Retaining unengaged residents is next to impossible. As the saying goes, the opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference. Resident engagement is vital to building happy, thriving communities with high retention rates. Fitness classes, challenges or offering an on-demand fitness platform are a few ways communities are boosting their resident engagement.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned during the last two years, it’s that interacting with other people and taking care of our mental and physical health is a big part of our well-being. For us folks in the multifamily industry, some of the biggest challenges have been to make sure our residents feel connected, engaged, and part of a community. But with challenge comes opportunity. This article will go through some actionable tips on using the Flamingo On-Demand Fitness platform to increase resident engagement and build an active, healthy community.
6 Ways To Use On Demand Fitness To Engage Residents
1. Use leadership boards
Your residents have fitness goals. The more you can help them achieve those goals, the more engagement you’ll get. Tracking the number of workouts or fitness programs they join and sharing a live leaderboard gets people excited, motivated, and even a bit competitive. Leaderboards keep residents active, logging in and checking for updates. In 2016, The University of Pennsylvania did a study involving 800 students who went through an 11-week exercise program with running, spinning, Yoga, pilates, and weight lifting.
Each person was assigned to a team, and the dynamics of the teams were designed to be either socially supportive or competitive. In the competitive team group, people could track the exercise progress of their peers, but they had no interaction with them. On the other side, the supportive team could chat with one another and motivate each other to work out. Can you guess what happened? People in the competitive group went to 90% more exercise classes than those who weren’t!
2. Make it easy to access
We see so many properties make the mistake of picking an on-demand fitness vendor that only allows residents to access classes in the yoga room or in particular spaces throughout the building. This became a challenge during the pandemic, where amenities shut down, leaving residents without access to fitness classes. You can’t expect participation if people can’t use the program. Also, it’s hard enough to stay disciplined with your workouts, so allowing residents to do them wherever they want is essential.
Flamingo’s On-Demand Fitness is accessible from anywhere in the world, not just the yoga room or the gym. Residents can stream their workouts to any TV, any time, anywhere. People are so used to using their phones for everything; ordering coffee, booking flights, watching movies; if they don’t have the option of working out from home with their phone, you can’t expect them to engage as much.
3. Organize Workout Groups
Two nice things about exercising as a group:
- It’s easier to show up and do the workout.
- It builds a sense of partnership and community.
Group exercise programs connect people and create a sense of community, and that’s a powerful retention tool. Even if it’s a virtual class, a little company can go a long way in achieving your workout goals. You can start with the most popular programs and create, for example, a Yogi Group that can get together to stream their workout, or they could do that same workout in the comfort of their own homes at the same time.
4. Use Badges Based On Workout Goals
As you can see, motivation is a big part of achieving engagement through on-demand fitness, and a great way to keep residents motivated is by celebrating their wins and achievements. No matter the size. Digital badges are super helpful for keeping track of residents’ accomplishments. Small wins that pile up towards the more significant achievements should be visible from each resident’s profile. You could give a badge for doing 5 workouts in a row or for doing the 100th workout on the app.
The cool thing about this is that it applies to everyone, from the newbie who’s just getting started to the diligent athletes that never miss a workout. There’s a reason Fitbit and Apple have created hundreds of badges to recognize their users; it’s an excellent gamification play to keep people active, motivated and engaged.
5. Offer an Extensive Variety of Workouts
Many people don’t think that the variety of workouts you offer is essential. But there’s a huge difference between continuously updated platforms and ones that are stuck with little (and older) content. Residents remain engaged and come back when they know they might find something new. It’s similar to how social media works; you come back to see if there are any new postings.
Different classes also mean your reach is more extensive. You can attract residents who want to stay active and move their bodies a couple of times a week and residents who have challenging fitness goals and need variety to stay motivated and engaged. Flamingo’s On-Demand Fitness offers a fantastic variety of workouts, from Yoga to HIT to pilates, and we continuously update and add new trainers and classes. Even us Flamingans use it as our go-to workout platform!
6. Organize Challenges and Rewards
Everything is better if you add a bit of fun, and a fitness challenge might be just what you need to engage a large group of your residents. We’ve seen customers do a “First Floor vs Second Floor” competition where the floor that does the most workouts wins a prize.
You could also offer individual rewards each time a resident completes a class; it could go from credits for your concierge app to renewal discounts.
To recap, here are the must-haves when choosing an on-demand fitness vendor if you want to use it for resident engagement:
- Class Volume: Make sure there are at least 75 on-demand fitness classes.
- Class-Type Variety: Make sure there is variety in the classes (from Yoga, to HIIT, to functional training).
- Anywhere Access: Residents should be able to access in your yoga room, on an app, or stream to any TV.
- Monthly Fitness Challenges: Monthly fitness challenges will boost engagement and build community.
- Rewards to Boost Engagement: Residents love getting rewarded for completing classes or participating in challenges.
- Trophies & Milestones: Give out badges for completing challenges and reaching milestones.
- Gamification Through Rankings And Leaderboards: A leaderboard allows residents to see who is King or Queen of the hill. You’ll be surprised how a little friendly neighborly competition drives engagement.
- Resident Account: Each resident should have their own account and profile to track their progress.
- Integration with your PMS: You should be able to integrate with your PMS, so resident accounts get created automatically when someone moves in.
- Analytics: Your team should be able to quickly see how many workouts are completed each month and by which residents. This allows giving personalized service to every resident.
If you want to learn more about Flamingo’s On-Demand Fitness offer, schedule a demo today.
