The Healthy Value of Health Club Membership

Some people get it right away and other come to know it.  Some people desire it and search for the way to get it.  Some people look into the future and see the benefits and others look back to the past and say what would be different today if I had it back then.

 

What is it? It is the power and wonderful feeling of exercise in an environment that it encouraging, challenging, exciting and rewarding.  We all need to move and many times today it seems the basic problem is the lack of movement in our lives.  Using all the conveniences around us today the simplest act of walking is pushed aside by the need to get somewhere quicker and faster than we did the previous day.

 

Prioritizing our weekly appointments with ourselves or even better with friends at Universal is a perfect way to fight the easy ones; lack of energy, no time for me, and stress reduction.   More importantly the big ones are combated in your workout time.  Heart disease is now responsible for 27% of the deaths in the U.S., Diabetes and High cholesterol is responsible for stealing the health of hundreds of thousands of members of our community.  Arthritis suffers find relief from the pain by participation in regular movement, whether that is on land or in the warm smoothing therapy pool. How about reducing the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease by 40% due to exercising just 15 minutes at day three times per week?  The basic fact is that exercise is key to a healthy and better lifestyle.  Without our health nothing else will matter much.

 

All this translate in to higher costs for health care for both you and the employers out there that are finding it harder and harder to keep this benefit viable in your employment package.

 

The good news is that we can all do something about this, by exercising regularly and inviting our friends and family to join us we can make a difference.   The latest statistics* state that exercise reduces heart disease by 27 to 41%.

 

When we take all this in to account what is the value of membership in a health club.  The cost of membership is a likely a tenth of your health care cost, less than many other things we spend money on like dining out ( likely eating less healthy than needed).  We will put forth month hundreds of dollars to drive a car that is much more than we need, but sometimes struggle with justifying the cost of our gym membership.  Honestly, if you don’t use it on a regular basis your thinking is understandable.  So why not step back in the ring get yourself a new workout program, try something new at the club so that you can identify that combination that will bring you lifelong success and avoiding the pain that will come as a result of inactivity.

 

 

Thanks

 

Tom

Deaths/Mortality

Number of deaths: 2,448,017

Death rate: 825.9 deaths per 100,000 population

Life expectancy: 77.8 years

Infant Mortality rate: 6.87 deaths per 1,000 live births

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:

Heart disease: 652,091

Cancer: 559,312

Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 143,579

Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 130,933

Accidents (unintentional injuries): 117,809

Diabetes: 75,119

Alzheimer's disease: 71,599

Influenza/Pneumonia: 63,001

Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 43,901

Septicemia: 34,136

 

Source: Deaths: Final Data for 2005, Tables C, 7, 30 PDF 808 KB

 

*In a recent article published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers from Harvard Medical School released data from the 10-year Women's Health Study that showed moderate exercise reduced the risk of heart disease by 27 percent to 41 percent. The study was performed on 27,055 participants, all of whom were women working in health care who, between 1995 and 1999, were free of either cancer or any evidence of heart disease. During the 10 years, 979 of the women developed heart problems. Of these, 253 had an acute heart attack, 398 had angioplasties and 219 were treated with coronary artery bypass surgery.

 

 

Sales Role In Retention

Your sales staff is the pivot point in the long term member formula. Your reception may be the first impression, but the stage is set up by your sales team. Coaching your sales staff to delivery a proper needs analysis is key. This gives the member the proper induction presentation based on what they desire. Additionally, if this process is properly recorded it can be used in the future to track success and used to build rapport with your fitness team.
it often occurs that a salesperson gets in a routine with his presentations and the result is a depersonalized interview with the prospect. Forcing a prepared needs analysis will insure that each prospect will feel that you are interested in them. When we talk about how can sales effect retention it starts with letting the new member know at the first interaction that we care about them and will not treat them impersonally.


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Can You Market For Great Retention

Would you go to a play without knowing what is to be going on? Would you spend the money without knowing that you "should" enjoy it and love the experience? It is likely we go there to experience the thrill of our emotions and to get a release from the world that engulfs us everyday.

It is important that you set out all your marketing for everyone to know what you are about and what you are going to deliver to them. Hey guest passes are dangerous you may allow someone to see who you are but not what you are. Ensure that your marketing includes a statement of what you are planning to deliver and how you are going to do that. We regularly mention our guarantee, our fitness coaches, and our group fitness commitment. People know when they enter our club that they want details on specific items that we promote. We differenciate our service. We stand for their success and we show we have a plan to deliver the outcome they desire.

For additional details please contact us at 717-490-8063

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Thought On Retention In USA

Many times I wonder why we have a problem with keeping our members. I have been to tens of clubs in the last year, most of the time I see beautiful clubs that are designed to cater to 20% of the American market. They succeed at getting less than designed, and keep churning
through all the others. Hard fact to face but it seems that sometime we need to shallow the
medicine needed to cure the issue. There is hope, and amazingly it is so glorious it's hard to believe. If u are successful now then plan to be even more amazed. The growth of your business and cashflow will be tremendous. Get set to go and hang on!

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Forks washington on Olympic peninsula Seattle trip with andy.
Yesterday we hiked the merryman trail to see a waterfall and found the huge trees amazing.
Reading 1 peter 2.
Living stones: God created us all be living stones to be part of the living church. We are called to base this project on the cornerstone of Christ and follow the blueprint of the Word of God.
Today we are going to head to the hoh rainforest to see the old growth forests and do a little hiking. Then it's back to Seattle for lodging. Think we need to go to my rainier yet to complete the must sees.

Geolocate this post

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Spent the day traveling on the west side of the Olympia park. Climbed on sea stacks and hiked in the rainforest. Short hikes today due to the long ride we had back to Seattle. Beautiful scenery was every where. God make a beautiful world, so sinful that we don't appreciate it every day we live I'm it. Can we even start to imagine the glory that is Heaven.

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Thomas Kulp needs your help

Fitnessblog, Just a reminder to tell you that I'm being locked up...that's right, I'm going behind barsto help Jerry's Kids and MDA. To be released on good behavior I have to raise bail and I need your help! All you have to do is click here to make a secure, online donation before 08/13/08. Your donation will help families living in our community and help guarantee me an early release.I can't wait to add you to my list of contributors. Thanks in advance for your help. Don't hesitate to call or email me with any questions. Together we'll make a difference, Thomas P.S. I'm counting on you, click here to donate. If the link above does not work, please cut and paste the address below into the address bar of your Internet browser. https://www.joinmda.org/centrallancasterlockup2008/tom/

Thomas Kulp needs your help

Fitnessblog, I'm proud to tell you that I'm being locked up...that's right, I'm going behind barsto help Jerry's Kids and MDA. To be released on good behavior I have to raise bail and I need your help! All you have to do is click here to make a secure, online donation before 08/13/08. Your donation will help families living in our community and help guarantee me an early release.I can't wait to add you to my list of contributors. Thanks in advance for your help. Don't hesitate to call or email me with any questions. Together we'll make a difference, Thomas P.S. I'm counting on you, click here to donate. If the link above does not work, please cut and paste the address below into the address bar of your Internet browser. https://www.joinmda.org/centrallancasterlockup2008/tom/

Calculating the Reason for Retention Focus

We often think that Retention is something we will worry about later. we have so many other things on our to-do lists. I challenge you to do a quick math problem.

You will need your current number of accounts, the average retail value of those accounts, and a calculator.

Take your current number of accounts and multiply that number by a factor of just 2%. Then take that product and multiply it by the average retail cost of your accounts. That answer is the increased revenue that will be generated by a 2% increase in retention... Pretty eye opening.

Now consider that this money is very clean, there is not a lot of increased costs that come with it, so the money is truly very close to an increase in your net income..

Example:

Active accounts 2500
Avg Retail cost 700.00

2500 x .02 = 50 saved accounts

50 x 700 = 35000.00 additional dollars on your bottom line

Try one of our actual clients' returns

Active accounts 5500
Avg Retail cost 1000.00

5500 x .05 ( yes a 5% increase) = 275 saved accounts

275 x 1000 = 275000 WOW!

This is possible for you, if you start to change your focus today.


Good Luck

Tom

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.

The Reality of Retention

As I strive to increase my knowledge daily of the answers to better retention, it becomes clear to me that our industry is suffering from lack of direction.

The answer to our mission is that we need to define our goal. That goal should be to create Members4Life everyday. It isn't as simple as sending cards or email, or even getting them to purchase PT sessions at Point of Sale. It isn't about giving them a complete evaluation. The answer my friends is "blowing in the wind". The answer is to change the environment in your club, every member of your staff needs to be on the same page and that is an attitude that you feel everywhere in your club. The "wind" that blows through your lobby, hallways and all your rooms needs to be that we invest all our time and energy in making our members successful. That member success is directly proportional to the amount of involvement that we get our members to accept.

As new members expect, unrealistically, that they will lose 5 lbs by signing a contract with your club as if a magic pill is available, so it is with our retention. It isn't one thing or even two, it is the combination of your commitment to the member's success and your team's attitude that IT is about the member's need, not your staff's needs, which come first.

Act today and start the change in your club by spreading a new attitude in your club. Tell one team member to act with the member's success first and soon you can have a positive epidemic in your hallways.

Club Industry 2007: Chicago

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

Spent the day in Chicago at the Club Industry Show. It is always good to get a look at the state of our industry. It is customary for me to take a walk through the whole show and get an overview of what is there. Some of the stands are occupied by the regular attendees, but it is the new and different stands that I search out. The new piece of equipment or the new product to make our clubs the latest and greatest. I always look to see what is there to keep our club on the cutting edge or what project we can bring back to challenge our staff.

As I ended my tour, it occurred to me how few booths there truly where and how few attendees were there. The latest number that i have read stated that there are over 27000 health club in the US and realizing how easy travel from Canada would be to these shows, why are there only a few hundred attendees. If every club only sent one person to stay in touch with the state of the industry the number would be hard for any event to coop with.

Are we so in touch with the industry with the publications and internet presence that we don't need to attend these shows. Personally, it should be a required event for every General Manager in every club. The speakers and the networking that is available is beyond the capability of our in house training ability.

We need to keep the progressive, entrepreneurial spirit flowing in the health club industry. It is said that we need to keep growing or we die. One of the best pieces of business advice that i ever read, told me to "sharpen the saw" everyday. Strive to learn something new everyday and implement the best of these ideas. It is better to try and fail then to not grow. This industry needs the consistent push to challenge the norms, and by doing this we in effect will continue to challenge and involve our members. Involvement equals longer retention.

Do you feel the pain review

Do you feel the pain?

Sometimes it really takes a major amount of hurt to make us react to a problem. Most of the time we don’t act until it is too late. In most clubs, in the United States and around the world, sales are still coming easily; with clubs signing enough contracts to pay the bills and owners still able to enjoy the good life. What happens when the stream of prospects starts to decline and the front end of your business starts to suffer? Do you act or react in your business?

It is time to prevent the problem before it happens. Let’s first change the way that we look at the club business and start to ensure that our sales turn into long term clients. So many times our business model looks like a tube with as many members falling out the bottom as we are signing into the top. We need to change the shape of the tube and let it form a funnel. We can adapt our marketing plan, our staffs’ attitudes and install a system of member induction that will cause very few members to fall out of the bottom.

Recently, a friend of mine wrote an article stating that if we assume a new sale is a customer we are mistaken, and only after two to three purchases from your business, may we claim that right to call them a customer. In the fitness industry, this may be altered to read that they aren’t a customer until they become a regular user of your club and have purchased additional services at your club. It truly is a question of involvement and until the new members feels the value in your club, it will always be too much money and not worthy of their time to frequent your club.

As club owners/managers we should be proactive in setting up a successful system of member induction that is able to identify a new member’s true needs and goals. This system should encourage and provide a pathway that is challenging but completely doable. Our staff needs to understand that often we over estimate the condition of the new member and may prescribe a “standard” exercise like 30 minutes of cardio, when the new member would be sufficiently challenged with 10 min three times per week.

We so often miss the mark of what is the true desire of our new members. Out of habit or complacency we prescribe an exercise solution that is not going to bring them positive results, either in enjoyment or positive physical change. We falsely decide that everyone joins a club to lose weight, when that may not be the reason at all. We are missing the bull eye if we are not identifying the real need. This may be a desire for more energy, or even the realization of improved health and well being. People will join clubs to be part of a social circle, to enjoy the feeling of people around them. They need to feel that they belong in our strange world.

If you ever traveled to a foreign country you probably have experienced the inability to communicate the same way you are used to doing at home. The simplest task, like buying gum, turns into a humorous exchange of pointing and nodding your head one way or the other. It can be an extremely frustrating experience. You desire a translator; You desire to have a friend that will be able to help you get acquainted with the lingo and once you hear it a few times it starts to get easier.

It is much the same with a new member deciding to travel to your club and walk through those scary doors into a new and different world. We need to identify this situation and train our staff to speak as an interpreter in our strange land. By providing an environment where the new member is able to learn the "language" at a comfortable pace, we in effect help them to become comfortable and realize that it is a place they should visit often.

We can all succeed in this goal by informing our staff of this issue and teaching them to realize and pay attention to the words they use. Sending a member to the fitness floor, or telling them to meet you at the Smith Rack will accomplish more harm then good. Teach them to use common terms, like meet me at the water fountain.

With a few simple implementations, we change the world, one member at a time.

· Teach your staff to view every new member as a life long friend. Use language that helps the new members understand your goal. Teach your sales team to tell prospects that we are building long term members and that you main goal is to make them successful.

· Develop a club attitude that is about the member feeling successful.

· Smile and be open, encourage every member of your team to make friends with every member they meet.

· Implement coaching into your weekly team meetings and encourage your staff to use the same type of language that you would use outside of the club to a non exercising friend.

· Start to keep track every month of new sales and cancellation and ensure that your membership is growing. Be proactive with new members with low attendance numbers and contact them if you see a decline in visits.

· Purchase or build a system that will ensure consistency in your club and be certain that all members are given all the tools necessary to help them be successful.

How nice the thought of your club with a large membership that stays for years and purchases many types of products and services from your business.

Take a little time and change the way you review your business. Every new member is a stone in the house of successful club ownership.

Good Luck and Success in having Members for Life.

Thomas Kulp may be contacted at 717-490-8063 or emailed at coachtom@dejazzd.com. Visit his blog at http://fitnessclubconsultants.blogspot.com

Retention: Start Now

What is the quickest first step to take to get a handle on your retention? Calculate it.

Let's take a count of all your member accounts right now. A complete listing would be accurate if you counted all the total accounts and not your number of members. I think that a discussion involving visits would be best served by actual number of members, but here we need number of accounts. If you haven't ever calculated your retention prior to this then we can you this number as your starting baseline. Every month we are going to add the number of new accounts (including reinstated accounts) and subtract the number of canceled accounts from the base number. The use of an easy excel spreadsheet would be beneficial and I would be more than happy to forward one to you, if you want to email me a request. Every month we can now see if we are growing or sliding backwards. At the end of any 12 month period we can then divide the total number of cancellation by the average accounts throughout the year to get our yearly attrition rate.

This information is key to deciding if you are doing the correct things in your club to be a growth oriented business.


Tom

Retention: Speaking the same Language

If you ever traveled to a foreign country you probably have experienced not being able to communicate the same way you are used to doing at home. The simplest task, like buying gum, turns into a humorous exchange of pointing and nodding your head one way or the other. It can be an extremely frustrating experience. You so desire to have a friend that will be able to help you get acquainted with the lingo and once you hear it a few times it starts to get easier.

It is much the same with a new member deciding to travel to your club and walk through those scary doors of yours into a new and different world. We need to identify this situation and train our staff to speak as an interpretor in this land. By providing an environment where the new member is able to learn the "language" at a comfortable pace, we in effect help them to become comfortable and realize that it is a place they should visit often.

We can all succeed in this goal, by informing our staff of this issue and teaching them to realize and pay attention to the words they use. Sending a member to the fitness floor, or telling them to meet you at the Smith Rack will accomplish more harm then good. Teach them to use common terms, like meet me at the water fountain.

This easy to implement skill will easily have a positive effect in your retention.

Tom

Value of a Retention System

Recently, a club owner contacted me and told me the system that we installed for him was in question. As I spoke further with him, we learned that he was only using the system when the member suited the program. Many new members were excluded in the program, because the salesperson didn't enroll them.

This is exactly one of the problems in our industry. If we even have a new member induction system, we have very little control over the entry and the process of how it is done. If you are going to install any system in your club, then accountability is key to the success of the system. What you don't measure, doesn't matter.

We allow our staff too much freedom and sometimes decisions are made for the wrong reason, that is one that is not inline with your companies policies. An excellent example is a club that I worked with had a 30-90 minute "getting started" program, when I ask how did they decide who got 30 and who got 90 minutes, the answer was silence. They didn't realize that their system had no system. It is too easy to meet with people we relate to, and difficult to relate to the ones that are different from the norm. Well folks, in the US market, 85% of Americans are different from "our Norm", we need to learn to speak there language.

tom

MIOFF 2007 Russian National Fitness Convention

Recently I spoke at the MIOFF 2007 conference in Moscow Russia. It was a wonderful event and my first opportunity to be introduced to the Russian members of our world family of club owners. Russia is experiencing an explosion in the fitness industry and the people that I met deserve all the success they are receiving. My talk on Retention Systems went very well with my lecture Q&A going well beyond the structured timeframe. It is wonderful to experience the excitement of an industry yearning for the knowledge to make them the best.

Many of our friends in Russia were interested in how to do it correctly from the first day and many questions showed their desire to keep there members for life. My passion for this goal was in high gear and the emails that will follow will be of the heart warming quality.

The fitness revolution was in full swing in a country with the average life expectancies in the range of 56 years. The high use of alcohol and the smoking taxes a high price on health. The fitness industry is in need of all the support we can give it to achieve the penetration levels we desire in the world market.

I am committed to making a difference worldwide.

Tom