Where does a gym lose members?
At two moments. The first is the enquiry that gets no answer: the person who searched “gym near me” on a Sunday evening, found the site, and could not find out the price, the class times or whether there is a joining fee. Harvard Business Review’s audit of 2,241 companies found that a web lead contacted within an hour was nearly seven times as likely to be qualified as one contacted an hour later, and 23% of companies never replied 1. A gym that replies on Monday is in the last group as far as that prospect is concerned.
The second moment is the member who books a class, does not come, and slowly stops booking. The no-show research across 105 studies puts the average missed-appointment rate at about 23% and finds that a prior no-show is the strongest predictor of the next one 3. The member who misses twice is on the way out.
What does a chatbot do for a gym?
| Moment | Without | With a chatbot and booking system |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday 21:00 enquiry | Read on Monday | Answered; trial request taken |
| “How much is a monthly?” | A call during hours | The price list, in the chat |
| Booking a Saturday spin class | App or phone | Booked on the booking page, deposit taken, reminder set |
| Member misses two classes | Nobody notices | A reminder before each one, and a nudge to rebook |
| “Do you have parking?” | Asked forty times a week | Answered forty times a week, by nobody |
Do reminders keep members coming?
The evidence for reminders is healthcare evidence, but the mechanism is the same: a person forgets. The Cochrane review of eight randomised trials with 6,615 participants found that text-message reminders increased attendance compared with no reminder and with a posted reminder, matched a phone call, and cost less per attendance than the call 2. A class reminder the evening before, with one-tap confirm or cancel, fills the spot from the waiting list when a member cancels and keeps the member who simply forgot.
What about the January rush?
January is the month a gym’s front desk is busiest and its enquiries are most numerous. A chatbot scales to all of them at once: two hundred people asking about the January special get two hundred answers in the same second, and every one of them can book a trial session in the conversation. The desk handles the people in the building.
What should a gym’s chatbot never do?
Give training or medical advice, and collect more than it needs. A booking needs a name, a number and a class. It does not need an ID number or a health history, and under POPIA a gym that collects those in a chat is holding sensitive personal information it has no reason to hold. The Information Regulator can fine up to ten million rand 4. Keep the chat to bookings and questions; keep the health form for the induction, on paper, with a person.
What does it cost?
A website chatbot starts at R299 a month plus a R250 once-off setup, month to month; the plans that book classes and take deposits start at R1 199. The booking system runs from R1 299 a month. There is a free trial of fifty messages over seven days on the chatbot, no card.
Questions people ask
Can members book classes in the chat?
Yes. The booking chatbot shows the available slots, books the one the member picks, takes a deposit if you charge one, and sends the reminder.
Does it work with my existing membership software?
The booking system writes to a shared calendar or connects to the tools you already run through its integrations; ask us about yours.
Can it answer in isiZulu?
It answers in English and Afrikaans. isiZulu is best-effort, so test it with your members’ messages on the free trial (7 days, 50 messages) before you rely on it.
Sources
- Oldroyd, McElheran & Elkington, “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads”, Harvard Business Review, March 2011 (audit of 2,241 US companies)
- Gurol-Urganci et al., “Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments”, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2013 (8 trials, 6,615 participants)
- Dantas, Fleck, Cyrino Oliveira & Hamacher, “No-shows in appointment scheduling – a systematic literature review”, Health Policy 122(4), 2018 (105 studies)
- Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, section 109 (administrative fines) — popia.co.za