This gym keeps 95% of its members

Happy Holidays Gym World,

Nick Palladino-King of Tribe Fitness in San Francisco averages around 95% monthly retention across two locations. In a competitive market with premium pricing, that number is worth paying attention to.

The interesting part is how that retention is managed day to day.

Most gym owners don’t ignore retention. It just isn’t always managed deliberately. Members often stop showing up consistently long before they cancel, and without a system in place, those patterns are easy to miss.

In the interview below, Nick walks through how he structures retention inside his business. You can watch the full conversation or keep reading for the key takeaways.

Someone owns retention

At many gyms, retention is treated as a shared responsibility. In practice, that often means there isn’t one person clearly accountable for it.

At Tribe, the head coach owns retention and oversees around 200 members, including:

• Noticing when someone hasn’t trained in a week

• Checking in around travel or schedule changes

• Reaching out directly to members when patterns change

• Staying closely connected with both members and coaches

• Sending notes or small check-ins when appropriate

Part of the head coach’s pay is also tied to retention performance:

• 20 to 25 percent of total compensation comes from retention bonuses

• Monthly churn targets are set in advance

• Bonuses scale with performance: hitting the target pays the full bonus, while higher churn reduces or removes it

This setup keeps retention reviewed consistently instead of only coming up when someone cancels.

How responsibility is shared across the team

While the head coach owns retention, other team members at Tribe still play a role.

Nick is clear about who on the team is responsible for what and how each role is incentivized. Compensation is structured around outcomes each person can influence:

• The person in charge of lead nurture is paid based on show rate

• The person handling sales is paid based on converting the right members

• The retention manager (head coach) is paid based on growth, with clear churn limits

• Coaches earn incentives tied to standards, consistency, and day-to-day behaviors

This creates ownership across the team and makes it easier to understand where issues are coming from when numbers change.

Retention is reviewed every week

The goal is to notice changes in member behavior early and respond right away.

Each week follows the same rhythm 👇

New members

The week starts with a review of new and recent members, where each member is assigned a color based on engagement:

• Green: showing up consistently and engaged

• Yellow: attendance is inconsistent

• Red: at risk of disengaging

This review happens as a team, so everyone is aligned on where follow-up may be needed.

Long-term members

Midweek, the focus shifts to long-term members.

There’s a clear expectation around attendance, with members expected to train at least two times per week. A report is run to identify anyone below that level:

• Those members receive a phone call from the team

• The conversation focuses on checking in and understanding how the gym can better support them

This process helps the team stay aware of any changes, rather than discovering issues only when someone wants to cancel.

Coaching quality

Each week, the team also meets to talk through coaching and how they can get better.

That conversation usually centers around things like:

• Are members actually progressing?

• Do coaches know what each person is working on?

• Is the experience consistent from session to session?

How numbers are used to manage retention

The weekly retention reviews show what’s happening with members. To understand why those patterns show up, Nick looks at a small set of metrics every day. He tracks:

• Leads and scheduled consults (around 500 leads per month and 40 percent scheduled)

• Show rate (around 30%)

• Close rate (50% minimum)

• Front-end revenue

• New members

• Lost members

• Churn (anything above 5% gets attention)

And when one of these numbers changes, he uses it to trace the issue back to a specific part of the business instead of trying to fix everything at once.

For example, a lower show rate often prompts him to look at lead quality or follow-up. An increase in churn brings attention to attendance patterns, coaching consistency, or communication. If members aren’t continuing past the initial 12-week program, that usually points to how the program is being delivered.

What this means for gym owners

A 95 percent retention rate doesn’t come from doing one thing well. It comes from having a few things clearly defined and consistently managed.

In Nick’s case, that looks like:

• One person accountable for retention

• Regular review of attendance and engagement

• Clear expectations for members and staff

• Follow-up that happens before someone cancels

If you’re trying to improve retention in your gym, a good place to start is with a few simple questions:

• Who’s responsible for retention right now?

• How often do you look at attendance patterns?

• What happens when a member stops showing up?

• Are expectations clear for both members and coaches?

We talked about a lot more with Nick beyond retention, including his business model, how he thinks about community, and how he structures his gyms.

If you want the full picture, I’d suggest watching or listening to the full interview on Gym World.

cheers,

j