The benchmark of a great timetable is to attract the equivalent of your membership base into weekly GX attendance. This means that 50% of your base is attending GX classes at least twice a week.
The fastest, simplest way to increase weekly attendance is to give people more of what they want. Perhaps counterintuitively, more variety doesn’t mean more attendance: research shows that 6 categories (or genres) of classes drives 81% of global group fitness attendance every week. In order of market share these are:
Strength and weights – 19%
Cycling – 19%
Dance – 16%
Mind/body – 15%
Core – 6%
Martial arts – 6%
What are you missing out on?
TOP TIMETABLE TIPS
- Allocating 1 program of each genre to 70% of your timetable. Schedule mainly in peak and shoulder time-slots. This will enable your club to maximise attendance.
- Complete your offer with few specialty ones (3 to 4), to offer variety and target niche markets. Don’t allocate more than 20% - 30% of your timetable to them. Schedule them in shoulder, peak/off-peak time slots
- Offer 10% service classes, such as introductory classes, classes that service a specific population for a period of time (e.g. pre-natal). Schedule these classes in off-peak time slots
- Don’t offer a program if you can’t offer it/fill it up 3 x week
BENEFITS
- Fewer classes allow better quality – quality helps build time-slots faster
- Easier for members to choose classes
- Keeps classes full – members aren’t spread too thinly across too much variety
- Fewer formats simplifies your timetable, instructor management and marketing
