Lindywell Cuts Churn by 183% by Prioritizing Actions for Impact

Lindywell experienced a period of unprecedented growth early in the pandemic, spurred by demand for at-home workouts. But as life returned to its pre-pandemic state—and people returned to the gym—Lindywell started to encounter a decline in retention for new and tenured members.

Lindywell relied on weekly email blasts for member engagement, with occasional member feedback surveys. “While we had a general sense of why people canceled [their membership] from our member surveys, we didn’t have any behavioral insights to help us understand how to reduce cancellations,” remembers Becky Nobach, Lindywell’s Senior Director of Operations. Improving retention and reducing churn were critical to stabilizing growth.

Amplitude Analytics stood out as the solution to help them find those behavioral insights. Becky was impressed by how powerful the tool was, especially for retention: “We were encouraged to be able to identify journeys and drop-offs, and see correlations between actions and behaviors,” she says. Chief Growth Officer Angie Hill came to Lindwell to identify areas of potential growth and she had prior experience with Amplitude. She says it is more than just a data tool; Amplitude Analytics focuses on providing a better experience for the customer, solving problems for product teams and marketers alike.

Lindywell began using Amplitude with the launch of their app in July 2022. Immediately, they saw value in being able to make decisions based on information they never had before. Becky is proud of how the team navigated the project, admitting everyone got “a little data happy” at first. Lindywell’s in-house data scientist helped prioritize the metrics that mattered, where actions would have the greatest impact.

Nine months later, they began seeing a return on investment, starting with the insight that they struggled to retain members who don’t log into the platform. Until Lindywell had that data, they couldn’t see the need for that specific improvement. By streamlining login, they improved activation by 47%, which helped in-app engagement, further improving churn and stabilizing revenue.

Next, the team focused on one-month and three-month new user retention. They identified key behavioral retention drivers and membership churn signals in Amplitude, and learned the first 48 hours after new member signup are critical to one-month retention. Amplitude also highlighted that frequency of activity matters: Someone who works out three times a week is more likely to retain after seven months than someone who works out only once a week.

Segmenting users into four categories based on retention risks, Lindywell created content tailored to each user segment with the aim of increasing engagement. Encouraging user activity in this way boosted one-month retention by 26.5% and three-month retention by 45.6%. One truly noteworthy experiment was measuring the churn for a newly developed Pilates series. The team found that those who completed the program were 183% more likely to be retained three months later. Amplitude helped visualize where users were dropping off and the types of content to create. With all of these gains, Becky estimates the Amplitude payback period at about 14 months.

Segmenting users into dormant, light, medium, and high usage categories revealed how different users have different needs. Supplementing regular programming with new content series keeps medium and heavy users engaged, for example, but doesn’t reactivate dormant users. To bring dormant and light users back to the app, Lindywell now runs low-barrier, fun programs alongside seasonal promos. Angie is excited by the opportunities presented by moving members to progressively higher categories. Next, the company wants to explore if Lindywell Pilates gear could play a similar role in driving engagement.

“Prior to Amplitude, we looked at all of our users the same, but they’re so different,” Angie says, adding that it’s Lindywell’s responsibility as a brand to create unique, personalized experiences.

As a membership app, Lindywell’s northstar metric is customer lifetime value (LTV). Knowing they have the potential to reduce churn by 183% is “huge” for both improved LTV and what it means for members’ wellness, Angie says. Lindywell has also shared fitness-related insights with members, which provides powerful motivation to form healthy long-term habits. This is why Lindywell employees do what they do. “Being able to see the connection between their work and the impact it has on our community gives employees purpose,” Angie emphasizes.

Becky and Angie agree that Amplitude has transformed Lindywell: how they think about their customers, make investment decisions, and develop content. “It is fundamentally a different company,” Angie states. Creating content that is more meaningful and connected has helped Lindywell move from being an everyday fitness company to creating the programming people truly need.

Since implementing Amplitude, Lindywell no longer talks about the business in general terms or hypotheticals; data provides specific steps to creating well-being solutions that will last forever. Summarizing Amplitude’s impact, Angie says, “I can’t imagine running the business any other way anymore.”