Impact

During my time as the Marketing and Sales Manager at the Queer Gym, I led the content and overall brand strategy. The start-up offered online fitness, nutrition, and accountability programs for the LGBTQ+ community. When I joined the team, there was a clear product market fit and a niche audience in the need state. The primary challenge was, by far, retention- As is common across the fitness industry, the Queer Gym lost nearly half of its customers every year. Due to the low retention rate, the sales team was required to sell an additional 50-60 memberships per month to replenish the churn. This was incredibly unsustainable and resulted in a tense internal workplace culture between the Coaching (fulfillment) team and the Sales team.

Eager to identify the source of this issue, I reviewed coaching calls, conducted 1-1 interviews with the fulfillment team, and created a member survey that illuminated reputational deficits and misperceptions of the customer journey from MQL to member. The questionnaire provided qualitative and quantitative feedback about the onboarding process, core offer programming, and coach pairing. Through the surveys, we learned a few major pain points responsible for the low retention rates. Clients were reporting a sales process that felt predatory, outdated, and biased philosophies around nutrition, and a desire to be coached by professionals who understood their lived experiences as marginalized peoples.

To address these areas of focus, we held a company-wide meeting wherein we overhauled existing systems, department by department. To provide a better onboarding process, we revised our sales scripts, revamped an outdated cancellation policy, and created more flexible payment plans to better serve our marginalized community. On the topic of nutrition, we learned that clients felt we were falsely advertising ourselves as nutritionists and promoting a dangerous diet culture. To address this internally, we reviewed and updated all nutrition-related materials and organized mandatory Health at Every Size training for coaches. Externally, we decided to shift our messaging strategy across channels away from nutrition, instead directing our focus on sustainable habit-building. To create stronger relationships between clients and coaches, we created a form that allowed clients to select qualities they sought in a coach like “Neurodivergent,” “Fat”, and “Black,” which informed which wellness approach would work best for them. By keeping our clients informed with every new initiative, we regained their trust and built a stronger overall experience that resulted in a 40% increase in resigns, extending lifetime customer value, a more cohesive brand identity, and a sustainable path towards growth.