07. Finding the Growth Opportunity Behind an Underused Studio

Independent boutique fitness business

Looking beyond “more marketing” to understand how customer behaviour, products and the booking journey could improve utilisation.

The challenge

1

The business had an established customer base and multiple locations, but one studio needed greater utilisation.

The obvious response would have been to generate more leads. Instead, we started with a more fundamental question:

What actually needs to change in customer behaviour for this studio to become commercially stronger?

That led us into frequency, retention, product mix, progression, pricing and packages, customer journeys and how people decide what to book next.

What I did

2

I approached the project as a commercial diagnostic rather than a marketing exercise.

I reviewed the website and booking journey, researched more than 200 businesses across the UK market, analysed competitor products and customer journeys and developed recommendations around utilisation, frequency and progression.

We also explored how different products could complement rather than compete with one another, alongside outcome-led programmes, customer recommendation tools and a staged implementation plan designed to be achievable for a small team.

What changed

3

The commercial question shifted from:

“How do we sell more classes?”

to:

“How do we create a customer journey that naturally results in people attending more frequently, progressing and staying for longer?”

That creates a much stronger foundation for sustainable utilisation than relying continually on promotions or customer acquisition.

Testimonial

4

“Sue approached the business completely differently from how I'd expected. Rather than immediately suggesting marketing ideas, she started by understanding how customers actually use the studio and where the commercial opportunity really is. She's helped me see the customer journey, products and marketing as one connected system.”

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You don’t need a polished brief.

If you’re building something, changing something or have a sense the business needs tightening, simplifying or moving forward, send me a note, or book a call.