First Visit Retention Strategies
First impressions are critical on any first date! What can we do to better ensure that the first visit experience with a new friend at our boutique studios is a great one, meets their needs, and makes them want to come back for more? So they can really feel the benefits of your life enhancing services and your business can be a vibrant one with a dedicated community.
First Visit Retention Goals
When you look at brand new clients or first visitors to your wellness business, a good goal to shoot for is to try to get 70% of new students to come back for a second visit, at least. This means 30% likely won’t come back after that first visit. Average first visit retention for a wellness business is 50%, meaning 1 out of 2 new clients don’t come back for that second visit. In order to be viable businesses we need to optimize the life cycle of our clients interactions with us and this is the first step in that phase.
Here are some of my favorite ways to optimize the amount of new clients who come back for more than one visit.
First Visit Retention Strategies
Value Proposition
Lead more with value. Have you thought about why clients are coming to you in the first place? What pain points are you helping them address? Make sure that first experience addresses those pain points head on. For example, with my barre studio fitness classes I help mature women stay strong and flexible and feel connected to community. We immediately talk about how each move makes them strong and/or flexible. We use names often and connect before and after classes. Keeping these things in mind is critical to meeting prospective clients needs well in every single session.
New Student Pricing Option
Do you have a pricing option that is designed just for new student clients? We know money is often a barrier to entry, so have something that is designed for them, that is 25-50% off regular price, that is more than one session, is a great strategy. You want your introductory offer to be in the same style as your ongoing pricing option that you’d like them to buy thereafter. For class based, wellness businesses, this is usually a one month intro offer at 50% off. For appointment businesses it’s 2 for 1 or 3 for a set price. I have seen one month intro offers out perform shorter duration intro offers like 1 week for class based businesses.
Community
Do everything possible to help them feel connected and inspired during your sessions! Use their name, and check in with them before and after class. Even better, try to get them to sign up for their next session before they leave that first session. Remind them to do so in your app or help them do it. If you have fuller / busier classes, perhaps you can get some of your rockstar members to take on a role of “new student liaison cheerleader”. Give them a bunch of free swag in exchange for helping new students during their first sessions. Our members are usually happy to help.
People need and want what you and your business are offering - improved health, wellness, and sanity! Lets do everything possible to help them create habits that will help them be better. I would love to hear your favorite strategies or questions below!