How to Keep Clients for LIFE (The Secret of Retention)

There's an awesome book called "Retention Point" by Robert Skrob. Well worth checking out on Amazon

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However, I've studied the book cover-to-back, inside out, multiple times over FOR you.

AND, we've been implementing a lot of the key points into our fitness businesses.

So we can slash your learning / implementation time and get you the results faster.

Here's a breakdown of the main points, and how you can significantly increase your client retention (which is the KEY to profitability!)

Let’s get into it...

Where's Your Retention Point?

The first concept to understand is that there is a “retention point” - a specific benchmark in your relationship with each client where they emotionally decide they are “hooked” and will stick around.

Netflix popularized this concept, by analysing their deep data to discover at what point of a new series does the average viewer get “hooked”?

At what point does the viewer decide they WILL and MUST watch the whole season through?

A few years back, Netflix discovered that the retention point was around the 3rd or 4th episode of an 8-10 episode season.

The stats showed that if a viewer made it past episode 3 there was a huge probability they’d make it to the end of the whole season.

So Netflix then looked even deeper - what happened in that 3rd episode to hook viewers? What elements were present? Which were not? What were the patterns?

Once they discovered those elements (and they did), they specifically engineered new pilot shows to include those elements... inside the very first episode.

Essentially, bringing the retention point to IMMEDIATELY after the ‘sale’ is made (In this case the ‘sale’ meaning the viewers decision / commitment to watch the first episode of a new show (and while I can’t prove it... my guess is that Netflix and other film studios would now include as many of those ‘hook’ elements into not just their pilots.. but even into the trailers!)

But here’s the really interesting thing, that you and I should be thinking about as gym owners...

The decision to see the season through, or ‘stick with the service’ is made BEFORE the content or the service is even delivered.

Think about that.

Sometimes there’s a dip in a Netflix show, around the middle of the season where it gets a bit slow... but we stick it out. We have already committed to seeing it through.

The “Sunk Cost Fallacy” in action.

Of course if the show / service gets TOO horrible, then people will break that commitment and quit.

And with a live service such as ours, where it requires clients to do more than sit on their ass... then many other factors impact retention too. Of course.

Yet the principle stands - retention doesn’t come from only delivering your epic results and service as much as you might think.

So let me ask you…

What if we can discover what elements HOOK a person and generate their commitment before you even start doing exercise with them?

What if we can bring that retention / hook point earlier and earlier in the relationship... to dramatically increase the number of months or years a client stays with you?

How about engineering your business so that your “retention point” comes immediately after the first sale is made? Or even during a free trial?

We can, and we will.

Here’s how:

The 9 Elements To Create Your “Retention Point”

First we’ll reveal the 9 elements as identified in the book.

Then, I’ll show you how we’ve implemented them into our Client Onboarding system as well as into my online fitness business.

There are 3 overarching steps, or phases that contain the 9 elements.

The first 3 elements are wrapped in onboarding Phase 1, which I call: Inspiration.