MBA Capstone revolutionizes customer retention, success for RVA fitness company

Meghan Boyle, GB’18, hit the ground running for her capstone project with SuperFit Games.

“Young people are paying a lot for experiences, especially health and wellness experiences right now,” Boyle said. “We just had to motivate them to come join SuperFit.”

SuperFit Games is a Mid-Atlantic functional fitness competition company that hosts events in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

The owner, Jamie Sulc, connected with Debbie Fisher, associate director of The Richmond MBA, requesting a Capstone Project to research customer acquisition and retention. He recently purchased the company from a partner, and the majority of his experience came from the fitness industry rather than sales and marketing.

“He told me some of his customer feedback, but I wanted more data,” Boyle said, “so I created a customer survey designed to gather specific demographic information and customer preferences about the fitness industry.”

She found that many of his customers were interested in competing, but could not travel to the destinations or find a competitor group. She recommended Sulc add more competitions, and add incentives for new customers.

“I suggested individual competitions and cash prizes for competitors,” Boyle said. “I also recommended he build out a customer profile, to ensure he understood his customers profile and how to keep them coming back.”

Sulc knew Boyle’s plan would be successful as soon as he started working with her.

“Meghan was fantastic.  She jumped right into all things SuperFit and had a sincere passion for helping my business,” Sulc said. “She was very clear with her intentions and went above and beyond to capture data to further enhance her familiarity with the company.”

Boyle currently works on a commercial operations team in the healthcare industry, where she consistently asks for customer feedback and collates that data, which she says inspired her project.

“Because I have that skillset, I always assume that a business owner’s first goal is to understand their customer, but that’s not true. So, it was perfect for me to go in and do that for Jamie,” Boyle said. “Creating customer data for him was a valuable thing for me to learn as well as the importance of customer attraction and retention.”

She also researched trends in the fitness industry to ensure Sulc was prepared for future growth.

“I looked at the overall patterns, and there’s a big trend in boutique fitness among millennials,” Boyle said. “They are the biggest subset of any gym’s current customer base. I knew it was important that Jamie keep up with trends that millennials desire.”

Sulc says her ideas revolutionized his business model, and helped him understand steps to create strong relationships with his current customers, and attract new ones.

“She was able to provide actionable steps to increase revenue as well as enhance my customers’ experiences at our events,” Sulc said. “It was a perfect fit.  I'm very thankful to have had this experience.”

You can find out more about SuperFit Games, and upcoming competitions, on their website.