Pilates Business Podcast

Why Clients Leave (and How to Get Them to Stay for Years!)

• Seran Glanfield • Season 21 • Episode 207

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The Secret to Retaining Clients & Growing Your Studio


In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield dives deep into a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of studio success - understanding and optimizing your client journey. While many studio owners focus on getting new clients through the door, what truly builds a thriving, sustainable business is what happens next.

Seran explores why client retention is the key to revenue growth and studio longevity, sharing insights on how mapping out your customer journey can transform the way clients interact with your business. From the first visit to becoming a long-term member, every step should be intentional and seamless.

Tune in to learn:
✅ Why focusing only on new clients can lead to a plateau in growth
✅ The three biggest gaps in most studio client experiences
✅ How mapping out your client journey increases retention and revenue
✅ Strategies to create a seamless, high-touch experience that keeps clients coming back for years

If you're tired of constantly chasing new leads and want to create a business that grows organically with loyal, engaged clients, this episode is for you!


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Speaker 1:

What if I told you that the secret to keeping your clients longer filling your classes and creating an incredible studio experience comes down to just one simple thing understanding your client's journey. Now, right now, you might be focusing on getting new students, new clients, in the door, but what happens once they step inside? Do you know exactly how they feel at each stage of their journey throughout your business? Are they getting what they need from you to be able to make that choice and that decision to become long-term loyal members? If you're struggling with retention or you feel like you're constantly having to hustle to get new clients in the door, then there's a good chance that your customer journey isn't mapped out clearly, and so in this episode, I'm talking all about why this matters so much and what you might be missing out on if you don't have this in your toolkit. Well, hi there, I'm Saren Glanfield. I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you. If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact, you're in the right place. All you need are a few key strategies, the right mindset and some support along the way. Join me as I share the real-life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio. This is the Pilates Business Podcast. Welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm Saran and I am so glad that you're here with me today.

Speaker 1:

Each and every week I love to share with you these tips, and I have to say this week's conversation is an important one because I think often when we are in business, we are so busy putting out the day-to-day fires, trying to react quickly and being as proactive as possible, that sometimes doing the deep work we need to be doing to really evolve our business strategically is often difficult to do on our own and difficult to know where to start. So I wanted to put together this kind of conversation for you because it's something that I talk about a lot inside of my programs and I think once we go through what I'm going to share with you today, it probably is going to perhaps open up some ideas for different ways that you perhaps might be able to improve or refine or upgrade or even implement new ways to interact with your clients. And I always like to sort of start this kind of conversation off by sort of just reminding us all that we are in a business of customer relationships. You're not selling a product that is a one-time sale. You're not selling a vacuum cleaner or a microwave. We're selling an interaction and experience and a relationship that I'm sure many of you hope to and I think I would encourage you to think about, as that relationship is something that you probably will have for months and often even years.

Speaker 1:

In fact, at the Thrive Retreat which I hosted just a few months ago for my Thrive members, we gathered together and learned a lot, shared a lot and got to dive into each of our businesses in a lot of depth. And one of the things that was just mind blowing to me from having those conversations with the studio owners there, when I asked the question to them, all of that was sort of in this topic, in this part of this kind of conversation, how long do your clients stay in your business on average? And I think it's an important sort of data point to recognize in our business because it obviously has an impact on our lifetime client value and that therefore has an impact on our revenue growth and so on. And some of those studio owners said that their average client stays for three to five years. Some of them had many clients who'd been with them for over a decade, but even so, this is not weeks that you're interacting with the clients, and the goal is to have them keep coming back, right. So this is why we want to make sure that we have thought very deeply about the experience that we're giving our clients, so that we are setting them up for success and our business up for success when it comes to designing that experience.

Speaker 1:

So if you're thinking like client retention or keeping people active and engaged in your business is a bit of a struggle, or perhaps you feel like you need to do so much more marketing because you need to get so many more new clients in the door just to keep things going, and perhaps, whatever you're doing right now, you're not really seeing a growth in your active client number, then this is a conversation that I think you're going to get a lot out of and something that I'd encourage you to think a bit deeper about, because when we talk about the client experience, we're talking about not just that one class experience. We're actually talking about their experience throughout their journey in your business, because they will evolve in the way they interact with your business. They'll change and shift the way they see you as a part of their life and lifestyle, and so before you tune out and think that sounds like a lot and maybe a little too deep, I want to tell you that spending time on this is one of the most powerful things that you can do to grow your studio and to keep your clients coming back, not just for a few months or a few months longer, but for years. And we know that that community of clients that know us well make the work that you do just so much more fulfilling, because they are excited about being in your studio, they refer their friends to you and it becomes this wonderful community of people who know each other and a great hub for interacting with others and making new friends and so on. And I'd say that what I see and observe most often for folks who perhaps are seeing a plateau in their business is that they tend to focus very much on getting new clients. Perhaps they're posting on social media more, perhaps they're spinning their wheels a little bit, even posting, running perhaps meta ads and maybe offering discounts, maybe even free classes, and the reality is that that was all a great way to fuel and feed that sort of top of funnel marketing.

Speaker 1:

But what happens after that first visit Are new clients smoothly transitioning to becoming sort of regular, frequent visitors in your studio. Do they know what they should be doing next? Do they feel nurtured and supported and even compelled to stay active in your business? Or are they coming in trying a class and maybe disappearing for a few weeks and leaving you wondering what just happened? What went wrong? Was it me? Do they not like me?

Speaker 1:

And probably my pricing is too high, and that's usually where people end up, and so this really is the missing piece of the puzzle. I don't want you to mess with your pricing. I don't want you to discount massively. I want you to charge exactly what you need to be charging to make the revenue and the income that you need, and without a mapped out customer journey, it's almost like expecting people to find their way through a city without a map or without their smartphone in hand. They might figure it out, but it will take a lot longer. They're going to get lost and confused or even just give up before finding the place they want to get to. So the good news is that when you've got a really clear, mapped out customer journey in place, a lot of things shifts for you and your clients.

Speaker 1:

What we see time and time again from the work that I do with my studio owners inside of Thrive when they go through this process, is that clients stay longer, your sales process is effortless, it's streamlined, it's authentic, it's genuine, it's organic and your business really grows without that constant, exhausting push for new leads constantly. And inside of Thrive I show the studio owners inside of there how you can do this, and today I want to share with you a little bit more about what that looks like, why it matters so much and what could be at stake for you if you don't have a customer journey in place. So I want to start off by saying, by answering the question is okay S you don't have a customer journey in place. So I want to start up by saying, by answering the question is okay, saren. What is a customer journey map? What is that? And you know typically what that looks like is?

Speaker 1:

Well, it can be a few different things. Depends on the way that you like to process information and design your business, but it is typically a visual, a strategic outline or map of the interactions that your client has with your business, from the moment they meet you or are aware of you, I should say to when they become that loyal, long-term client. Okay, and it really helps you to map this out. Sometimes I quite like to do it with just a pen and paper, going from box to box to box with arrows. They could go here, they could not come back to class. Then what happens? They could stay and come back, and then what happens? They come to the end of the intro offer and then what happens, and what it does is it helps you to see the business from the client's perspective, because, as we all know, when you're in your business it is often difficult to see outside, from the outside in, unless you're really intentional about it. And so doing this exercise really helps with that. And it helps to perhaps identify those specific sort of places in that customer journey, those specific touch points that are really pivotal to encouraging a client to coming, to come back into the studio.

Speaker 1:

And so what happens is, you know, what we find is that when you don't have this mapped out, clients feel lost and they don't. They are that you simply are not top of mind. For them typically is what happens. So there are sort of three key areas. I would say that often is what we see is missing when you don't have this mapped out, and so you know, we think about that new client, um, and they walk into the studio and they take a class and they love it. Maybe they had a nice time, they had a nice experience, they enjoyed their class, they enjoyed their session. But then they leave that class without perhaps an idea or a sense as to what they should do next, and so they step out of the door of the studio and they are getting back in their car and they're probably thinking to themselves great, and I need to go to the grocery store, I need to go and pick that up, I need to drop this package off there, I need to organize this, or I need to get to work and I need to work on that project. And maybe they have completely not even considered or contemplated what might be next for them when it comes to their movement practice. And if there's no clear next step, they're more likely to leave and to perhaps forget to come back and never come back, even if they loved the class.

Speaker 1:

And the truth is that most people need a little bit of encouragement and need a little bit of guidance. They need to be shown the way forward and if they are left to figure it out all on their own. They often simply won't do it, and I think you know we can just look at our own habits. You know, yes, we might be really good at thinking about when we're going to work out next, because, let's face it, we all really like to move our bodies. That's why we do what we do, right. But you know, if there was something that you didn't love as much yet, you're probably not going to stick with it without a little bit of structure or a plan or a roadmap, and you know your clients are kind of the same way. And so, inside of Thrive, what we do is we put together that path, with all of those touch points mapped out, that keeps clients engaged from the moment that they get in touch with your studio, from the first moment that they book a session, from the first moment they step through the door, and I take you through the process of deciding exactly and getting very intentional with what you want your clients to know at each and every touch point about your business to facilitate that long-term relationship.

Speaker 1:

Now, without a customer journey in place, I often also see that there's a lot of time wasted with and not only time, actually money, too, with chasing new clients and trying to get new leads, and so, without that customer journey, you might find that you're constantly thinking about how many new clients I can get in the door. You're always looking for the next discount, the next promotion, the next ad to run, and you're probably pouring a lot of energy into attracting new clients, which is a good thing. We want to get new clients and we definitely need to fuel our business with new clients, which is a good thing. We want to get new clients and we definitely need to fuel our business with new clients. But the problem is, if they don't stay, you're stuck in this endless cycle of more marketing, more promotions, more hustle, because you are simply just replacing the clients you're losing on the backend. And so what we know about business, and this business specifically, is that retention in our business, in studio businesses, is where real growth happens, and so if you keep more of the clients that you already have, your revenue will grow, because you are going to continue to do that marketing, but you're going to be adding to your business instead of simply replacing those lost clients, and so it won't be necessary for you to spend as much time and you won't feel quite so stressed and maybe not spend as much money on finding new ones when your retention is really nailed down.

Speaker 1:

And so think about it for a second. What would your business look like if you, even half of your new clients, stayed for a year? Oh, my goodness, think about what that would look like in terms of your revenue and your stress, and if you knew that they were going to stick around because you had the process in place. Well, that's what we do inside of Thrive. We build out those strategies that makes retention easy, and we do it in a way that is tailored to your unique business model, because there is no one way to do this, but we do need to find the right way for your business, and the goal is that we see consistent growth over time, so you're not stuck at a plateau but also completely exhausted. So we want to make sure that we have all of these details wrapped up and I think that the other part of this of course, we can be strategic about our retention efforts and mapping out that customer journey, but we also want to make sure that the studio experience is what you want it to be, and often that studio experience is inconsistent for clients and when that happens, it does have an impact on that trust and that interaction and that engagement and the way that a client thinks about your business.

Speaker 1:

So if you've ever been in a situation where you have been a client of, let's say, a hair salon and you had a great cut there one time and you had a great experience, the the the person who took care of you was fabulous and really, really nice and genuine. You had a great chat. He did a great experience. The person who took care of you was fabulous and really, really nice and genuine. You had a great chat. He did a great job. Your hair looks fantastic.

Speaker 1:

But perhaps the next time you go in, you meet perhaps with the same stylist and not so good, and when that happens, often you probably feel like a little bit oh okay, a little bit disappointed. Perhaps you're wondering if you should go back. Perhaps you're wondering if you should try the other place that you've heard is pretty good down the street, and so when we have this inconsistency in a client experience, it doesn't support long-term retention. But when clients know what to expect, or when the everything is mapped out and your client knows what's coming next, knows what to look for, and you've designed that experience with so much intention that it is upheld across your studio, no matter who is delivering the service, who is taking the class teaching the class, who is sitting behind the front desk taking the class teaching the class, who is sitting behind the front desk. Then you have a system in place that are designed specifically to keep your clients engaged, and so a mapped out customer journey that is intentional around the experience you want for your clients will help to ensure that every single client gets the same level of care, of guidance and of support each and every time they visit your studio, because, when it comes to retention, trust is everything, and so, inside Thrive, we work on refining those systems, on those processes, and I show you how you can train your team and what you can do to support your team in delivering a very consistent, seamless, intentional and high touch fantastic experience for your clients.

Speaker 1:

So if you don't have a customer journey mapped out right now, then you know you, your clients, might be feeling a little bit lost and you might find that there is retention issues in your business, and if you have some of what I've said to you today has felt like, maybe you're wondering if this is something that you might want to spend a bit of time on, then that's a sign that it probably is. And if you're in a place where you are constantly chasing new leads because you can't seem to grow your business, even though you have clients new clients coming in the door, then I would probably encourage you to look at your retention practices, look at your customer journey, look at the experience and the touch points that you are that the places you're interacting with your clients, the touch points that you are, that the places you're interacting with your clients. And the good news about all of this is that this is actually something that is very easy to fix, and when you fix this with a very well designed, intentional customer journey and customer experience, it truly changes everything. And when I say everything, I mean how enjoyable you find your business to. First of all, because it no longer is stressful and and you're never wondering if it's going to keep going or not. You're not wondering if your revenue is going to drop next month. You know that it's. It's solid, rock solid and sustainable. But you also will see a change in your revenue growth and, ultimately, when you are not optimizing your retention practices and retention strategies, then you're probably leaving a lot of money on the table.

Speaker 1:

I help all of the studio news inside of Thrive and I want to help you, too, to make sure that you are indeed optimizing all of your retention efforts and that you are not leaving any money on the table, and so I walk you step-by-step through the process of mapping out your customer journey that is unique to your business, with each and every touch point designed to intentionally guide your clients forward to that next step. And what we find, when you're intentional about this, is that retention really becomes effortless, your marketing works so much better and your studio really grows in a way that is sustainable and again enjoyable, and also perhaps even allows you to take some time off. So if this episode perhaps made you wonder if this is the missing piece in your business, then I'll invite you to get in a call with me and we can talk about how Thrive will be able to help you. And inside of Thrive, you'll go get the exact framework that I've been using with studio owners for the last 10 years to create a seamless, high retention client journey so that your business finally starts working for you. Now you can learn a bit more about Thrive.

Speaker 1:

If you go to spring3.com forward, slash Thrive. I'm going to also attach in the show notes a link to that too. Go check it out and then get in touch and we can set up a call and talk it through. So the truth is that enhancing your client experience doesn't have to be overwhelming, because when you have that clear map, you can really pinpoint where to focus your efforts. That will help you to boost retention and create an environment and atmosphere in your studio that is enjoyable for you and your clients and that keeps clients coming back and again and again and again, and so I encourage you to take some time this week to perhaps map out your customer journey. I promise you it is absolutely worth it, and if you need help or have questions, like I said, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Speaker 1:

You are not alone in developing and growing your business here at all. So I hope this episode of the Pilates Business Podcast really was helpful to you, and if it was, please don't miss another episode. Hit, follow or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Did you love this episode and want more? Head to spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business. And before you go, one last reminder there is no one way to do what you do, only your way. So whatever it is that you want to do, create or offer, you've got this. Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day.