How much do slow replies cost you?

Inquiries a month × the share answered late or never gives the inquiries you lose the chance to convert. × the share who would have joined gives members lost each month. A member is worth their dues for as long as they stay, and the average stay is 1 ÷ monthly churn: at 5% a month, 20 months. Members lost × what each one is worth is the lifetime dues walking away each month. Personal training, retail and referrals are left out, so the result is on the low side.

Worked example, the calculator’s starting numbers: 60 inquiries a month with 30% answered late is 18 slow replies. 20% of those would have joined: 3.6 members a month. At $200 dues and 5% churn each member is worth $4,000, so that is $14,400 of lifetime dues every month.

Where the starting numbers come from, so you can judge them:

• 60 inquiries a month is about the pace ONE Boulder Fitness reached in its first weeks on its rebuilt site.
• 30% late is well under what KeepMe found when it mystery-shopped 45 fitness brands: 58% of email inquiries and 61% of Facebook messages got no reply at all.
• 20% joining is Two-Brain Business’s median: about a third of inquiries book, and about 62% of those join.
• $200 is typical dues at a Pilates studio, and 5% a month is the churn BFS Network sees dividing profitable studios from the rest.

The share answered late is the one number most owners don’t know. The quickest way to find it is to have someone message your studio at night and time the reply, which is the first thing our free audit does.