Boost Your Class Numbers! 4x4 GroupX Challenge

Description

Members were challenged to attend one class in each of our 4 GroupX studios for 4 consecutive weeks.

August is usually a slow time for GroupX participation, so the challenge was designed to encourage class attendance and provide something fun to keep members engaged who were not busy with vacations and kids going back to school. It is also common to see many members who take the same classes week in and week out; they stick to their routines and don’t experience so much of what we have to offer in our GroupX program. We wanted to push people outside of their comfort zones and encourage them to try classes that they normally wouldn’t attend by asking them to take one class in every studio every week for 4 weeks straight.

• August saw our highest participation numbers of our summer schedule (May was 2,709/ June was 2,624/ July was 2,684/ August was 2,788)
• Members tried new classes and are sticking to them! Women who had never been outside the MindBody studio took HIIT classes, people who had never sat on a spin bike tried cycle classes, a young college student is now a regular participant in an evening Pilates class that typically sees only a 50+ crowd, and members were coming back twice a day to take morning and night classes, just to give a few examples.

Other clubs could use this idea exactly as we implemented it. Our prize was a month of free classes, so they might want to offer different prizes for people who complete the challenge. Our intention was to draw one winner from all who handed in completed cards, but we ended up giving away 2 free months to the 2 people who completed the challenge. Prizes or giveaways could be used for participation or completion instead, or feature winning members in club publications or on websites. For smaller clubs that don’t have as many studios, classes could be categorized (mindbody/strength/cardio/cycle/outdoor, etc.) rather than divided by studio location. There are many ways to tweak the guidelines to apply to any club.

Implementation

Instructors signed off on members’ participation on Bingo Cards designed for the challenge, and all members who completed their cards were entered in a drawing to win a free month of GroupX.
The winning members were also recognized in our weekly newsletter and on fitness center monitor displays.

Member BUZZ was fantastic. A number of members were disappointed that they couldn’t complete the challenge because they were going to be out of town. Members were talking in the hallways about who was the person to beat, and many stopped by the GroupX Manager's office to ask which classes they should try in different studios. Members requested to repeat the challenge again during another time of year!