How Cedardale Health & Fitness Uses Keepme To Optimize Conversion Rates

About Cedardale

A family-owned, independent health club that first opened in 1971, Cedardale Health & Fitness is one of the largest clubs in New England, US, with extensive facilities that include gym and group exercise, tennis and pickleball courts, an array of outdoor pools, nutrition and wellness services that include programs for diabetes, older populations, ‘fit moms’ and more.  

Destroyed by fire in 2017 and then shuttered by COVID shortly after its 2019 reopening, this community favorite has nonetheless bounced back with a revitalized offering that now serves a more diverse customer base than ever, with 5,200 adult members and around 1,500 juniors.

The requirement: Gym lead management software
that captures the whole journey

An early adopter of Keepme – when the AI-driven CRM was a retention-only platform – Cedardale’s early use cases centered on identifying and reaching out to the at-risk members most likely to re-engage.

“We’d tried numerous retention strategies over the years, but for two main reasons, none of them really worked,” says Bolivar. “Firstly, frustratingly, we couldn’t easily get the data we needed out of our member management system, and what data we did get only really looked at low users. With Keepme, we’ve since learned that this group of members is unlikely to ever re-engage and that retention efforts are far more productively focused on medium-risk members.

“Secondly, the very manual way we did things back then saw us divide the low-use members among our department heads, who were each tasked with calling them. Initiatives like that would only last a month or two before they fell by the wayside because they weren’t the primary focus for those team members.”

She continues: “We introduced Keepme in December 2019, very interested to test its medium-risk approach to retention and excited by its ability to take all the data from our member management system, organize it and make it accessible and manageable. Then came lockdown a couple of months later and stopped all that retention work in its tracks.”

Bolivar was, however, already convinced of Keepme’s value to the business and began to explore other opportunities. “At that point, we didn’t have the best gym CRM software for leads and sales management. We had no robust system to comprehensively track and follow up on each lead. 

“There was also no good way to link ancillary revenue opportunities: tennis, nutrition, personal training, wellness consultations, and so on. The sales team had to transfer the lead to the relevant head of the department, who had to remember to hand it back once they’d acted on it. That didn’t work for us. We needed our gym lead management software to be seamless, capturing the whole journey from prospect to member.”

The best gym CRM software for ancillary revenues​

Working with Keepme throughout lockdown and praising the “can-do attitude” of the Keepme team in its product development, Cedardale, therefore, became one of the first operators to pilot Keepme Veritas (previously known as Keepme Sales).

Introduced to the club in July 2021, it proved to be perfect timing. “With our wealth of outdoor activities, summer is an important time for our club, but when we reopened from COVID we only had a very small sales team of two,” says Bolivar. “Nevertheless, with Keepme’s gym lead management software, we were able to work efficiently to maximize sign-ups.”

And even now, with a bolstered sales team, Keepme is proving invaluable. “Keepme’s superior ability to track every prospect’s journey makes our sales team’s job easier,” confirms Bolivar.

Cedardale does still use Keepme for retention: through Keepme Connect, members are segmented and accurately targeted based on what they do at the club, drawing on activity and class booking data to personalize campaigns and drive impressive email open rates of around 80 percent. “I really know I’m hitting my target market,” says Bolivar.

The club also uses Keepme automations for things like welcome letters – a phased campaign to introduce new members to all departments – and the Earn Back Challenge, where completion of a range of activities in the first 45 days of membership earns you back 50 percent of your registration fee. 

Keepme’s automated reminders about this challenge are “an important factor” in encouraging members to explore the diversity of the club’s offering, says Bolivar, as are the reminders that prompt personalized sales team follow-ups with new joiners. “Keepme is a great support system for our great product,” she adds.

For now, however – with limited human resources dedicated to retention – the focus is very much on Keepme Veritas, not just for membership but also ancillary revenues. 

“We can set up multiple tasks, in fact, staggered over a period of time until the prospect joins, and it’s all done within the same system, so we never lose track of the prospect journey."

“Within the gym lead management software that Keepme developed, if during our needs analysis, a prospect mentions an interest in nutrition, for example, we can now set up a task for the head of nutrition to contact them. It’s a valuable tool in helping us sell our add-on services.

“We can set up multiple tasks, in fact, staggered over a period of time until the prospect joins, and it’s all done within the same system, so we never lose track of the prospect journey. As the manager, I can also go in and see which tasks are overdue, which helps me guide my team and optimize our conversion rate.”

The goal now is to automate a series of additional touchpoints, so prospects aren’t left to go cold. “Humans get tired; the sales team naturally gravitates to the hottest leads. Automation can take over elsewhere to make sure we keep reaching out to the slow burners,” says Bolivar.

Driving efficiencies for an expanded sales pipeline​

“Our team has seen the impact of Keepme and has really bought into it,” confirms Bolivar. “Our sales manager and head of nutrition, for example, have all their email templates set up ready for when the trigger comes through to them. They tailor each communication to the prospect’s needs, but the core email is there, ready and waiting.

“Working with Keepme is such a great experience. They’re so responsive to our requests for product enhancements, which is brilliant, and having all the pieces of the pie in one place rather than in disparate systems brings everything together in a way that makes our lives easier."

She concludes: “Working with Keepme is such a great experience. They’re so responsive to our requests for product enhancements, which is brilliant, and having all the pieces of the pie in one place rather than in disparate systems brings everything together in a way that makes our lives easier. We now have seamless workflows to support our great product.”