According to Vanessa Jodar, head of global sales and club performance at Les Mills, very few fitness facility managers truly understand how to offer stimulating group exercise experiences that will continue to keep members engaged.
In fact, because group exercise members tend to be regular, motivated attendees already, they’re frequently left to it. The studio is too often seen as an add-on to the club, a scheduling task – juggling popular classes against peak times, studio capacity and instructor availability – rather than the very heart of the offering.
But with the loyalty of group exercise members driving improved retention rates, and with it profitability, it makes commercial sense for operators to engage with group exercise. So how can operators better use the power of the studio to promote their clubs? How can they push up participation, ensuring as high a percentage of the membership as possible takes part in classes, rather than just the old faithfuls? How can they sell the studio, both internally and externally? And how do they maintain consistent instructor and class quality? We ask the experts…