Customer care and marketing to existing customers in the fitness industry: Increase customer satisfaction and reduce the cancellation rate with WhatsApp

Veröffentlicht am

06.03.2023

6 Min. Lesedauer

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Christian Strauch
Christian Strauch
Co-Founder and CEO
Group of people doing fitness training

As has been shown during the corona pandemic, dwindling members can pose a serious problem for the financial situation of many gyms mean. At that time, 2.4 million Germans canceled their membership, which reduced the number of paying customers for gyms almost suddenly by over 20% (Source: Statista). In this article, we will show you how companies from the fitness industry use WhatsApp to ensure that existing customers remain loyal to them and at the same time offer high-quality customer service.

Why WhatsApp and not email for customer communication?

With over 2 billion users, WhatsApp is the most popular messenger service in the world. In Germany alone, over 60 million people regularly use WhatsApp. In contrast to email, WhatsApp's user atmosphere is very informal, as most users communicate with friends and family via WhatsApp. When companies can be reached via WhatsApp, this creates a proximity to customers that is simply not possible with emails. As a result, customer loyalty can be increased.

This factor plays an important role not only in customer service, but also in marketing to existing customers. E-mails are too distant and too impersonal and are therefore not the right way to go as a marketing channel that is primarily intended to influence consumers' emotional buying behavior. With WhatsApp, similar to emails, Newsletter to be sent. Another advantage is that WhatsApp newsletters are guaranteed to reach recipients and are not sorted into the spam folder by the mail provider like many e-mail newsletters. Between personal messages from friends and family, your newsletter will get the attention it deserves.

Traditional marketing channels, such as email, are increasingly saturated. Many consumers receive dozens of email newsletters every week and delete most of them unread. In technical jargon, this phenomenon is called channel fatigue. As a marketer, there are only two options in such a case: Either emails can be further optimized in the hope that opening rates will increase by 1 or 2%. Or you can switch to a channel such as WhatsApp, on which there is hardly any competition yet. Statistics on the opening rates of newsletters suggest that the latter option is likely to be more successful. While email newsletters are only opened at all in 22% of cases for the reasons mentioned above, for WhatsApp messages sent by our customers it is over 90%. ‍

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Öffnungsrate WhatsApp Newsletter

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The excellent opening rate, combined with customer proximity on WhatsApp and the resulting significantly higher conversion rate, leads to significantly increased sales revenues. Various experience reports show that switching from email to WhatsApp newsletters can significantly contribute to company success. We have discussed exactly how your fitness company can set up and use WhatsApp newsletters in our article”How to WhatsApp Newsletter“described. By the way: hellomateo provides you with reliable evaluations and statistics on the behavior of newsletter recipients, which can be used to evaluate the success of your WhatsApp campaign.

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Reading tip: In our articles about the WhatsApp Business API, for WhatsApp privacy and WhatsApp newsletter marketing get more information.

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High-quality customer service in the fitness industry with WhatsApp

Operators of gyms and other companies in the fitness industry can offer high-quality customer service through WhatsApp. This is because customers can ask questions or have problems solved quickly and easily via the instant messaging service. WhatsApp offers the advantage that inquiries can be forwarded directly to a contact person who can then respond quickly and individually. This increases customer satisfaction and strengthens customer loyalty. In addition, operators can obtain feedback from their customers via WhatsApp and improve their offering or service based on this. They can also regularly obtain surveys or reviews via WhatsApp in order to receive direct feedback from their customers. Overall, WhatsApp offers gym operators and other companies in the fitness industry a modern and effective way to offer high-quality customer service and strengthen customer loyalty.

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Customer quote from Bechelte sports & med on personal member support via WhatsApp with hellomateo
A happy hellomateo customer

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WhatsApp newsletter for successful marketing to existing customers and sending important information

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Reduce the cancellation rate and increase customer satisfaction

Operators of gyms and companies in the fitness industry are often faced with the challenge of reducing the termination rate of their members. One promising way to address this problem is newsletter marketing via WhatsApp. This is because through direct and fast communication, operators can regularly inform their members about current offers, training tips or new course offerings and thus strengthen customer loyalty. In addition, you can conveniently inform your customers via WhatsApp about different gym opening times, any renovation measures, new equipment and any other important changes. The technical options are varied: If you even want to automatically send out the current workload of your gym upon customer request, this can also be implemented. WhatsApp also has the advantage that personalized offers and individual recommendations can be sent to increase members' interest and engagement. Through targeted newsletter marketing, the termination rate can be reduced and the long-term existence of the studio can be ensured. It is therefore essential for operators to rely on this modern form of marketing to existing customers.

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Upselling and cross-selling

Operators of gyms and other companies in the fitness industry can not only reduce the cancellation rate of members through WhatsApp newsletter marketing, but also actively engage in upselling and cross-selling strategies. Through personalized offers and recommendations, additional services or products can be specifically promoted in order to increase sales. For example, members who regularly sign up for yoga classes can be specifically recommended other courses such as Pilates or Zumba. Or you draw the attention of your customers to additional offers such as sauna, beverage packages or protein bars. By contacting them directly and personally via WhatsApp, operators can arouse members' interest and generate additional income. WhatsApp also offers the option of offering exclusive offers and discounts only to newsletter subscribers in order to further strengthen customer loyalty. WhatsApp newsletter marketing therefore gives operators an effective and modern way to implement upselling and cross-selling strategies and increase sales.

Screenshot eines WhatsApp Newsletters eines Fitnessstudios
With the WhatsApp newsletter, you can inform your customers about new services, products and discount campaigns. As a result, sales can be increased. Make sure you always offer customers added value.

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Implement customer communication and existing customer marketing via WhatsApp with hellomateo

We at hellomateo are your messaging experts when it comes to customer communication. Dozens of companies from Fitness industry Are already using hellomateo and are impressed. Our customers particularly appreciate the following benefits of hellomateo:

Auflistung der Vorteile der WhatsApp Business Platform
  • ‍Central user interface: hellomateo combines WhatsApp Business Platform, email, Instagram, SMS and Facebook Messenger in one central inbox. The intuitive user interface includes various tools for efficient customer communication and saves you valuable working time.
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  • integrations: With hellomateo, you can use WhatsApp in integrate over 6,000 software programs and fully automated Customer trips create with invitations, order confirmations, shipping information, invoices, and reminders.
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  • Newsletter marketing: Send GDPR-compliant Newsletter via WhatsApp or SMS and benefit from opening rates of over 90%.‍
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  • Assessment management: hellomateo can Automatically request online reviews from your customers, which boosts your Google ranking and trust in your company.
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  • ‍Data protection: hellomateo meets all German and European Data protection requirements and offers end-to-end encryption for secure customer communication.
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  • scalability: Our software is suitable for Businesses of all sizes and can be extended indefinitely depending on the package.‍
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  • ‍Diverse AI features: Our AI agent can automatically answer customer inquiries in chat, answer calls, help with the formulation of messages and much more.
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Arrange a non-binding and free consultation and we'll show you how hellomateo covers your communication needs! Simply book an appointment here or write to us via our web widget.

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