Despite all the high-intent bookings gyms receive—from eager prospects scheduling tours to would-be members signing up for trials—gym no-shows are quietly bleeding the fitness industry dry.
A newly released study lays bare just how badly many operators are botching the follow-up, leaving money on the table and potential members in the wind.
The report, The Great No-Show Opportunity – Gym Automation Benchmarks, takes a magnifying glass to the mid-funnel moment that so often gets ignored: what happens after someone books a visit… and then doesn’t turn up. Spoiler alert: not much.
“It’s one of the most under-examined moments in the fitness customer journey,” said Hilary McGuckin, Director of Marketing at Keepme.
“Operators work hard to drive interest and secure bookings, but once a lead drops off, too many gyms go silent. That’s where revenue quietly disappears.”
The study reviewed 248 mystery-shop trials and tours across 75 multi-site gym operators in North America—representing a whopping 6,500+ locations.
Researchers didn’t just check if a gym responded. They tracked every email, text, call, and voicemail over the seven days following a no-show and rated it all—tone, timing, relevance, and whether there was any effort to reschedule.
The Four Big Problems with Gyms’ No-Show Responses
The findings reveal four critical breakdowns that are plaguing gyms’ no-show management:
- No Pre-Visit Reminder: A shocking number of gyms didn’t even send reminders before the scheduled visit.
- No Follow-Up at All: Some leads vanished into thin air—no emails, no calls, not even a canned message.
- Generic, Impersonal Outreach: Others received what can only be described as marketing wallpaper—cold, automated drivel that felt more like a sales funnel from 2010.
- Zero Reschedule Attempts: Perhaps the most egregious failing—very few gyms tried to actually rebook the appointment or re-engage the prospect in a meaningful way.
Inconsistent follow-up isn’t just a nuisance—it’s costing real money. Some prospects got thoughtful, timely, and personal outreach that reignited their interest. Others? Nothing. And the ones left in limbo are more likely to turn to a competitor who doesn’t forget they exist.
Why Most Gyms Are Failing—And How to Fix It
One of the biggest culprits, the study found, is simple human bandwidth. With lean teams and overloaded schedules, many gyms just don’t have the manpower or systems to chase no-shows properly. Manual follow-up is inconsistent at best—and invisible at worst.
Keepme’s research suggests that gyms still see no-shows as the end of the road. But that thinking is outdated. “Personalised follow-ups using human-like automation significantly increase the chance of turning a missed visit into a membership,” the report highlights.
The AI Agent That Doesn’t Drop the Ball
Enter the AI solution. Tools like Keepme Antares are designed to step in where humans fall short—instantly responding when someone misses their slot, deploying personalised follow-up messages across multiple channels, and even suggesting alternative times to rebook. It’s automation, yes—but automation with a pulse.
This sort of smart engagement doesn’t just patch a hole in the funnel—it rewires it. By staying in touch without being intrusive, AI-led tools help gyms keep leads warm and get them back through the door—sometimes literally.
Method Behind the Metrics
The report analysed two distinct groups:
- 159 locations where a trial or tour was booked with a specific date/time.
- 89 locations where a trial was registered, but no time was set.
Using fresh email addresses and phone numbers, the researchers went undercover—tracking every interaction (or lack thereof) for seven days post-no-show. The verdict? There’s a massive performance gap in how gyms handle no-shows, and fixing it isn’t just about sending more messages. It’s about sending the right ones.
For gym operators, the takeaway is loud and clear: gym no-shows aren’t dead leads. They’re dormant opportunities—waiting to be reawakened by smarter systems, not silence.
And in this game, it’s not the strongest who survive. It’s the ones who remember to call back.
