Why Your Sports Facility is Struggling with Customer Retention (and How to Fix It)

In talking with customers on a daily basis, we’ve heard many causes of frustration with current processes and the challenges business owners face. One of the most common challenges that come up in conversation is customer retention.

There are many different aspects that can affect a sports facility’s customer retention. An inability to understand your business’s pain points can affect not only short term business growth but also long term success.

So, how can you identify and understand the issues your sports facility faces? And more importantly, how can you implement a solution that keeps your business moving up and to the right? Here are a few common issues that we’ve seen related to customer retention, and how you can fix it.

1. Lack of a personalized experience

Many sports facilities fail to offer personalized experiences that cater to individual customer needs and preferences. When facilities fail to acknowledge their members and offer programs or services tailored to their individual needs and preferences, members often feel undervalued or overlooked. This disconnect can lead to diminished motivation, as customers may not feel that their specific goals, interests, or milestones are being recognized.

Offering personalized experiences, such as acknowledging birthdays, celebrating member achievements, or tracking progress toward athletic goals, helps create a deeper sense of connection and belonging.

These simple, thoughtful touch points, in addition to tailored training plans or unique membership perks, show that the facility values its members as individuals. Without these customized interactions, customers may be more inclined to seek out competitors that offer a more personalized, attentive experience. Ultimately, personalization is essential for building strong, long-term relationships and boosting member loyalty.

The Upper Hand software allows customers to quickly pull open a Client Profile for each of your athletes, letting you easily see their name, photo, most recent sessions, as well as why they are at your facility that day. The software also signifies (for all staff and coaches), when it’s an athlete’s birthday week or if they are new to the business, empowering you to tailor your greeting when they check in for training.

Upper Hand AI, Upper Hand’s data analytics platform, can help you dive even deeper into your client data, pulling out insights such as customer lifetime value, customer demographics, and more.

2. Inadequate Communication

Poor communication between your sports facility and your clients can be another cause of customer churn or disengagement. A lack of communication can lead to a lack of awareness about your programs and offerings, consequently leaving your customers to feel out of the loop and undervalued.

This can easily be avoided by implementing consistent communication, from marketing emails to announcements in your sports facility management software, ensuring clients are always informed about new classes, events, or special promotions. Without these efforts, members may miss out on opportunities that align with their interests, ultimately reducing their engagement and loyalty.

In addition to keeping customers informed, open lines of communication foster stronger relationships and a sense of trust between the facility and its members. Regularly requesting feedback and responding to questions or concerns shows that you value their input and are committed to meeting their needs. By actively listening and addressing client concerns, your sports facility can also prevent small issues from escalating into reasons for cancellation. Therefore, a proactive communication strategy not only keeps customers engaged but also demonstrates that your facility is invested in their satisfaction and long-term success.

Upper Hand allows you to not only market your events to all of your contacts (in just three clicks), but also allows you to segment your contacts who meet certain criteria. This empowers you to market programs or specials to specific customer groups that might find them the most relevant.

3. Competition and Alternative Options

The availability of alternative options – both indirect and direct competitors – can also affect your client retention. Other gyms, sports clubs, or online programs are all competing for the time and money of athletes and their families. An increasingly competitive industry makes it easy for customers to switch, especially if the sports facility’s management software markets those other facilities in their app.

When a client joins Upper Hand, they only see your business, your programs, and your pricing. This removes distractions and competition from the online booking experience. Clients cannot search for other facilities within your software, eliminating the ability to compare schedules or prices of your competitors within our app. This removes distractions and prevents direct comparisons, creating a focused booking experience that benefits your facility.In this way, Upper Hand provides an additional layer of protection against churn by keeping clients connected to your business and limiting their exposure to the broader competitive landscape.

4. Price Sensitivity

Price sensitivity is a significant factor in customer retention, especially in an industry where athletes and their families are constantly evaluating whether the value they receive justifies the cost. If customers feel that the services, programs, or overall experience they are getting from your facility do not match the price they are paying, they may begin to look elsewhere for more affordable options. This is particularly true in a competitive landscape.

One of the core challenges with price sensitivity is that it isn’t always about the actual price, but rather the perceived value of what customers are receiving. A high membership cost is more easily justified if clients feel they are getting exclusive access to top-notch equipment, personalized training, or other unique perks that they couldn’t find elsewhere. However, when facilities fail to effectively communicate or demonstrate the value of their offerings, customers may become disillusioned, questioning why they should continue paying a premium price for services that feel average or underwhelming.

This makes it critical for sports facilities to not only deliver high-quality programs but to also communicate that value clearly and consistently.

Upper Hand makes it easy to cater to your clients’ varying needs without changing your prices for the general public. With the ability to create coupon codes, you’re able to run promotions or apply discounts to specific membership or program payments, rewarding customers for their loyalty, capturing new customers, or even use it as a sort of “scholarship” for clients who may need a little discount.

5. Boredom and Lack of Variety

If your sports facility does not regularly update or adapt your programming to meet the changing needs of your clients, they may become bored with the routine and seek more stimulating environments.

Now, this isn’t to say that you need to overhaul your programming every season or completely change your business model. Rather, you should take a look at your current program performance to see which programs are your money makers, and which programs could be tweaked or eliminated.

Let’s say your business runs primarily on private lessons or facility rentals. You may consider offering a seasonal camp or clinic to create an opportunity for clients to engage with other members. Or, if you’re not looking to add a new program, you may consider ways to introduce a little healthy competition. For example, host a “Home Run Derby” over the course of a week or a month, where at the last 5-10 minutes of a lesson, you see how many hits an athlete makes, and record their number on a leaderboard in your facility. This fun challenge can add a little more engagement and keep clients around.

With Upper Hand, you have complete flexibility with your programming and pricing setup, from group training, classes, camps, short and long term clinics, private lessons, teams, and more! Additionally, Upper Hand AI can help you determine which of your programs are performing well (what do people like), empowering you to launch more programming that fits your clients’ preferences.

Related: SpeedSkills Hockey gains back time, implements new programs after switching to Upper Hand.

6. Overemphasis on New Customer Acquisition

Some sports facilities focus heavily on acquiring new customers at the expense of meeting the needs of existing ones. This can lead to high turnover, as existing members may feel undervalued or overlooked..

Long term members often expect continued engagement, recognition, and opportunities to grow within your sports facility’s programs. If they feel that the attention is primarily directed towards attracting new clients, they may start to feel undervalued, and even worse, question whether their loyalty is being reciprocated. This can lead to a sense of dissatisfaction, making them more likely to take their business elsewhere.

By taking proactive steps to continue engaging with current members, you can balance new client acquisition with client retention.

Sports facilities can use Upper Hand to implement loyalty programs or benefits for existing members, and makes it easy to track milestones and special days like birthdays. This recognition makes it easier for you to engage with your clients on a personal level, treating them as more than just a number. Additionally, features such as tiered memberships can help you provide membership benefits that meet the budget and benefit range of your athletes and families, allowing you to provide additional perks to higher-tiered members that strengthen retention.

Putting it all together

Inefficient sports facility management can cause headaches not just in terms of your operations, but also your client experience. From poor communication to a lack of engagement with longstanding clients, there are a number of reasons in your control that can affect your customer retention. Identifying the reasons that are affecting your business, and addressing them head on will ultimately improve both your operations and customer retention.

With the right management tools, such as Upper Hand software, you can ensure that your business not only runs smoothly but also fosters long-term loyalty, resulting in reduced churn and a thriving, loyal member base.

We would love to schedule some time to talk with you about how Upper Hand can help you improve your client retention. Book a demo today to connect with me or a member of our team on how you can give your business the Upper Hand.