The Member Retention Playbook

Gym membership is bouncing back, but one in three gym-goers still drop off every year. Here are six data-driven steps to retain members at a higher rate and cut down on silent churn.

The member retention challenge

Gym culture is bouncing back. According to IBISWorld's latest Gym & Fitness Centre Operation in Australia report, industry revenue is forecast to reach $3.71bn in 2026/27, rising to $3.87bn by 2031. It’s a promising recovery after a tough stretch where rising costs and tighter household budgets pushed revenue down by an average of 2.1% a year over the previous five years.

Average monthly membership fees climbed from $62 in 2023 to $77 in 2025 – a necessary correction for operators, but one that's made affordability the single biggest barrier to joining, with 72% of non-members citing cost as the main reason they haven't signed up.

Getting people back through the door is one thing; keeping hold of them is another. The Health & Fitness Association's Industry Benchmarking Report has the global annual member retention rate at 66.4%, meaning one in three members are leaving every year.

It's a hurdle most operators recognise: rising costs and growing competition are making every member who walks away more expensive to replace. And perhaps the biggest issue is one that's easy to miss: silent churn. A report from the UK found around half of all cancellations happen silently, with members either dropping off or cancelling payment without ever telling you why they've left.

The good news is retention isn't random. The data out there shows that operators who hold onto members the longest tend to be doing a handful of things well – and many of them are easily actionable. Here's what's working in today's market.

1. Your onboarding process matters more than you think

The onboarding process is often an afterthought for gym owners. It might be brushed aside by seasoned gym-goers making the switch to your club, but it's far from an inconvenience for newbies.

In fact, the earliest weeks of a membership do more to decide its length than almost anything else. IHRSA data found that 90% of fitness studio members value genuine greetings, suggestions and encouragement from staff, and that members who train in groups are 50% less likely to cancel than those who train alone.

If your current onboarding process is a generic once-over tour, it's worth reconsidering. Carefully structured inductions could be the difference between easily-daunted newcomers coming once or settling in as a regular.

What this means in practice: Drop the surface-level walkaround of every machine in the gym in favour of tailored, value-minded introductions for every member. That could include:

• Personalised focus on the member's fitness background, past injuries, lifestyle and fitness goals.

• Targeted equipment demos relevant to the member, with a form and safety check on key machines.

• Etiquette guidance, like reracking weights, wiping down machines and sharing during busy periods.

• Essential facility orientation, including the changing rooms, lockers and fire exit.

• Check-in messages in the first few weeks to track progress and buy-in.

2. Build a community people don't want to leave

The community aspect that comes with going to the gym regularly is increasingly significant to a growing share of members.

ABC Fitness's Mid-Year 2026 Wellness Watch report found that 67% of active consumers say fitness communities increase their motivation and accountability, with community emerging as one of the strongest indicators of long-term engagement. That lines up with the IHRSA claim that members who train in groups are 50% less likely to cancel their membership than those who train alone.

This isn't limited to any one age group, either – gyms that build genuine social connections tend to see the benefit across their whole member base, not just with younger joiners.

What this means in practice: Build community-driven aspects in your gym. Grouped formats with named trainers, buddy sign-ups, and shared challenges are all great ways to help members recognise one another. Encourage staff-member relationships where possible for solo users and newcomers.

3. Specialise rather than compete on everything

Boutique and specialist studios built around one or two disciplines done well, rather than a bit of everything, look to be where the next wave of growth is coming from in the Australian fitness market.

IBISWorld's report forecasts the number of gym and fitness businesses to grow by 4.9% a year to 2030/31 – substantially faster than overall revenue growth – and expects most of that growth to come from boutique or small-scale operators specialising in a particular training craft. With women accounting for 54% of fitness memberships, reformer Pilates and yoga studios are two niches that are well-placed to benefit from rising demand for premium, lower-impact fitness experiences.

Rather than trying to be all things to all members, picking a lane (for example, strength training, HIIT, Pilates, Hyrox, or martial arts) increases your chances of locking down a particular market, and often brings the community aspect we've already discussed with it.

What this means in practice: Finding a corner of the market doesn't have to mean you need to rebrand. Traditional gyms can borrow the boutique logic by building a smaller number of high-quality signature classes or specialisms rather than spreading instructor time and resources across a widespread, generic timetable.

4. Spot the warning signs that members are falling off

Separate analyses covering both UK & Ireland and US gym members independently found that members slowly stop showing up before they cancel. In some cases, that window of time can be as much as five months. That consistency across different markets suggests ANZ providers also have a significant window to notice declining visit patterns in a member, long before the cancellation actually happens.

If you can identify a drop in visit frequency, lapsed bookings, or other behavioural signals that a member is losing interest, you have the opportunity to attempt reengagement while there's still time to change the outcome.

What this means in practice: If you can afford it, there are various specialised software platforms out there built for gyms and studios to track attendance, highlight drop-offs and manage class bookings. Having these sorts of analytics to hand will help you to react in that relatively lengthy drop-off window. If not, and you run a smaller operation with a tight member base, even paying attention to who is and isn't coming through the door on a regular basis will help guide your outreach and reengagement activity.

5. Make recovery part of your offering

Recovery has become a much more conscious part of the gym experience for many members, and these days goes beyond a solitary foam roller in the corner to an element people actively choose a gym for.

At the top end of the market, features like red light therapy, cryotherapy, and dedicated stretch and mobility spaces are increasingly commonplace, which indicates members are no longer treating recovery as a separate practice away from the gym. IBISWorld's industry report backs this up, naming recovery facilities, reformer Pilates, coworking areas, nutrition services, and wellness programs among the features increasingly built into premium Australian club offerings.

What this means in practice: Of course, a cryotherapy chamber isn't going to be on every small gym's list of additions, but there are plenty of ways to acknowledge recovery as a priority without heavy investment. Adding in mobility and recovery-focused classes alongside high-intensity sessions, or simply creating dedicated space for stretch and cooldown, can signal the same intent without a massive outlay.

6. Ease the pain of paying

Half of your departing member base leaves silently. On the one hand, consciously cancelled payments aren't something you can do much about. Cost-of-living pressure has been a very real factor impacting the domestic fitness market the past few years, and sometimes members simply can’t afford to continue.

However, our research found that over a quarter of Australian SMBs estimate losing up to $6,000 a year to late payments, with one in ten losing between $12,000 and $30,000 – and 55% expect the problem to get worse over the next year. Some of this silent churn is down to payment friction, which is one of the most avoidable reasons for members dropping off. These are payments that fail without the member knowing due to factors like insufficient funds or an expired card, rather than affordability concerns. Essentially, these are failed payments from customers who don't actually want to leave.

It can hit harder than it should, too. Dishonour fees (charges on payment failures due to the payer having insufficient funds) can range from $5 to $35 a time, which can be over half the value of the original payment itself. Dukes Gym in Victoria found their members were being hit with dishonour fees of up to $20 without the gym even knowing it was happening, on top of the embarrassment of an unprofessional-feeling customer experience.

With payments, it's about controlling the controllables, which in this case means avoiding non-conscious, unnecessary payment failures and unfair fees on top of them. If you can do that, you'll be directly attacking a silent churn issue that genuinely damages both your revenue and your relationship with members.

What this means in practice: Getting visibility on why a payment failed – and actionable solutions to combat it – is key. If a member's card has expired, it's a simple fix. If a member has insufficient funds and is facing financial hardship, a more nuanced solution like a payment freeze or pause option may be desired over a full cancellation. One of the best things you can do is move your payments to Direct Debit to take care of everything automatically. More on that below.

Let Direct Debit do the heavy lifting for you

GoCardless is built for gym owners like you who take recurring payments from a potentially massive member base. With Direct Debit, your payments are collected automatically and reliably. Plus, with features like Success+, we intelligently retry failed payments when they're most likely to be successful.

The result is an average payment success rate of 97.3% and a drastic reduction in your back office admin. If you'd like to see what it's like to get paid on time without lifting a finger, you can try us for free for 90 days.

If you'd like more guides, advice and general pointers around how payments should work for gym owners, head back to our gyms and wellness hub.