Stop thinking like a salesperson and start thinking like a retention and customer service person. Too often, we sell a membership, and after that … crickets. Many people will not do a free personal training consultation because they have caught on that it is often used as a way for personal trainers to sell them on training as opposed to familiarizing them with equipment and setting them up on a successful workout plan.
Our club focuses 100 percent on customer service. As of this writing, we have an average length of membership of 53 months and a net promoter score (NPS) of 97 with a 40 percent response rate. We offer no incentives for the NPS survey, and many of our members don’t even know we see their responses.
These are the eight rules we live by:
1. Don’t answer the phone when a member is talking to you. Often when I am speaking with a member at the front desk, the phone will ring. I ignore it. Typically, the member will tell me to go ahead and answer the phone, but I decline, telling them that they were there first. If they insist, I tell them they are more important to me. After all, I have no idea who is on the phone. By answering the phone, you are telling them that no matter whom it is, the caller is more important than they are.
2. Fix everything immediately. If something breaks, fix it immediately. From tiny tears in the upholstery to treadmills going down, fix it ASAP. If you leave things, then the members think you don’t care about the club; therefore, you don’t care about them. Out-of-order signs look bad, especially if you’re giving a tour to a new prospect.
3. No 30 days’ notice to cancel. Do you really need to get that extra $40 out of people who want to cancel? How much is that $40 actually worth? If someone has to cancel their membership, why would you make them notify you 30 days in advance so you can get an extra month of dues out of them? You potentially had a member who liked your club but had to cancel for some reason. They may have returned at some point, but by charging them for that extra month, you just turned them into a detractor who will complain about you. Not only did you decrease the chance of them returning, but you also decreased that chance of getting or keeping as members all the people they tell about their experience. So, again, how much is that extra $40 really worth? If it keeps just one person from coming in or that former member from coming back, that will cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in the long run.
4. No enhancement fees. Nickel and diming will upset people, even if they don’t say anything or give any pushback when you tell them you are charging an enhancement fee. Just because they don’t say anything doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking you are pulling something over on them. Instead, raise your rates. The clubs that I know of will do an EF of around $25 per year. If you raise your rates by $2 you’ll get $24 more per year per member. Raise the rates for new members, just like you would when implementing an EF. Same money in your pocket without an angry members.
5. Keep the club well stocked. If a member tells you that you are out of something (such as paper towels), address it immediately. If you don’t do that right away, they will think you blew them off and that implies to them that you don’t care about them or the club.
6. Clean your club often. I know you already have people who clean your club, but you, the owner, should do it sometimes, and do it when the club is busy. Our members love to see the owner taking pride in their club, and there is no better way to do that than scrubbing a toilet. At 5:00 p.m. get a rag and a bottle of cleaner and start wiping down machines. (Don’t vacuum; it’s too noisy. Save that for when the club is slow.) When you are cleaning, people will start talking to you about what you are doing this weekend, how you like your new house, whether you can help them with a machine. It’s awesome and is a huge club culture thing. People leave feeling better about their club.
7. Push a trial pass. It’s really easy to “sell” a trial pass because it’s free. Just don’t call it a free trial pass because free has no value. Trial passes are valuable to you if you do them right. Once someone takes you up on the trial pass, you have two weeks to wow them with tremendous customer service. At the end of the two weeks, if you did this well (and better than your competition), they will be at your desk asking to sign up. Do not use trial memberships as levers. Tell people that you encourage them to do the trial to see if the club will be a good fit for them before committing to a membership. If your average length of membership is three years, at an average contract price of $43 per month, that comes out to $1,548 (and does not include any non-dues revenue). Those two weeks equal 0.014 percent of what we will take in from that member in dues during those three years. Is a hard sales pitch worth the money? No, it’s not. Push the trial memberships; let what you do in the club sell the actual membership.
8. Member first. There is absolutely nothing in your office that is more important than something a member needs.
BIO
Jeff Bissonnette has a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sport science and a master’s degree in exercise physiology and biomechanics from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse where he was an assistant strength and conditioning coach for three years. He has taught anatomy and fitness testing courses for the American Council on Exercise personal trainer certification exam, as well as consulted on a children’s fitness and exercise book for Acorn Publishing. Bissonnette has also spoken at the Club Industry convention. Prior to opening Anytime Fitness of Lake City, Bissonnette owned a personal training studio in Stillwater, Minnesota, for nine years. He and his wife Teri have owned their Anytime Fitness club since 2004.