By: FitRewards

Rewards programs are popping up all over the place – from your local coffee shop, large-chain grocery stores, department stores, cell phone providers, and health and fitness clubs.  Since the 1980s, when Customer Loyalty programs begin to appear, customers have now been accustomed to seeing rewards in a myriad of ways, from large to small; at every place, they are spending their money, with instant gratification.

Why are Rewards Programs so popular? Studies show that loyal customers spend more, purchase more profitable products and services, and are more likely to refer friends and family to that business. In other words, loyal customers are a company’s most valuable asset. Not only is it important for your brand to be rewarding your loyal members, you need to ensure that you have a unique rewards program that will entice your members to remain active in the program for the length of their membership in your club.

As a club owner and operator, this should get you thinking, “I want to build member loyalty, but I don’t know how;” “I have a rewards program I’m devoting countless hours developing, but I’m seeing no return;” or “I’m just struggling to acquire, engage and keep my members, let alone implementing a rewards program!”  And maybe, you have a rewards program, but it’s not comparable to what the other competitors are doing in the area.

With the start of a new fiscal year looming, you may be considering what is your financial and marketing plans are for 2015 to retain these new clients. The secret sauce is to create loyal members staring sooner rather than later with a memorable program. A loyal member is your link to generating more leads, spending more money, and engaging in more programs at your club.

Choosing a Rewards Program should include the three things: Meaningful, Memorable, and Easy to Achieve. Now is the time to start thinking outside the box and addressing your problems with solutions. The start of a New Year always brings in a new set of members to a club, looking to attain their goals for the New Year, and your existing members refreshing their perspective on their health and wellness goals. Instead of them trickling out the door and completely gone by mid-February, it is time to capitalize on that opportunity. The question is how to do this in the most effective, successful way possible?

Implementing a unique rewards program into your club makes generating referrals, driving retention, and creating an opportunity for additional revenue for your club services.  Most importantly is drives ongoing member loyalty and engagement.

What makes for a Unique Program?

Customize your program name to your club ? By calling your program (YourClubName) Reward Program and customizing it to fit your company culture; you are differentiating yourself from your competition.

Drive the actions you want – Know what your clients behaviors are and how you can inspire and drive them. For example you may want to create core users (members who use the club 100 times or more in a year).  IHRSA research has shown that core users having a longer tenure and spend more in your club. So go ahead, increase retention and member tenure by motivating members to use the club with reward points.

Customize your rewards – Your club can reward for many things, from in-club services like personal training, smoothies, apparel, and memberships; or you can utilize an outside source to fulfill for name brand products on headphones, jewelry, exercise equipment, handbags, and accessories. Research shows that the better the rewards, the more likely members will be to engage.

Make it part of your Marketing Program and Your Culture ? When you embed a loyalty program into all aspects of your culture and marketing you bring the fact that member loyalty is important to your organization. Members now look at your club as more of a brand they love rather than just a place to work out.

FitRewards has developed a customized rewards solution branded for your club. The customization starts with the uniquely branded program name, but in the behaviors your members are engaged with, and rewards offer with in-club services to draw attention back to your profit centers. FitRewards also provides the marketing and technical support needed for your club from Day 1 and for the lifetime of your program to continually platform that engages your members.

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The last fifteen years have been labeled the ?Age of Customer Entitlement.? Consumers feel that businesses who value their patronage through reward and loyalty programs are those who deserve their repeated business. Just ask yourself how many rewards program you?re a part of and how it effects your shopping decisions.

A recent survey concluded that 40% of health club members who participate in fitRewards say that they would join a health club with a loyalty program over one that did not.

Why points?

Points give the employee or customer many choices. They can be used immediately for rewards such as movie passes or an iPod shuffle or they can be saved and used for amazing big ticket items such as 50″ flat screen TV’s and life experiences like travel vacations and spa retreats. These rewards make a lasting and meaningful experience for your customers and employees that they will always remember and associate with your company.

What is fitRewards?

fitRewards offers health clubs a customizable online member loyalty program. Members will earn points for specific behaviors that they can use online to redeem for gifts and products or custom club services and programs. Members can log in online to see their points balance, refer friends to the club, and redeem their points for prizes.

How does it Work?

fitRewards is fully integrated with DataTrak, powered by ABC Financial. The fitRewards ABC Financial Web Service integration makes the rewards program fully automatic for clubs using the ABC Financial Software.

To learn more about how to create a custom loyalty program for your club with fitRewards and ABC Financial, please email Pam@fitrewards.com.

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