UK - 'Time to Reply' Fitness Industry Study

Slow Response Times On Inbound Fitness Leads Are A Problem.

Lead response times can make or break a membership sale. This may or may not come as a surprise to you. Either way, we’ve got some pretty eye-opening facts we want to share.

When fitness prospects actually reach out to your club or leisure centre, their intent to join is at its highest. So there is a certainty of reply expectation, and so too is the demand for a quick follow-up message. Both of these interaction elements are crucial to sustaining your potential member's interest.

Slow responses can cause intent to fade, while non-existent replies leave a poor and potentially last impression of your brand - driving your prospective members toward more responsive competitors.

So, fast, efficient (personalised and informative) replies are essential if you want to maximise the number of membership leads your membership sales team have to convert. This means every potential member needs a prompt reply to solidify them in the funnel. 

The lesson here? 

Speed to lead wins.

In fact, did you know that leads responded to within 5 minutes are 100x more likely to ‘connect’ and converse with you, and 21x more likely to convert into genuine opportunities? For the remainder of this study we will refer to this 5 minutes as 'the golden window'.

Being in the business of gym prospect and member engagement, and arguably obsessed with the customer journey, we set out to determine the state of the industry in this area. As such, in this study we set out to answer the following questions:

1. How many clubs typically respond to membership enquiries with 'real', non-automated responses?

2. What are the average response times for those replies?

3. What opportunities are missed due to slow response rates?

4. And how could you improve your ‘speed to lead’?

UK 'Time To Reply' Study Highlights

In July 2024 we set out to answer these questions. As such our study comprised 313 emails, 247 Instagram messages and 258 Facebook messages to fitness clubs across the UK.

Certainty of Reply?: Between 42% and 54% of all email and social media enquiries went unanswered. Demonstrating that there is no 'certainty of reply' across any of the 3 channels in the UK fitness industry.

Quick follow-up messages?: Email enquiries took over 11.5 hours to get a response! Social Media faired considerably better with Facebook messages taking on average 12.29 mins to respond, while Instagram prospects could expect a reply some 22.8 mins later. So a mixed bag of performance in the 'quick follow-up' arena - undeniable growth to be had in the email space and some optimisation room in the socials.

Without these consumer expectations being reliably met (wouldn't it be great to get a response to 100% of enquiries?), we can safely say that slow, or non-existent responses to inbound leads is undeniably impacting UK membership sales.

• 42.2% of those who received a Membership enquiry email did not respond at all - 132 out of 313 emails sent. Of those who did reply, the avg email response time was a staggering 694.73 mins.

• 54.26% of those who received a Membership enquiry via Facebook did not respond at all - 140 out of 258 Facebook accounts. Of those who did reply, the avg Facebook response time was fairly speedy: 12.29 mins

• 48.17% of those who received a Membership enquiry via Instagram did not respond at all - 119 out of 247 instagram accounts. Of those who did reply, the avg Instagram response time fell circa 10 mins behind that of Facebook: 22.8 mins

UK Study Segmentation

The UK segments we targeted were as follows: 

N.B The study Methodology is available at the end of the article.

Consumer Expectations, Facts & Figures

According to Hubspot a whopping 82% of consumers expect responses within 10 minutes. Faster yet, 77% of customers expect to interact with someone immediately when they contact a company.

However, as you'll see in the results that follow, very few UK clubs in segment responded with a real, non-automated response in 10 minutes or less, and even fewer responded within the 5 min ‘golden window’. Add to that the fact that between 42% and 54% of enquiries across email and social went completely unanswered.

So, are we suggesting that the majority of UK health & fitness prospects are having suboptimal experiences?

And are we saying that clubs are missing out on the ability to dramatically improve lead generation efforts and their conversions rates simply by being inappropriately responsive?

Yes. That’s exactly what we’re saying. 

UK Segmented Results

Here are our findings for web chat availability and Avg Lead Response times across email and social media direct messaging.

Summary of UK Multi-Site performance

• 67% of Email Recipients sent a 'real' reply

• 33% of Email Recipients did not reply at all

• 0% of Email Recipients who responded did so within the 5 minute 'golden window'*

• 0.6% of Email Recipients who responded did so within a 10 minute window

• 5.4% Emails utilised an automated response

• 14.86% of Email Recipients who responded took more than 24 hours to respond

• 6.7% of Email Recipients who responded took more than 48 hours to respond

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• 41% of Facebook Recipients sent a 'real' reply

• 59% of Facebook Recipients did not reply at all

• 54.2% Facebook messages utilised an automated response

• 11.6% of Facebook Recipients who responded did so within the 5 minute 'golden window'

• 21.7% of Facebook Recipients who responded did so within a 10 minute window

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• 53% of Instagram Recipients sent a 'real' reply

• 47% of Instagram Recipients did not reply at all

• 14.5% Instagram messages utilised an automated response

• 3.2% of Instagram Recipients who responded did so within the 5 minute 'golden window'

• 5.2% of Instagram Recipients who responded did so within a 10 minute window

*The ‘golden window’ refers specifically to the immediate 5 minute period after an enquiry is sent

Summary of UK Public Leisure performance

• 36% of Email Recipients sent a 'real' reply

• 64% of Email Recipients did not reply at all

• 0% of Email Recipients who responded did so within the 5 minute 'golden window'

• 0% of Email Recipients who responded did so within a 10 minute window

• 5.4% Emails utilised an automated response

• 12% of Email Recipients who responded took more than 24 hours to respond

• 3% of Email Recipients who responded took more than 48 hours to respond

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• 72% of Facebook Recipients sent a 'real' reply

• 38% of Facebook Recipients did not reply at all

• 88% Facebook messages utilised an automated response

• 20.4% of Facebook Recipients who responded did so within the 5 minute 'golden window'

• 22.4% of Facebook Recipients who responded did so within a 10 minute window

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• 49% of Instagram Recipients sent a 'real' reply

• 51% of Instagram Recipients did not reply at all

• 14% Instagram messages utilised an automated response

• 21.2% of Instagram Recipients who responded did so within the 5 minute 'golden window'

• 21.2% of Instagram Recipients who responded did so within a 10 minute window

A whopping 64% of Public Leisure emails went unanswered vs 33% in the UK Multi-sites camp. In addition. Neither UK Public Leisure or UK Multi-sites are capitalising on the 5 minute golden window of reply in email, with 0% of responses being sent in that time frame. Similarly neither were able to service replies within 10 minutes. We'll get on to why 10 minutes is important in just a second.

UK Multi-Sites are winning on Instagram with 53% of messages received getting a 'real' response in return, vs Public Leisure at only 49%. Furthermore, of the UK Multi-sites that did send a real reply, they did so with an average time-to-reply of 18 mins, vs Public Leisure's 27 mins.

The tables turn for Facebook. Not only did Public Leisure send a real reply to 72% of messages received, they did so with an average time-to-reply of 10.5 mins, compared to UK Multi-sites meeting 42% and an average time-to-reply of 14 mins. While there was some encouraging performance within the 5 minute 'golden window' and indeed in the 10 minute window, the margin for improvement in this area is still considerable.

The fact that UK Public Leisure failed to respond to 38% of Facebook enquiries and 51% Instagram enquiries, while UK Multi-sites failed to respond to 58% of Facebook and 46% Instagram respectively, further highlights the huge potential being left on the table.

I'll be honest, my initial thought as we gathered the social replies was ‘why have chat enabled on your Instagram or Facebook if you aren’t prepared to manage replies?’

The lack of web chat in both segments is particularly interesting, yet we know 61% of customers typically favor the ease of using self-service options such as account portals, FAQs, and chatbots for simpler concerns. This preference is especially strong among digital natives, including millennials and Gen Z.

What do we make of these results? We can see that through the use of automated replies that some clubs are trying to cover all their bases. It may be that they don’t have the manpower to genuinely cover each and every channel, but in doing so they are failing to provide the prompt, informative experience that potential members are looking for. 

Furthermore, clubs are not adequately resourced to promptly answer social media enquiries with real replies in a way that meets consumer expectation. The assumption here could be that they are either a) getting so many hot leads from other channels they can afford to ignore social media enquiries, or more likely b) team members are so heavily utilized across administration, providing tours and making call-backs that checking these pots of potential, simply can’t be accommodated in their busy schedules.

Customer Lifecycle Evolution

What exactly is happening to the traditional customer lifecycle here? In short, the expectation of immediate response times - or within 5 or 10 minutes - suggests that it is collapsing.

With consumer buying decisions faster made, customer experience is now a demand tantamount to immediate gratification. Be honest with yourself…each and every one of you has been guilty of that to some degree or another. As a result, the tried and tested distinction between the lifecycle phases of discovery, evaluation, and commitment are not so slowly ceasing to exist, or at least the definable gap between stages is shrinking at quite a rate of knots. 

So, your customer lifecycle must therefore shift into being instantaneous or be kicked out of the game altogether. Fitness businesses that embrace the fact the customer lifecycle is collapsing will align with and build truly customer-centric growth engines, ones that meet and exceed these reply-time expectations; and they will reap the rewards faster, more reliably, and inexpensively than ever before. 

That’s easier said than done right? Between labour laws and over-stretched hiring budget, how exactly are you supposed to service this whole new world?

You already know the answer to this. It’s artificial intelligence. 

In fact, consumers expect you to use it!

Salesforce reports that directly as a result of technology advances, 81% of customers expect faster service - so they are directly correlating their requirements with the pace of technological evolution. There has been no greater, recent evolution (a revolution if you will) than that of AI.

Salesforce also reports that 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as their products and services. With the majority of us doing our primary research online, the first and arguably most formative experience you as the vendor can give is a digital one , and therefore absolutely critical. It’s how you build the perception of your brand for your potential members. It’s how you reel them in for a tour or club trial. 

One last fact in this space…74% of customers expect to be able to do anything online that they can do in-person or by phone. So if you aren’t providing adequate interaction and information services online, but your competitors are…where do you think your leads are going to go?

The Way Forward

In today’s digital world, people expect quick responses and efficient service more than ever. If our study has proven anything it's that gyms and fitness centers often struggle to keep up with these expectations.

Delays in replying to enquiries, whatever the channel, can lead to missed opportunities and unhappy prospects. That’s why we created the Keepme AI Sales Agent, a game-changer designed to transform how fitness centers engage with potential members.

Meet Keepme's AI Sales Agents

✅ Engagement Across All Channels

Our AI Sales Agents make sure no enquiry goes unanswered, no matter where it comes from. Whether it’s a voice call, email, social media message, web chat, or WhatsApp, our AI is always ready to engage. This means your fitness center can connect with prospects at their peak interest times

✅ Always On, Always Available

Unlike human staff, who need breaks and days off, Keepme’s AI agents work 24/7, 365 days a year. This ensures that all enquiries are handled promptly, reducing wait times and making sure no potential member is missed. Plus, our AI can manage unlimited enquiries simultaneously, allowing your gym to grow without the need for extra hiring.

✅ Enhancing the Customer Journey

According to Akeneo, a significant 66% of consumers are now spending more time researching and validating their purchases because of the cost-of-living crisis, with 63% saying they would abandon a brand if they had a negative experience with their product information. So making sure your info is always on-brand, being conveyed accurately, and with the immediacy prospects expect is crucial.

Keepme AI Sales Agents are designed to improve every interaction with your prospects. From booking tours and free trials to answering detailed questions about your facilities, our Agents make sure every interaction is timely and meaningful.

With Keepme AI Sales Agent, you can meet the high expectations of today’s consumers, providing instant, efficient, and high-quality service at all times. Transform your fitness business and never miss an opportunity to engage with potential members.

The Study Methodology

For the avoidance of doubt and to provide the fairest chance for clubs to respond to our membership enquiries, we sent all of our messages and emails between 8am and 6pm on weekdays.

Definitions:

• 'Automated responses' are those that were received immediately on our membership enquiries being sent

• 'Real responses' are those where a human member of a sales team has read the enquiry and appropriately responded with the required information

Emails

We wrote to 313 addresses with the following level of intent asking for membership information:

Instagram and Facebook

We sent this message or others very similar to it using the message function provided in Instagram and Facebook accounts.