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🧘 Fitness · Case study

$64,000 in 90 days from the 28-day cliff — how a 300-member pilates studio cut new-member churn in half

Elevate was losing 50% of new members within 28 days — industry-standard for boutique fitness. The owner had no signal until the cancellation email arrived in week 5-6. Retention IQ surfaced the silent third week (booking pattern broke before any cancel signal) and fired a personal three-touch sequence from the instructor the member had attended most. 90-day new-member retention climbed from 45% to 68%.

Practice
Elevate Pilates
Type
Boutique reformer pilates studio
Size
~300 active members · $189 avg monthly · 6 instructors
Location
Austin, TX
Headline result
−51%
new-member churn reduction
"I always thought we lost members because they didn't like the workouts. Turns out we lost them because nobody checked in when their pattern broke. The day-18 instructor text changed the entire studio."
— Representative pilates studio owner · illustrative quote
01 · The challenge

The cliff happens between week 3 and week 7 — silently, before any cancel signal.

Elevate's new-member sign-ups spiked in January (new year resolution) and September (back-to-school) but 90-day retention sat at 45%. The pattern was visible only in retrospect: 4-5 classes in week 1, 2 in week 2, then silence in week 3-4. By week 5 they were ghosting; by week 6-7 they emailed to cancel. The studio's existing 'we miss you!' generic email at week 8 was too late — by then they'd already mentally left.

New members per quarter
~85
90-day retention baseline
45%
Members lost per quarter
~47
Avg LTV at risk per lost member
$1,840
02 · The approach

Day-18 personal check-in from the instructor + day-35 escalation + day-60 graceful offboarding.

Day 1

Mariana Tek attendance export uploaded. Per-member rhythm parsed: median visits/week in weeks 1-2 (baseline) vs current 7-day cadence.

Day 2

Voice Training extracted each instructor's tone (Maddie, Marcus, Jules, etc). Drafts generated to fire from the instructor a member most attended.

Day 18 (per member)

Touch 1 fires when a new member's week-3 cadence drops 40%+ below week 1-2 baseline. 'Hey Emma — Maddie. Noticed you've been quiet. The class has been fun lately — come back?'

Day 35

Touch 2 fires if touch 1 didn't reactivate. Different instructor, different specific class. Lower-key 'I'm teaching Monday 7pm' framing.

Day 60

Touch 3 fires: offers a pause option as alternative to cancellation. ~45% of paused members re-engage within 60 days vs 12% of cancelled-and-resubscribed.

03 · The results

What actually happened.

68%
90-day new-member retention
up from 45% baseline
$64K
90-day revenue lift
Q1 cohort, retained at 1.5x prior rate
42%
touch-1 conversion
members back to baseline attendance within 7 days
Revenue breakdown by segment
Touch 1 — day-18 instructor check-in
Sent
85
Converted
36 (42.4%)
Revenue
$28,500 (12-mo)
Touch 2 — day-35 instructor escalation
Sent
49
Converted
14 (28.6%)
Revenue
$11,200 (12-mo)
Touch 3 — day-60 pause-offer
Sent
35
Converted
6 (17.1%)
Revenue
$4,800 (12-mo)
Ongoing — every cohort
Sent
340
Converted
156 (45.9%)
Revenue
$120K/yr ongoing

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