will adapt and evolve according to the advance of technology, the needs of GenZ (and others too) and taking into account social consciousness/environmental factors. Your gym members want more than added value, they want a brand that resonates with their own beliefs and principles, engages with them, builds community and gives back. Loyalty programmes are an outstanding mechanism that in future, will cover all of the above and more. You can find out what’s in store for gym loyalty programmes and what we can do for you by getting in touch with the Endurance Zone team here.