Avoiding Dealing with the Sleeping Dog

There is a phrase in the Fitness Industry that says " don't wake the sleeping dog". If you are unfamiliar with the term it means that you need to be careful with contacting your members who have not used your club in a long time but still pay dues regularly. The warning is there so that you don't have a terrible change in your cash flow. What a concept to keep your business in a great light and focused on the customer experience great value in what you offer. NOT!

Pretty negative thinking, but my challenge to you is to contact ALL your member regularly, heck, plan it out and do it all the time. By keeping in contact from day one you assume the responsibility of ownership of that member's business. Engage them, get them involved in your club and earn their business for life.

Find a way to track the member's visits to your club and when you see a break from a habit, give them a call and show you care.

We are in the people business and we need to take the lead to ensure they get more than they expect.

Good Luck and Stay Focused on that member.... they are our business.

Tom

What is our Mission in the US Fitness Market?

What is our goal?

Are we interested in achieving a difference in our human society? We need to focus on the goal of teaching the non exercising members of our individual communities to start to move. Yes, if we could only get them to move every day. On a recent trip to Russia the sights included the lack of major obesity in the culture. With a culture of very few gym members it seems that the lack of overeating and the continual need to walk to events equals a more fit build and with the elimination of the alcohol and smoking would be a great recipe for healthy living.

Many measures of our society in America we take for granted the gift of fairly clean air, a government that is working to eliminate or at least reduce smoking in the country, and ready available healthy fruits and vegetables. Our children will enjoy a healthier life for our efforts.

If we could only make a difference in the way people look at themselves and we take the lead in our clubs to make sure that all people are welcome to enjoy the benefits we offer. The days of only fit people belonging to clubs need to end. Fit Folks cannot be the only people that get the need for what we offer. We need to structure our marketing to be more welcome to the mass of people that fear joining because they would not fit in.

By making the effort to market to all members of our society we can increase our market share tenfold.

Tom

Retention: Focus on the Result

Have you thought lately about the systems you have in your club? Have you checked the systems to make sure that they are getting you the correct result?
At our club, we realized that we haven't been checking on the exercise prescriptions that are being issued to our members. We like many others have mistakenly figured we taught them how to do it correctly that the Fitness coaches would be using their skills to execute it properly. In about 5 minutes and with ten quick reviews we realized that we would need to check their work on a regular basis. We had a coach write "whatever you enjoy" under the cardio section. This was a new member with very little experience and likely they didn't know what they "liked"at this point in their journey at our club. As owner/managers of our clubs we are responsible to make sure that all members become long term clients of our facility.
My personal experience has lead me to realize that if we don't check it, there is no reason to install it. Make sure you are getting regular looks at your systems and set up procedures so that you can see any changes in what you expect to be occurring. My best example would be to run your systems like you drive a car; you need to make small adjustments in speed, steering, and monitor your dashboard regularly to make sure that you stay the course.