30/60/90 Retention Interventions: The “Save System” Every Gym Should Run Weekly

Cancellations usually have a lead-up

Members rarely cancel “out of nowhere.” More often, you’ll see a pattern:

  • attendance drops

  • bookings stop

  • motivation declines

  • a payment fails

  • they disengage

A save system makes these signals visible and creates a weekly routine to act on them.


The 30/60/90 framework

Use three intervention windows:

30 days: protect the new member cohort (onboarding + routine)

60 days: watch for engagement decline (attendance and bookings)

90 days: reactivation and value refresh (goals reset, program review)

The goal is to run retention like sales: a weekly pipeline, not a surprise event.


Triggers: what to monitor

Common triggers:

  • attendance drop vs baseline

  • no bookings in the next 7 days

  • failed payment

  • negative feedback or complaint

  • paused membership without a plan

Create a weekly “save list” from these triggers.


Intervention ladder (keep it simple)

Use a four-step ladder:

1) SMS check-in

2) call + rebook

3) reset plan (coach involvement)

4) service recovery (if complaint)

The key is ownership. Someone must be responsible for completing interventions and reporting outcomes.


Case vignette: saving disengaging members

A club noticed mid-tenure members were “ghosting”—not cancelling immediately, but quietly disappearing.

They introduced a weekly save list and assigned one team member as the retention owner.

Even a simple step—calling members whose attendance dropped—brought many back because the gym showed care and created a plan.


What to track weekly

Put these on the scorecard:

  1. saves completed

  2. reactivation rate

  3. churn by cohort (0–30, 31–90, 90+)

If saves are low, the process is not being executed.

If reactivation is low, improve your intervention scripts and offers.

Common mistakes

  • Waiting until the cancellation request

  • No owner

  • Only sending emails

  • No measurement (you can’t improve what you don’t track)

  • Treating saves as “optional” instead of a weekly habit

Implement this week

1) Define your triggers

2) Create a weekly save list

3) Assign an owner

4) Write the 2 SMS templates and call script

5) Add saves completed to the scorecard

Then run it every week for the next month.

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