I’ve spoken to plenty of gym owners who say they run their business on gut instinct.
I get it. You know your members, you know what works, and you’ve got a feel for the place. But while instinct is great, it’s not scalable. If you want to make smarter decisions, improve retention, and grow in the ways that matter, you need data.
At Foundry, we’ve put a lot of work into collecting the right data—without drowning in it—and, more importantly, actually using it. It’s easy to gather numbers, but if you’re not acting on them, you’re wasting your time.
Here’s how we do it, what we track, and how we turn that information into meaningful decisions.
Why Collect Data at All?
Because relying on guesswork is a fast track to running in circles.
We’ve all made decisions based on vibes alone—sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But when you start tracking the right things, you can see exactly what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what to do about it.
For example, if members are cancelling after six months, you need to know why. If 70% of your members are on your lowest-cost membership, you need to understand what’s motivating that and change it. If referrals are converting to memberships at 70%, but paid sales at only 30%, that’s valuable insight you can capitalise on.
Good data helps you make decisions with confidence—on programming, pricing, scheduling, staffing, and retention strategies.
The key? Get a spread of information from multiple sources. If you only listen to member feedback, you’ll end up running a gym designed by committee (which, trust me, never works). If you only look at financials, you might miss the early signs of a retention problem.
What to Do with Your Data
Data isn’t about collecting numbers for the sake of it. It’s about closing the gap between what you think is happening and what’s actually happening. That means putting it through a simple cycle:
1️⃣ Research & Data Collection – Pull insights from different sources (attendance, reviews, feedback, trends, performance).
2️⃣ Planning – Use what you’ve found to adjust strategy—whether that’s pricing, programming, or customer experience.
3️⃣ Implementation – Make changes based on the evidence, not just noise.
4️⃣ Evaluation – Check if the changes are working, then loop back to step 1.
This keeps decision-making structured. It stops you from making reactive, short-sighted changes while also making sure you’re not just collecting data and doing nothing with it.
Where to Collect Data (and What to Track)
A mix of hard (quantitative) and soft (qualitative) data gives the best insight.
The Member Journey
If you want to grow your gym, the member journey—from first contact to long-term retention—needs to be watertight. And that means using data, not just gut instinct.
Too many gym owners rely on vague ideas of “what’s working” in marketing and sales, but when you break it down, most don’t actually know:
- Where their best leads come from
- How much each lead costs
- What percentage of leads convert to paying members
- How many people stay beyond their initial membership term
This stuff matters. Because if you can’t see where people are dropping off—or what’s driving real growth—you’re throwing money (and effort) into the void.
Lead Generation & Conversion
Your marketing spend means nothing if it’s not bringing in the right people. That’s why you need a clear view of:
- Number of leads generated per month – How many new people are coming into your pipeline?
- Leads per source – Are referrals outperforming paid ads? Are Instagram leads converting at a higher rate than Google ads?
- Cost per lead – What are you actually paying to bring in each lead, and is it sustainable?
- Lead-to-contact conversion rate – How many leads respond when you reach out? (If this is low, your follow-up might need adjusting.)
- Contact-to-sale conversion rate – If people engage with you but don’t buy, what’s the blocker?
- Lead-to-sale conversion rate – The ultimate number: how many leads turn into paying members?
Cost per Sale & Sales Efficiency
Once you understand your lead flow, you need to know what it actually costs to acquire a member. That means tracking:
- Cost per sale – How much does it cost to get a trialist across the line?
- Time to conversion – Are leads buying instantly, or do they take weeks to make a decision?
- Conversion % from trial to full membership – If people take a 21-day trial but don’t stay, why? How can you maximise conversions?
Retention & Attrition
A lot of gyms focus heavily on new sign-ups but ignore the other key number: How many people are leaving?
- Attrition rate (monthly & annual) – How many people cancel, and when?
- Membership tenure – What’s the average length of stay? What’s the average customer lifetime value?
- Churn risk indicators – Are there early warning signs (like missed sessions) before cancellations happen?
It costs a lot more to acquire a new client than it does to retain an existing one. And while some churn is essential to stop the membership base stagnating, we need to keep those numbers small – and be aware of exactly what they are.
Session Attendance
This one’s essential, and it’s black and white. If people keep coming back and booking regularly, it’s a massive marker that the business is doing its job.
Tracking attendance helps answer important questions:
- Is the timetable leaving space for the gym to grow, while also giving members the flexibility to train when suits them (within reason)?
- Are early morning sessions consistently oversubscribed on certain days? Do you need to add a second coach to increase availability?
- Are people avoiding sessions run by Coach A, while Coach B has a consistent waitlist?
- Are your challengers and new members attending regularly? If they’re not, it’s an opportunity to reach out.
- Are there patterns correlating attendance with risk of leaving?
It’s not just about numbers—it’s about proactive intervention. If someone hasn’t been in for three weeks, you don’t wait for them to cancel. You check in. That small act of accountability keeps people engaged longer.
Client Satisfaction & Feedback
Most gyms rely on anecdotal feedback—the loudest members, the ones who chat to coaches. That’s useful, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle.
At Foundry, we take a structured approach:
- Google Reviews – Public feedback is useful, plus we’ve started incentivising it. If you leave a 5-star review, we’ll have a small thank-you waiting next time you’re in—a voucher for a local lunch spot, a free protein shake, etc.
- Surveys & NPS (Net Promoter Score) – A simple way to track overall satisfaction over time.
- Mystery Shops – Getting someone external to experience the gym as a first-timer is invaluable.
Do we act on every single piece of feedback? No. But we look for patterns. If five people mention the same issue, it’s probably real. If one person complains the music is too loud, it’s probably just them.
Comms Engagement
Whether it’s members, prospects, or lapsed leads, engagement tells us what people are interested in and where there’s an opportunity to follow up.
We track:
- Open rates & click-through rates – For both member comms and marketing emails to prospects and lapsed members. If certain emails get high engagement, we refine and replicate that approach.
- QR scans from in-gym screens – A quick way to measure what’s catching attention on-site.
- Website vs. app sign-ups for events – Helps us understand how people prefer to interact with us.
- Referral activity – A strong indicator of satisfaction.
- Organic social media engagement – What content is driving comments, shares, and saves? We adjust messaging based on what’s resonating.
Engagement also creates opportunities. For example, if a prospect opens an email and clicks through to a payment page but doesn’t sign up, we send a follow-up text the next day.
Knowing where people are paying attention means we’re not just throwing out content and hoping for the best—we’re using data to drive the next step.
Coach Performance & Programme Effectiveness
Your gym is only as good as the training being delivered. We’ve started implementing peer-to-peer coach assessments—coaches observing each other’s sessions to give structured feedback.
Why? Because left to their own devices, everyone has blind spots. It’s easy to slip into habits, and the best way to maintain quality is through constant refinement.
We also track how programming performs over time. If a block isn’t producing results, we adapt. Strength progress, movement quality, engagement levels—all measurable, all adjustable.
The Caveat
Here’s where people get it wrong. Data is objective—it gives you the bottom line. But it doesn’t replace good judgement.
Some decisions will be obvious (if 90% of people train at peak times, you don’t add more off-peak sessions). Others will require gut instinct.
The best operators? They know when to trust the numbers and when to back themselves.
Because if you’re experienced, if you know your business inside out, and if you understand what actually makes a gym great—that’s a type of data too.
Final Thought
The goal here isn’t to turn your gym into a data lab. It’s to make better decisions, faster, with more confidence.
At Foundry, tracking these key areas has helped us refine our programming, improve retention, and stay ahead in a competitive market. It’s not about being obsessed with numbers—it’s about removing guesswork and backing your strategy with real insight.
So, start small. Pick one or two areas to track properly, see what you learn, and go from there. The more you build this into how you run your gym, the sharper your decisions will be.
And if nothing else—start incentivising Google reviews. People love a free shake.