How a Rewards Program Can Benefit Yoga/Pilates Studios

Are you eager to boost the amount of yoga enthusiasts attending your studio, or create a bit of hype around your Pilates classes? Sounds like you need a rewards program!

While it’s natural to focus on customer acquisition when you’re brainstorming ways to drum up more business for your fitness studio, customer retention is actually the name of the game.

Just like hair salons, car washes and your local coffee shop, fitness studios typically see a larger portion of return customers than, say, a furniture shop or a car dealership!

So if you’re already seeing a healthy batch of familiar faces coming back week after week for more yoga or Pilates sessions, it might seem counterintuitive to focus on customer retention instead of customer acquisition. In fact, a well-designed rewards program will improve both.

Remember, a rewards program isn’t about repeat spending… it’s about increased engagement.‍

Imagine that your fitness studio has a digital loyalty program app that members can download, and receive a “point” or “stamp” in the app every time they attend a class. Upon accruing X stamps (generally 10 or 15, but the number is up to you) they can redeem a free class at your studio, and their stamps reset to zero.

In a retail or hospitality setting, this digital form of the classic “punch card” system keeps customers coming back a 2nd, 5th, and 30th time.

But for a yoga or Pilates studio, it rewards attendance and incentivises students to stay motivated.

The lure of a free class is enough to keep your customer base actively engaged.

But who says your rewards program needs to be so two-dimensional?

What if your studio attendees could also earn points towards a free class for posting an online review, referring a friend or posting pictures of themselves enjoying your classes and tagging your studio on social media?

What if they could use their points to redeem other rewards, like free branded towels, water bottles and yoga mats? What if you held occasional competitions for loyalty program members who attend 10 classes within a three-week period, where the winner gets sent on an all-inclusive trip to a yoga resort?

These incentives do more than simply encourage your attendees to keep coming back; they create a community around your studio, and help foster an emotional connection with your brand.

This is crucial, as customers who feel an emotional connection with a brand have a 306% higher lifetime value and will recommend that brand 26% more often.

This is where a loyalty program improves your customer acquisition. Rewarding customers for behaviour like recommendations, referrals and social media engagement allows your loyalty program to become a more powerful tool than traditional forms of advertising. It uses your existing customers to attain new ones.

So… What other cool things can you do with a rewards program for your yoga/Pilates studio?

To get your new loyalty program off to a winning start, you might find it beneficial to partner up with another local business that typically shares many of the same customers.

For example, a juice bar that sells 100% organic smoothies right across from the street from your fitness studio is likely to attract many of the same people who regularly attend your yoga or Pilates classes. Why not approach this business with a proposal to offer customers a shared rewards program where points accrued at the studio can be redeemed for smoothies, and vice versa?

Those who regularly visit the juice bar but never come to your studio might be swayed to use their accrued points for a free class, and subsequently sign up.

Just like that, you’ve earned yourself a new repeat customer for no higher cost than a free class.

Directly engage your fitness studio members with a digital loyalty app

If you’re serious about a highly effective and remarkably convenient loyalty program that engages customers on a whole new level, then a digital loyalty app is the way to go.

By implementing a loyalty app that customers can quickly and easily download and sign up to, you can start tailoring your rewards to appeal to each customer’s specific needs, thus offering everyone who attends your fitness studio a truly personalised experience.

For example, the expecting mother who has been taking a “Pregnant Yoga” class every Thursday for six months is likely to be interested in redeeming her accumulated points for a 15% discount on all your “Mother & Baby Yoga” classes in the near future.

As for the twice-a-week Pilates attendee who slots the classes in around his busy university schedule, perhaps he’d be inclined to redeem his points for a free trigger ball so that he can stretch his muscles at home before or after class.

A mobile app-based loyalty program allows your business to gain valuable customer insights based on data points such as what classes a customer typically takes, what time of day do they prefer to book classes, what days of the week do they visit, what accessories they’ve shown an interest in, and so on.

It also facilitates stronger personalised communication between your studio and each individual customer, along the lines of:

• “Hey Joanne, coming in this Thursday? We’ll be focusing on alignment and strengthening your core.”
• “Hey Neil, spring is upon us! To help you bounce back from a winter of hibernating, we’re offering an exclusive Spring Cleaning Detox Class for three weeks only – get involved!”
• “Hi Anna, we miss seeing you around the studio… come in anytime this week for a free class to help you get back into the swing of things!”

Stamp Me Loyalty Solutions provides businesses of all kinds (from yoga and Pilates studios to coffee shops, nail salons and multinational pharmaceutical companies) with the ability to operate a digital punch card and directly engage customers through a highly interactive platform straight to their mobile devices.

Our customisable rewards solutions make it possible for businesses big and small to boost brand loyalty and increase customer retention.

To discuss how Stamp Me can help your yoga or Pilates studio see higher customer retention rates, speak to a friendly member of our team today.