{"id":714,"date":"2015-06-25T02:00:14","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/?p=714"},"modified":"2015-06-30T15:13:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T20:13:09","slug":"ihrsa-releases-one-million-strong-an-in-depth-study-of-health-club-member-retention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/ihrsa\/ihrsa-releases-one-million-strong-an-in-depth-study-of-health-club-member-retention\/","title":{"rendered":"IHRSA Releases One Million Strong: An In-Depth Study of Health Club Member Retention"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IHRSAIHRSA One Million Strong<\/p>\n

BOSTON MA<\/strong> \u2013 The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association released IHRSA One Million Strong: An In-Depth Study of Health Club Member Retention in North America<\/em>. Written by Dr. Paul Bedford and sponsored by Life Fitness, the report provides a comprehensive retention analysis of more than one million membership records.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor more than 30 years, IHRSA has measured retention and other club operating benchmarks in Profiles of Success,\u201d said Joe Moore, IHRSA President and CEO. \u201cNow, with IHRSA One Million Strong<\/em>, club operators have additional measures and insights to better understand the all-important metric of member retention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMeasuring retention and its associated factors are a vital element of running any successful health and fitness business,\u201d adds Dr. Paul Bedford, director of Retention Guru, who authored the report and research. \u201cThis report offers not only key related statistics, but also a retention benchmark to measure against, which will have a wider impact on the approach used to manage sales, marketing, and customer service.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report most notably finds that based on more than one million member records in the U.S. and Canada, 67% of members retain their memberships for at least 12 months. While there is very little difference in retention rate between males and females, results show that retention generally improves with age. Also, members on longer agreements tend to post better retention rates than those on short-term agreements.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Million Strong<\/em> shows that a long-term membership agreement may play an important role in keeping members on board and focused on their health and fitness goals,\u201d said Jay Ablondi, IHRSA Executive Vice President of Global Products. \u201cRoughly 75% of consumers on a 12-month membership plan remained members after 24 months, while only 35% of club goers on month-to-month agreements retained their memberships after two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

IHRSA One Million Strong<\/em> covers the following topics in-depth:<\/p>\n