New Years, take 2008

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January 4th, 2008

Ah, New Years. Time once again for those New Years resolutions. And, as always, one of the most popular for seemingly everyone is to get in shape.

Not surprisingly, local health clubs are “dropping their lines where the fish are,” and are pouring message after message into the marketplace in hopes of attracting new members. All of the clubs’ promotions seem pretty much the same, offering discounted membership up front to entice you in the door. The problem, of course, is that while the clubs’ membership numbers will swell over the next few months, a good number of those members will churn out before they lose that 15 pounds.

Our local YMCA is taking a somewhat different slant on the issue. Rather than promoting a discounted membership up front, they are making this offer: use the club for any 60 days over the next 6 months and they will refund your initiation fee. The YMCA is incentivizing new members’ use of the club, becoming de facto partners in their members’ success in keeping their New Year’s resolutions. This is an acknowledgement that a member who uses the club is more valuable than a member who joins just because it is cheap.

Is there something in this example you can take away for your business? Most definitely. It is to avoid the trap of thinking that once you convert a prospect into a customer that your job is done. Just as the YMCA is doing, it pays to treat new customers as “trial customers” and use the initial interactions with your company’s products and services as opportunities to prove your value proposition to them. The acknowledgement here is that one customer who uses his/her membership and sees value in it is worth more than a dozen customers who will churn out in a few months.