January Gym Offers

January is perceived as the busiest month for health clubs and gyms as people resolve to get fit, join, and then stop going a few months later.

Interested to find out what local clubs are doing differently in 2010, I’ve visited and spoken with managers and members at chain clubs, leisure centres, private clubs, and studios around North London. It seems the classic waived joining fee is still the standard policy to encourage new joiners, followed by a 12 month contract, but some clubs are being more innovative, and are reaping the membership rewards.

The big chains are offering the same old formula of discounted joining fee, sometimes dressed up as free membership periods. For example, at LA Fitness you can enjoy 3 months free, when you sign up for 15 months premier membership (which gives access to other clubs in the chain). If you will make use of other club locations and are happy to be locked in for the long term, this is great, but it doesn’t give me the impression that these clubs have much confidence in their member retention methods. The alternative is a 12 month single club contract, but with no discount. Virgin Active in Crouch End and Fitness First (women only) in Crouch End have similar offers.

The Laboratory next to Alexandra Palace in Muswell Hill is much more confident about retaining members, with a monthly cancellation option. Prices are comparable to the chains, but there is big focus on customer service and the integrated gym, swim, spa offering rather than January sales initiatives. General Manager, Vas Hava anticipates having to re-introduce the new member waiting list soon, due to the recent success of new member sales. “Our members expect a certain level of service, and we make sure that we deliver because then happy members bring their friends along.”

Local personal training studios seem to be doing very well at the moment, and bring a great alternative to the 12 month sign-up, along with better motivation and coaching. Movers and Shapers is a Power Plate studio in the heart of Muswell Hill, selling blocks of 10 half-hour sessions. A monthly Direct Debit membership option is newly also available for frequent visitors, but the majority of members still buy blocks of sessions. New member Tracy enjoys the social nature of the workouts; “every session is like a one-to-one, but with a small group of friends. The instructors are all really friendly and I’m really looking forward to toning up after my pregnancy.”

Park Road Leisure Centre offered (reduced price) gift memberships in December, but now has standard annual, monthly, and pay as you go memberships. “December was a bumper month for new joiners,” says Tony Harrison, Senior Fitness Instructor, “and our new member induction timetable is nice and full as usual in January.” The local leisure centre is the most flexible and best value around, and they also have the systems and equipment in place to help with your motivation.

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got, as the motivational speaker’s saying goes. Joining a gym is seen as a January duty for many. If you’re looking to do it in 2010, do it differently, with a club that does it differently, and you might just notice a difference.

15 TIPS FOR JOINING A GYM

Thinking of joining a gym in 2010? Here's what you should think about before you start looking, when you go on a tour, and during a trial membership:

Before you start looking
1. What’s your goal? (fitness, shape, weight loss/gain, etc)
2. What will motivate you? (friends, environment, personal trainer, etc)
3. When / how often will you visit? (should it be close to home or work)
4. What facilities do you need? (gym, classes, pool, etc)
5. How much time/money do you want to commit?

Ask on your gym tours
1. Can I have a trial membership?
2. What are the options, can I upgrade/ downgrade/ freeze/ cancel?
3. Do I need an induction and will you set/review my program?
4. Are your instructors REPs certified? (Register of Exercise Professionals)
5. What’s included in the membership, and what’s extra?

To-do on your free visits
1. Visit at peak times, and times you would normally use the club
2. Use the facilities you need (check out the others)
3. Talk to instructors and other members
4. Haggle. Will the club waive the initiation, or reduce the monthly fee?
5. Share your goal with the instructors so they can help you

Merry Christmas

We wish you a very Merry Christmas
and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year

Pru cuts gym discounts

Interesting news last week in the Observer that PruHealth is cutting discounts on gym memberships. From policy renewal, the maximum gym membership discount available will be 25%. I’m surprised this hasn’t happened earlier, or that better processes haven’t been put in place to check on members’ commitment to their fitness.

Several club managers that I’ve visited have told me of members who seem to visit gyms just to swipe-in and maintain their level of vitality points (or similar at other providers). Some occasionally work-out, but there are a lot of people cheating by giving false data. A director at PruHealth who I spoke to last year said they were most interested in building critical mass, and not so worried about people exploiting the system. Now it seems that both the clubs and PruHealth will be losing members.

I think that the practice of discounting either gym membership or medical insurance in a partnership is a great one, but it clearly needs more monitoring than the current “visits per week”. Full health screening is expensive and does not necessarily link to effort. However, if the gym measured members’ performance with an exercise management system, it could report calories burned, weight lifted, or any other exercise parameters, rather than simply visits. This data would be appealing to the right kind of members/policyholders, and invaluable to the insurance company.

Sure, there would be a big brother aspect about this information, and I expect that the health informatics guys would have something to say about it, but I believe that it would work better than the models tried so far. It would also need much closer partnerships between the insurance providers and health clubs, but that would be another good thing, and might even lead to more healthchecks being carried out at the gym.

10k along Brighton Seafront

Up early this morning to get down to Brighton for a breezy 10k run along the seafront with Brandon, owner at FitForAll, a friendly, results focused gym in Hove.

A couple of FitForAll members joined us, and we headed down to the bracing seafront, running from Portslade eastwards past the old pier, and up to the new pier. Brandon certainly extolled his “local gym” image by saying hello to most of the people we passed, runners and pedestrians alike. The wind on our backs helped on the outward 5k, but it was a different story on the way back.

I wasn’t allowed to stop for a breather, so we slowed the pace for a few minutes before picking it up again. Cutting inland by a couple of blocks reduced the wind resistance, and Brandon kept me going with local knowledge and points of interest.

Back at the club 50 minutes later, I have to say it was a tough run but very enjoyable, and set me up for a good day’s consulting (and a good nap on the train home that evening!)

Measuring Retention

We hope you’ve been reading Melvyn Hillsdon’s retention series in Health Club Management about outlining your retention strategy and measuring effectiveness. The articles help to demystify retention calculus, setting out four measurements:

• Member Retention
• Member Attrition
• Membership Length
• Dropout Risk

Using some or all of these metrics, and setting clear targets is the key to improvement. As long as you measure consistently, you can check on progress.
You will need a system to measure effectiveness, but it doesn’t have to be a high tech computer based tool; a system could be a spreadsheet or a list. The secret to a successful system is to get the buy-in from the people using it and feedback the results.

HCM July 09 p37 – member retention
HCM Sept 09 p45 – member retention part 2
HCM April 09 p69 – retention software

More next time on member contact and communications.

Sell software downstream to achieve results

Why do so many software packages fail to deliver the solution promised? How come you’re struggling to achieve the amazing results that were presented in the case studies? Where is that return on investment?

One key factor is that the sales process often stops when the deal is done. The price is agreed, contracts signed, and management happily looking forward to the results and performance improvements. Next, staff are subjected to training and told of all the new tasks that they now have to do. There’s no need to sell to them, right? They’re just the staff, and the hard work has already been done getting the price right and contract signed.

Consider these alternatives:

1. Management involve staff in the sales process and also get involved in the training to show their buy-in, and ensure the staff buy-in to the solution
2. The sales process continues through the implementation of the system, ensuring needs are met and everyone realises the benefits (personal and corporate) of the new tasks that they have to do
3. Goals are set throughout the implementation, to show quick wins and ongoing benefits, to ensure everyone continues to buy-in to the new solution

The hard part often comes after the financial & contractual sale is complete. Focus on continuing to sell the solution throughout the organisation and you will have greater success, and possibly even exceed the promised ROI.

There are other alternatives and other important factors, such as not overloading on training. Why not add a comment with alternatives you’ve experienced?

Exercise Management Systems - the bees' knees

At GG Fit, we think that Exercise Management Systems are the bees’ knees. Systems like Technogym’s Wellness, Pulse Smart Centre and FitLinxx help to improve the gym experience in many ways, and any serious health club or gym should be using a system to help track member workouts and trainer interactions. Here are a few reasons why:


Members:

• More personalised service
• Easy to follow workout
• Enjoy coming to club to record, achieve & review goals

Trainer:

• Better member knowledge & contact
  
• Easy to ensure member programs are up-to-date
  
• Track new members visits & performance

Club:

• Know what your members are doing, not just when they arrive
  
• Set and measure staff performance
  
• Provide a better member experience

Of course, any Exercise Management System needs to be used properly, with the relevant components understood by the relevant staff, which starts with good implementation and training.

If you have any positive or negative experiences of Exercise Management Systems as a member, trainer or club, please let us know in the comments below.

Win a Caribbean holiday!

Really pleased to see the British Heart Foundation and Fitness First getting together to encourage the nation to run and cycle one million miles during May & June. This is a great example of a two companies with common interest in wellness getting together and setting goals to make people fitter and reward them.




Next they could use some technology, an exercise management system, shoe chip, or similar, and this would make it even easier and more interesting than log cards and online forms.

When will it get better?

I was with a coaching client (manager at a gym) recently, and she asked me before our appointment “When will it get better?” I asked her what she meant, and she said “I’ve got more responsibility, less resource, and more is expected of me each week… when will it stop?”

The short answer that she came to herself after a few minutes discussion was, “It won’t stop”. This was not very motivating, but knowing the answer to the (second) question was a start, and we moved back to making it “get better”.

Any number of time management courses or productivity techniques might help, but the first point we came to was to accept that you’re not going to get everything done. This lifts a weight from your shoulders, removes the worry of the never-ending task list, and frees you to get on with the most important task(s).

Mentoring over, we went back to coaching, and found (through some challenging questions) that there were quite a few areas that could be delegated, as well as some tasks that weren’t as critical as first thought.

We all seem to have more and more to do, and seemingly less and less time. There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do. Just don’t let this get you down. If you know what the most important things to do today are, there will always be enough time to do them.