How Cure.

fit Uses Engagement to

Drive Retention at CULT

AKSHAY RAJWADE
(PRODUCT & GROWTH, CURE.FIT)
ABOUT ME...
How many of you have heard about
Cure.fit? Cult?
Cure.fit is an Integrated Health Platform
with online and offline presence
8 Cities and growing
Bangalore, Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Chennai ...

200+ Fitness Centers

S&C, Boxing, Yoga, HRX, Dance Fitness ...

250K+ Users
Have attended CULT
Today, I’m going to talk about how we
use engagement to drive retention at
Cult...
Cure.fit’s Mission

Make Health Easy

Everyone wants good health, but few
are able to achieve it...
Then
Traditional gyms exploit this - desire to
be healthy drives people to buy
memberships, but few actually use it.
It is a business model based on low
user engagement enabling higher
sales and (breakage) income…
But...
What if higher user engagement can
drive better business?
We took a closer look at what drives
user retention at CULT...
We assessed several factors such as
workout formats, ratings, discounts,
center locations etc.
And we found something that was
pretty fascinating...
USER ACTIVITY had the most significant
impact on RETENTION

ACTIVITY RETENTION
(Last workout day)

Within last 7 days of their membership 5X

Within last 7-15 days of their membership 2.5 X
Earlier than last 15 days of their membership X
We also talked to users who didn’t renew...

> 90% would recommend CULT to others

< 10% didn’t renew because of location,

format etc.

> 60% wanted to re-join in some time

Long inactivity period was the biggest reason to
not renew (80% users felt this) ...

Hectic Work Schedule Long break

Travel Long break

Injury/Soreness Long break

Exercising is a HABIT; but unfortunately,
NOT Exercising also becomes a
HABIT...
Fitness is tough, no instant gratification,
life happens, getting back is scary, we
lose motivation...

so many reasons...
To drive RETENTION, we needed to
keep our users ACTIVE, continuously...
We launched many initiatives, here are the 3 that
moved the needle...

UNLIMITED PAUSE FEATURE

FITNESS CHALLENGES

WAITLIST & LAST MINUTE DROP-OUT

ORIGINAL PAUSE FEATURE

In CULT, we offered users 30 days of pause/break for

every 3 months of membership

However, we restricted the number of times a user could

pause their membership

We wanted our users to pause for genuine reasons and

not use the feature as a tool to extend their membership
ORIGINAL PAUSE FEATURE

But we observed that users were using PAUSE to take

long breaks because they could use it only a limited
number of times...

When users took long breaks, they were less likely to

return to fitness, and less likely to renew...
ENTER UNLIMITED PAUSE

We made two important changes

First, we allowed the users to use the feature “unlimited”

times - no restriction!

Second, we asked users to tell us why they were taking a

break and when they planned to return...
WHAT HAPPENED...

5X more users started using the feature!

Instead of taking long breaks, users started taking

short breaks. Break duration reduced by 70%

More users started returning to fitness and sooner

WHAT HAPPENED...

Return to class post break BEFORE AFTER

Within 10 days 14% 28%

Within 20 days 31% 51%
Within 30 days 43% 61%
CONSISTENCY CHALLENGE

Exercising is a HABIT.

We wanted our users to get into this HABIT and be

CONSISTENT

We ran a 4 week Fitness Consistency Challenge -

the idea was simple - work out every week for 4
weeks and get a REWARD!
WHAT HAPPENED - CONSISTENCY
CHALLENGE
Zero Class Streak Uplift (%)
Became consistent for 4+ weeks
0 Classes in 2 Weeks 24%
0 Classes in 3 Weeks 13%
0 Classes in 4 Weeks 13%
0 Classes in 5 Weeks 11%
FROM FASTEST FINGER FIRST → WAITLIST

We had a simple booking system for CULT Classes.

Fixed seats per class, FCFS.

However, we allowed our users to CANCEL their

booking till 1-hour before the Class Start time

This led to users booking in advance but cancelling

last minute thereby leading to wastage
FROM FASTEST FINGER FIRST → WAITLIST

So we launched two key features - Waitlist and Last

Minute Drop-out

Waitlist allowed users to join the queue and get a

spot when cancellations happened

Last Minute Drop-out allowed users to release their

seat beyond the Cancellation Window and get credit if
someone else booked that spot
WHAT HAPPENED - WAITLIST
WHAT HAPPENED - LAST MINUTE DROP-OUT
TAKEAWAYS

Growth is hypothesis-based experiments

Only data is not enough, you need INSIGHTS

Strong consumer products blend technology

with psychology
Understanding CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR is critical

Best insights are often hidden in plain sight

We tend to overlook those owing to our disbelief
Thanks!
ANY QUESTIONS?