Is Customer Service Dead? - Gym Owner Monthly Article

When people ask what I do, I usually say that I help gyms to get their members to stick around. “Ah, that’s a big problem” they say, “what’s the secret?” Customer Service is my quick answer, at which point they often tell me a horror story of bad customer service, sometimes at a gym, other times completely unrelated to fitness.

Studies show that a satisfied customer will tell 2-3 people about their experience. A dissatisfied member will share their story with 8-10 people, and some will push that number to twenty.

With the advent of low-cost gyms, customer service has all but died across the fitness industry.

Are you experienced? - Gym Owner Monthly Article

Since the advent of low-cost clubs, it has become customary to ask new joiners if they are experienced. Aside from building rapport, a big factor for this question is to see if the member needs a welcome session (induction). Whether the member is joining online or in-club, you might think it removes a barrier to joining, but it puts lot of new members at risk!

You know from all the research that members stay longer if they have a welcome session. Yet lots of clubs look for excuses not to deliver one. If you want to get your members to stick around longer, you need to eliminate these excuses, and sell the welcome session to as many members as possible. Let's translate a couple of objections:

mywellness challenge club: Love Group-X

Getting new (and existing or returning) members into the habit of visiting fitness classes is a great idea for February. There may be a few members who attend classes daily, but spot prizes, or a prize draw entry for everyone who does well can boost participation.

Be aware that this challenge only works if your members book classes through the mywellness app. If you use your front of house system instead, then you’ll have to re-think this one.

Retention Bootcamp for Independent Operators

Join Guy Griffiths, founder of GGfit for a one-day Retention Bootcamp to build on your sales successes from the new year rush!

Taking place on Thursday 27th February 2020 at The Village Hotel Basingstoke, RG21 4EQ. Registration and welcome coffees from 9:30 with an anticipated finish time of 4pm. There are only 16 places available, and tickets are going fast!

click here to book now

mywellness challenge club: Hi-Five Challenge Series

The Hi-Five series of challenges is designed to get your new members into the habit of joining and enjoying challenges. But existing members can join too.

It's a series of 5 challenges, where you must complete the first to join the second, and so on. You use mywellness groups to automatically invite members, so the challenges are otherwise hidden from view. The 'prize' for each challenge is entry to the next challenge, but if you have the budget to buy prizes for completion of all five challenges, a branded t-shirt would be a good idea.

New Member Challenges - Gym Owner Monthly Article

Gym challenges are a great way of boosting member engagement, giving members something to aim for and a sense of achievement, and giving instructors a (much needed) excuse to talk to members.

However, many fitness challenges are too challenging. They only motivate the kind of people who are already motivated. You don’t need to work hard for these members, it’s the quieter ones, or new members that need the boost. As fitness professionals we think it’s our job to push all members to the limit, but that will put many off (see my October 19 Gym Owner Monthly article about onboarding). You need to aim low to motivate the members that need it. 

Simple, Inclusive and Varied

The best challenges are simple, inclusive and varied. Sometimes, it’s worth dropping the word challenge, as this itself puts off some members. Events that allow you to “Donate your moves”, or “Join the 5% club” can be more appealing to the masses. Getting new members into the habit of joining challenges is a great way to build a connection.

mywellness challenge club: New Year Calorie Burner

If you already ran a calorie burner (pre-tox) in December, you might want to try something more varied for January, such as count of workouts. However, this is an old favourite, and always does well for all members, whether new or experienced.

Set a relatively easy target, and plenty of time to complete. You want lots of members to take part in the first challenge of the year, to get them in the habit, and get a massive total of calories burned across the whole club for the end of challenge announcement!

How to make More from Less as a Personal Trainer

How can a personal trainer make more money while their clients pay less?

It sounds like a conundrum; however, it is possible for you as a personal trainer to take less money from each of your clients, and yet increase your own revenue. Do you know how to make more from less?

You’ll need to understand how the systems at your club work, embrace the technology (that scares some PTs) and put in a little extra time on communication strategies. But it could easily bring in another £24k per annum, so it’s worth it!

Let’s say as a PT you see 5 clients per day, 5 days per week for £50 per 1-hour session (to keep the maths simple). That’s 25 sessions per week, making £1,250 each week, or £5k per month.

Here’s how to make up to another £500 each week. Firstly, you need to find out more about the systems in the gym, work out how to monitor your members performance, and how to send messages to members from those systems.

How to win the January gym battle (and retain your new members)

This is a copy of the retention article from Gym Owner Monthly Magazine November 2019. You can read the original article and the rest of the magazine here.

Everyone knows that January is the best sales month in the fitness industry. Most people also think that the new joiners have stopped visiting by March. As a gym owner, it’s time to help debunk this theory and get your new joiners to stick around in 2020.

New members are looking for a new start in the New Year, perhaps setting resolutions to get fit, shed the extra weight from the end of year eating and drinking excess, and get in shape for that (distant) summer holiday.

mywellness challenge club: Chase the Turkey

It's time to chase the turkey again this December. If you've not run this challenge before, it's great fun for members and staff alike, gets lots of people talking and running in the gym, and is great for social media and enagement with local businesses. 

The idea is that everyone signs up for a running challenge, one of your instructors or staff is The Turkey, and everyone who runs further than the turkey for the first 14 days of December enters the prize draw to win... a turkey (or equivalent).

If you can get a local butchers shop to donate a turkey, or hamper (in return for some publicity) this makes for a great prize, but a voucher for another local shop, or for a national retailer works too.

We want lots of people to be in the draw at the end of the challenge, so make sure the turkey doesn't run too far or too fast!