The Bay Club used Netic to 2.5x conversion rates and answer leads >500x faster. Here's how
Key results
Summary
In 1977, Pete Jones and Jim Gerber founded the Bay Club with a single goal: build community around an active, healthy lifestyle.
Nearly fifty years later, the Bay Club operates 37 wellness clubs with over 150,000 members from Seattle to San Diego.
Community has always been at the heart of everything the Bay Club does. But as the company grew, that same personal welcome got harder to extend to every prospective member. A web form was often the first touchpoint, followed by a wait that averaged an hour and sometimes stretched to a day and a half, while the team focused on running tours and caring for guests already on-site.
So, the Bay Club’s CEO set an ambitious goal: engage every new lead within 60 seconds.
Netic was the partner that could support that speed while also maintaining the Bay Club’s high standard for hospitality.
Together, the Bay Club and Netic built PJ, an AI agent named after founder Pete Jones, who answers every prospect in seconds, fields questions from pricing to pool temperatures, and books memberships on his own. Now, the Bay Club keeps growing while deepening the community that defines it, and its staff spend their time on the interactions that matter most.
A third space since 1977
In 1977, Pete Jones and Jim Gerber opened the Bay Club in San Francisco as one of the first co-ed fitness clubs on the West Coast, built on a simple belief: fitness is better shared within a community. Nearly five decades later, that same commitment still powers everything Bay Club does.
“Community is essential to Bay Club,” says Chelsea Ashbaker, SVP of Membership. “Group exercise, pickleball, tennis, it’s all about finding your family. You feel like you belong to something.”
“What makes Bay Club special is our members,” says Stephanie Lee, SVP of Customer Relationship Marketing. “We think of our clubs as a third space. It’s that shared interest that builds organic relationships. You don’t just come to work out, but stay afterward and have coffee with friends.”
That sense of belonging spans the Bay Club's entire operation, with 37 clubs and over 150,000 members across California, Oregon, and Washington. As the Bay Club has grown, the focus has stayed the same: finding new ways to extend that warmth to everyone, from welcoming new prospects to supporting current members.
Raising the bar on speed
Before Netic, it took Bay Club an average of an hour to follow up with an interested prospective member.
The membership team spends its days on the club floor: touring prospects through the club in person and helping members face to face. So when a lead came in, there often wasn't anyone at a computer to catch it right away. Messages would pile up in a queue, and after staff went home for the day, following up quickly became even harder.“ Before Netic, a lead could sit in our system for up to a day and a half,” remembers Joanne Friess, EVP of Marketing.
“If a prospect was interested at 9 PM, a membership director wouldn’t be back until 9 AM,” says Ryan Burke, Chief Customer Officer. “Then, when we responded, that prospect would be at work, so they wouldn’t respond until 5 PM the following evening. That cycle kept repeating itself.”
“Consumers’ expectations have changed,” states Stephanie. “You have to capture interest at its peak. An hour later is not at its peak. Eight hours later is not at its peak.” By the time someone was available to respond to a lead, it had usually gone cold. With members staying on for years, even a single missed prospect could mean substantial long-term revenue lost.
For a brand where every member matters, slow replies were not an option. The Bay Club wanted to respond to everyone instantly, from new prospects to current members asking routine questions, while still keeping its people focused on the complex moments that need a human.
To achieve that, CEO Matthew Stevens set an ambitious goal: engage every new lead within 60 seconds.
Hitting that goal meant finding an AI partner that could answer every message in seconds, without losing the warmth and expertise of its membership team. “When we were looking for an AI vendor, it was important that they were as passionate about the product as we are, and deeply understood our industry,” Stephanie says.
Only Netic could do both.
An AI partner that understood the Bay Club
The partnership began when the Bay Club encountered Netic at a KKR summit for Chief Marketing Officers. Netic stood out because it took the human feel of AI seriously. "Netic thinks about AI not just in how it drives efficiency, but in how it stays human," Joanne says. "That matters to a brand built on relationships."
The Bay Club started working with Netic in December 2025. Early on, Bay Club decided to name its new agent PJ, after its founder Pete Jones. “Pete still works with us today, and there was no better way to honor him,” Joanne recalls. “It was a great moment to unveil the name to him on a Monday morning executive call.”
What set Netic apart was how much it learned before building PJ. The team sat with membership directors and club associates, worked through how each of the 37 clubs runs, and shadowed live conversations to see how the Bay Club engages with its guests.
“The team was really in the dirt with us, making sure they understood exactly what the club was about,” says Chelsea. “Everything from how PJ should communicate to the questions he needed to answer.”
“They understood the systems we already had in play, and they guided us through the integration,” Joanne remembers. “Netic delivered where we need the most support.” Stephanie sees it the same way: “It was a seamless transition. They did the heavy lifting. One of Netic’s slogans is ‘we’ll run through walls for you,’ and we’ve really seen it.”
From day one, PJ understood the Bay Club. All 37 clubs have different layouts, amenities, and membership tiers, and PJ knew every detail cold: which locations have lap lanes, the temperature of the outdoor pool at Gateway (81 degrees), and much more. “You can’t recreate that understanding without hard work,” says Chelsea.
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“PJ was so nice, so knowledgeable, so helpful”
“Customers have really loved their interactions with PJ,” says Chelsea. “You feel like you’re talking to a Bay Club member specialist, not AI.”
People ask about PJ by name. “We’ve had members come in and tell the front desk, ‘wow, PJ is such a great guy,’” says Joanne. “Customers will say PJ was so nice, so knowledgeable, so helpful,” adds Stephanie. “Please pass on my compliments.”
With PJ, that trademark hospitality now extends around the clock. “Now, we don’t stop just because someone reaches us at 11 PM,” Chelsea says.
PJ delivers, and does so on his own
PJ proved himself quickly. First response time to a new lead fell from an average of an hour to 7 seconds, exceeding Matthew’s 60-second goal. Across the board, prospects who used to fall off now stay in the conversation. Since the partnership began, the Netic conversion rate on web lead forms has risen from 3.5% to 8.6%, a 2.5x increase over seven months.
PJ does it almost entirely by himself. “One of our biggest fears was how many of these conversations would have to be escalated to a human. We thought it'd be half,” says Stephanie. In reality, only 2% of leads asked to speak to a person. PJ carries the rest of the conversations by himself, while upholding the warmth the Bay Club prides itself on.
At one of the Bay Club’s flagship Los Angeles country club locations, PJ closed a sale carrying a $17,000 initiation fee in a single conversation, entirely on his own.
Even better, PJ tends to sign the members worth the most. At the Bay Club, with a Shared Membership, one person can hold a primary membership and add up to nine additional members to it, so a single signup can seed a whole group. Nearly half the members who PJ converts join as primary account holders on a group account. This is a higher share than the Bay Club sees from leads PJ never touched.
PJ gives the team its time back
PJ frees the team up, so they can spend time on prospects and members who need a human touch.
“If someone's completely new to the Bay Club, they're starting at an interest level of 1. PJ can get them to a 5, 6, 7,” says Ryan. “And PJ can take a 7, make it a 10, and have them join, all in one conversation.”
PJ also handles half of non-lead inquiries on his own, so the team doesn't get stuck on repetitive questions. Everyday questions, like class times or what a membership includes, now get answered without pulling the team off the floor.
Early on, the team was worried that PJ would feel impersonal and cheapen the Bay Club experience. "There was a lot of trepidation," says Joanne. Seeing PJ work changed their minds. "Our sales team looks at PJ as an extension of the team. They're always thanking PJ for his help."
"The thing we're getting back that's tough to quantify is the team's time," says Ryan. "Now they can focus on the qualified leads who are really interested." That time goes back into what only people can do: closing the members who need a human, and building the relationships that make Bay Club what it is.
Conclusion
“The use of AI has strengthened the Bay Club community,” says Joanne. “It allows the humans in our clubs to lean into building relationships and solving more complex problems, so our members have a better experience.”
The people who make the Bay Club a third space are more present than ever. PJ handles the routine questions and the follow-ups, so the team can be present for the members in front of them, in the class, on the court, or over coffee after a workout.
Stephanie’s advice to any wellness club or community-centered brand considering an AI partner is clear. “It’s not a question of when, or if. It’s a question of who you choose to partner with, and who can represent your brand authentically,” she says. “We’ve selected a great partner in Netic.”
The Bay Club made a bold bet that AI could enhance its community; we’re proud to help them achieve that goal.
