Gyms moved fast to freeze memberships in March, avoiding a wave of cancellations. The harder part is when and how to unfreeze memberships.

Looking at the average sentiment, David Lloyd Clubs had the highest proportion of negative tweets. Their members have been asking about and debating refunds. The vouchers and passes on offer have been described as being of a higher value than a refund. However not all members see these as better value for money.

Across all gyms, members have been asking about how unfreezing will work. Some members of each chain are getting frustrated by the cancellation processes. They don’t want, or can’t afford to be charged when memberships are unfrozen.

A DW Fitness First member summed up the feelings of members across several gym chains when asking “How do we give notice to cancel when nobody answers the phone or responds to tweets/messages?”

For other members, the need is for a flexible approach to unfreezing. A David Lloyd member commented that there’s been “no mention about the option to remain frozen if you don’t feel a gym is safe yet”.

Pure Gym is handling this issue well, replying to individual social media posts and offering to extend the freeze to all members who don’t yet feel comfortable attending.

Gyms have been going to great lengths to show how they are separating workout areas and adding social distancing to queues. However, some members have been reflecting on how busy their gym was before.

Assuming demand is as high, but capacity is limited, they can’t see how the plans will work in reality.

One asked “You advised customers to visit the gyms at quieter times but as soon as the gyms reopen, there will not be ‘quieter’ times, as it will be a high demand. How will you manage to control this?”

Another asked “Will you be restricting the numbers, as just before lockdown this was limited to 200, which in my opinion is still too many?”

From this, some members have concluded that a booking system would be preferable to queuing up. But this raised further concerns when people reflect on how well class booking systems worked in the past.

One tweeted “At first I thought a booking system would be better, but then I thought of all the times people have booked into classes in the past and haven’t turned up. It would be the same in this situation, people booking and then not turning up.”

The solution, for the likes of PureGym, is that their app shows how busy the gym currently is. However, this message doesn’t seem to have got through to everyone yet.

The prospect of queues has also had people asking if it’s really a one-size fits all approach, or whether there will be a VIP line for members who have a pre-booked PT session or class.

Hygiene is always an emotive topic, as members judge the quality based on expectations and past experiences.

Most feedback is not collected in real-time, leaving members to make generic criticisms that gyms can’t easily address, however, COVID-19 is changing this – members are becoming more conscious of the hygiene they expect, and how that compares to what went before.

Tweets and Instagram posts are focusing on two main areas. How clean they believe their gym will be kept, and how well members will contribute by wiping down.

Perceptions vary greatly, with one Pure Gym member saying: “Your gyms are always filthy.” A Bannatyne member tweeted “Bannatyne gym in Birmingham was cleaner before lockdown with hand sanitiser dispensers and equipment cleaned by members and staff.”

But hygiene responsibilities don’t just rest with staff, a PureGym member said: “You’re lucky if 1 in 20 people clean what they use. Personally I think staff should be super strict and anyone seen using something and not cleaning it should be asked to leave”.

Ultimately, social media analysis shows how many members love the gym, with one writing: “Lockdown would’ve been a breeze if gyms were open,” and another saying: “The delay to reopening is desperately sad.

For the first time in my life I think I’m getting a gut.” The upshot of this analysis is that members are divided. Some can’t wait to get back, some are more cautious, and some want to cancel and spend their money elsewhere. One described their gym membership as a ‘luxury they can no longer afford’.

It’s vital that operators engage with members emotionally as well as logically. The “we are ready” videos – aimed at government as well as members – are a good start. But they’ve focused on facts, and how the supply-side of the equation is changing. The experience will be safer, but not necessarily as compelling in the short-term. Based on the comments members are making, gyms need to go further.

The benefits of being in a gym, rather than exercising outside or at home, aren’t obvious to everybody. The buzz that members get from a great class or weights session isn’t obvious when seeing footage of empty gyms and closed off equipment. Among the ‘sleeping’ members who’ve kept paying without attending, this need is even greater. They’re going to notice their DD coming back, and they’re going to question its value.

So now we’ve had the ‘what’s changing’ videos, we need the ‘what’s still the same’ videos. Aimed squarely at existing members, it’s time to showcase the great experiences gyms can still offer.

Paul Roberts and Mike Evans run insight company, www.mycustomerlens.com