iMessage for gyms and fitness studios

Studios have two numbers that matter: how full the classes are, and how many members are still here in month four. Both are about habit. A member who misses two weeks does not decide to quit — they just stop, and by the time the cancellation arrives the decision was made a month earlier.

The waitlist is your highest-value message

A full 6pm class with three no-shows and eleven people on the waitlist is money left on the floor. A text the moment a spot opens converts a waitlisted member into an attending one inside minutes — and no other channel is fast enough. The mechanics, including the race condition.

export const studio = {
  spotOpen: (c: Ctx) =>
    `${c.studio}: a spot just opened in ${c.className} at ${c.time} ` +
    `with ${c.instructor}. Reply Y and it's yours.`,
 
  classReminder: (c: Ctx) =>
    `${c.studio}: ${c.className} tomorrow at ${c.time}. ` +
    `Reply X if you can't make it so someone on the waitlist can.`,
 
  // Fires on a lapse in attendance, not on a calendar date.
  weMissedYou: (c: Ctx) =>
    `Hi ${c.firstName} — ${c.instructor} here. Haven't seen you in a bit. ` +
    `${c.className} is on ${c.dayOfWeek} at ${c.time} if you fancy it.`,
};

Catch the lapse, not the calendar

The retention message that works fires on behaviour — two weeks without a booking for someone who normally comes twice a week — not on the first of the month. It should come from a named instructor, reference a specific class, and ask nothing. No offer, no urgency. The offer version reads as a save attempt, which tells the member they were about to churn.

Compute the lapse threshold from each member's own pattern rather than a fixed number. Someone who comes twice a week and misses ten days is drifting; someone who comes fortnightly is fine. The same maths as win-backs.

What not to send

• Challenge and promotion blasts to the whole member list. That is a newsletter.
• Anything before 6am, even to a 6am class. Send it the evening before.
• Motivational messages. Members did not consent to a coach in their pocket, and it is the fastest route to being muted.
• More than one waitlist ping per person per week — frequency caps.