Keepme Introduces AI-Powered Membership Sales Agents

Prospective fitness members who receive a response to an inquiry within five minutes are considerably more likely to enter a membership opportunity, according to a Keepme study

Too many fitness brands are leaving prospective fitness members with inquiries “on read,” according to a new study from Keepme, an AI-powered platform for fitness operators. The company has just unveiled a new approach to improve response times (and drive memberships) with AI-powered membership sales agents.

The latest offering follows Keepme‘s ‘Time to Reply’ studies in the U.K. and North America, demonstrating a considerable delay in response times on inbound fitness leads.

“HubSpot reports that 82% of consumers expect responses within 10 minutes, and Salesforce found that 77% of customers expect to interact with someone immediately when they reach out,” Keepme’s global director of marketing, Hilary McGuckin, said. “However, our studies revealed over 50% of North America membership inquiries went completely unanswered, with clubs having an average response time of 236 minutes across email and 2240 via social media.” 

Improved Response Times

Fitness gyms and boutique fitness studios are keen on keeping members engaged with the latest equipment and modalities, but having prospective membership inquiries go unanswered may mean losing out to competitors. 

“We know from our research that leads responded to within 5 minutes are 100 times more likely to ‘connect’ and 21 times more likely to convert into genuine membership opportunities,” McGuckin said. “So, certainty of reply and timeliness is critical. As a result we’ve designed the all new Keepme’s AI Sales Agents in direct answer to this, ensuring fitness clubs can meet these critical response times, and significantly improve their lead conversion rates.”

Keepme AI sales agents can navigate customer inquiries via live web chats, emails, social media, WhatsApp, in-website voice activation and inbound and outbound calls — all within a 24/7, 365 setting. In addition to providing accurate service information, Keepme sales agents offer personalized interactions with natural language processing, guiding prospective members to book tours and trials.

As McGuckin points out, Keepme’s study shows a major disconnect between consumer expectations and delivery.

“The implication is that most operators’ sales funnels simply aren’t optimized for lead generation because they can’t meet the expected level of digital service provision in 2024,” she continued. “Our AI Sales Agents are about helping operators bridge this gap regardless of channel, to become more technologically competitive at a time when consumers expect it.”

Keepme founder and CEO Ian Mullane noted that the data from the study speaks for itself.

“We need to set a new standard for lead generation and prospect experiences in the fitness industry,”he added. “We believe Keepme’s demonstrable experience and expertise in AI development will allow us to achieve this. These intelligent assistants work tirelessly across all your communication channels, transforming how you engage with fitness leads. They drive membership sales by reducing the ‘speed to lead’, elevating your club’s response and follow-up actions to unprecedented levels.”

Last September, the platform rolled out Creator, a generative tool designed with gym content marketing teams in mind that learns a fitness brand’s tone and voice to produce engaging content and drive growth across blog posts, social media and emails.