We’ve had a few requests recently for a monthly membership “somewhere in between” the 3x/week and the 6x/week. The rationale being that the 3-4 sessions per week on the former aren’t alway enough, and the 23 sessions in one month of the latter is too many.
After trying to palm this troublemakers off with the usual “buy a carnet” approach, I thought I would do a little more investigation…
We have offered a 6x/week membership pretty much since we opened in 2009. It’s never been our most popular option, but has its fans nonetheless. However when I did some analysis on the actual usage, an interesting theme emerged: on average only 18-19 of the 23 available sessions tend to ever get used – the rest simply expire, unused at the end of the month.
This seems a little wasteful to me. As Andrew and I have often (usually loudly and unprompted) said: if you (our lovely clients) are paying us good money to train, then we’d like you to actually…you know…train! We don’t want you to pay and not turn up. This is why we don’t offer 12 month contracts, for example.
So we’ve taken the decision to trim down the 6x/week membership slightly. Instead of 23 sessions per month, it is now 20 sessions. We have also reduced the price to £125 (down from £140).
This means that it can now be used as a 5x/week membership with the added flexibility of booking up to 6 sessions per week if needed.
Note: The product has been updated on the booking system and will take effect from the next purchase i.e., if you have a current 6x/week membership this won’t impact you.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for this Steven – this makes more sense for me. Sorry for causing trouble
Ditto
You are very welcome (troublemaker)!
Thanks for the feedback, and keep it coming! We do listen!
BTW – I was not suggesting that you remove the 6 a week membership – just that you add another product. I did not want you to take away something that others might find useful. Every time I have gone down the 6 a week route I have caused myself an injury!
Why not offer 20 session carnets (i.e without a fixed expiry) for the same price? That would certainly suit me. I habitually get the 3x per week membership in the hope that I will occasionally be able to go that often, but I find I am lucky at the moment to make it in once a week.
@phil: I think this is maybe pushing it a bit too far. There is already a very reasonably priced 20 session carnet on offer. I don’t think there is anything wrong with charging a premium for flexibility. If you only really make it once a week, so say 5 times a month buying the current carnet will already save you some 10 bucks per session.
sure sure – and it makes sense to reward the more regular users of the gym too……….
I just find the carnet costs less palatable even though by taking the monthly memb I end up paying more per session. I can’t escape from thinking that i ever do make use of my membership it will work out better value
I am just in the minority bracket where neither membership suits me. That’s not a problem (not everyone can be catered for) and it won’t stop me from coming!