I challenge you to try this......

Hi everyone,

Been a very busy period for me so apologies for the lack of content this year.

I would like to start this years information with an idea I have been having that I am not sure has been tried before.

I read a great deal about human motivation as I am very interested in why we do what we do and more importantly, why many members are unable to commit to lifestyle changes that deep down, they know is the right thing to do.

One of the common themes that I read is to do with the importance of owning the process and owning the goal. This means the person who is trying to achieve something e.g. lose weight, has a far greater chance of success if they are involved in the planning and commitment to the agreed goal. Please see a friend of mine's blog on commitment click here

Having visited many clubs and spoken to hundreds of trainers, my feeling is that we do not support this important process at all well. Trainers are often guilty of providing a goal to their members and then they create the path for them. The result is usually a Wellness System key, with a program and a long term plan that we do not follow up and support consistently.

This is a deep rooted problem in our industry and I believe one of the key reasons that many people fail to stick to a training routine. They simply do not own the process. It belongs to the trainer.

I then started to think about how we can address this issue and try to turn this negative into a positive. We have many excellent trainers in our industry. The knowledge, passion and expertize is wide and deep ranging from highly qualified physiotherapists to back care and weight loss specialists. We have excellent schools and education programs for our trainers to improve their skills and some incredible web tools and resources for trainers to constantly keep up to date with the latest trends and techniques.

Unfortunately, this is where the knowledge often stops. Our trainers hold on to this knowledge and only share what is needed with the client to create a program.

Think for a second, how many of your members are clear exactly why they are doing the leg extension or leg curl? I am sure that very few are 100% clear on why they have the type of program they have. If their answer is 'because my trainer gave it to me' then we can see my point.

Ok, so here I go with my idea. Yes its a bit different, yes trainers will probably hate it but if we look at the bigger picture here, what are we trying to achieve as club operators?

1. Highly motivated members?

2. Effective results?

3. Opportunities to create social situations?

4. Reasons for members to talk/chat/post on Facebook things about the club?

5. Motivate staff who actually start to think about the effect of what they do?

If the answer is yes then this should be interesting.

I would like you to challenge your trainers to create a monthly members evening where they teach members how to create their own training program. Sound simple? thats becasue it is simple.

Think how many members would like to learn all about how to burn fat/lose weight and the process of how exercise can speed up this common goal?

How many members would like to understand the process of building stronger muscles and keeping the body lean and strong?

How many senior members want to understand the importance of stretching and keeping mobile to improve their quality of life or improve their golf swing?

Lets work with our members to give them the knowledge to do this for themselves.

You have the perfect tool in the Wellness System, all you need is a room, a projector and the system and you can work with a group of members showing them how a program is constructed and explain why.

Split them into pairs and get members helping each other to write programs and in the end you can upload their final program onto their key. They have been educated, set their own goal and can develop the program to gain long term benefits.

I honestly believe that this will shake up your trainers and give them a whole new approach to members motivation. You could be the first club to educate members to take their own responsibility and shape their own path.

The alternative of course is to go on giving members programs and seeing nearly half of the fall out every year!

Remember, it is all about member experiences. How many people would you tell if you wrote your own program and it actually worked!!

I would really appreciate your comments on this post, am I finally going mad or is this a realistic idea?

Have a good winter holiday

George

Maximise the member experience

Morning all,

hope everyone is well and having a good sales period. Clubs are reporting good numbers and this seems to be a very positive period.

I want to discuss 'The member experience' with you. It is something I have been reading a lot about during my vacation a few weeks ago and is more relevant in todays competitive market than ever.

Please take some time out of your busy schedule and think about your own customer experience. Could you describe it?, is your description the same as your customers?

Try to finish this statement.

When you join my club, you will experience the following ...................

If you struggle with this you need to spend some time thinking about how you want to be described by your members. How many members walk out of your club and have anything positive to share with friends or family.

I had a discussion with a group of trainers the other day and asked them if they wanted satisfied members. As you can imagine, the answer was an overwhelming YES!

I was flying back from Stavanger on Thursday evening and had a cheese sandwich. It was satisfying. I would not, however, go home and tell my wife about it. It was not memorable and I probably wouldn't buy one again. At the time though, I was satisfied.

Is this what we want? Really?

We must raise the bar and provide services and experiences that delight you members and create a devoted following.

Ask anyone who has a new IPhone if they are happy with it. The response will go way beyond satisfied. People are devoted to apple products because they provide a superior end user experience. Their focus is on the customer experience, not the device itself.

Anyone who has flown with one of the superior airlines Emirates, or Singapore Airlines will describe the experience with a smile and enthusiasm. I don't think the same could be said for the low cost airlines. I am not sure I would recommend anyone to choose KLM for example. They are not bad and they offer a satisfactory service, but thats all it is.

Lets look at what makes a great experience for a second. Your members have joined your club for a reason. This can vary from member to member but lets say that most members join because they want to lead a more active and healthy lifestyle. They will use their club maybe once or twice a week. This means you have between 4-8 opportunities a month to provide an experience that the customer could tell someone about.

Dont misunderstand me, I do not think you should aim to wow customers every time they come to your club. This is crazy, unrealistic and would be annoying.

So lets look at some ideas that might work and could be cheap and easy to do in your clubs.

1. I use to teach spinning many years ago and every week on a Monday night I would prepare a box of cut up oranges that I would pass round half way through the class. Members loved it.

2. When I was a fitness manager, during peak times I would walk around the gym with two large jugs, one full of ice water and one full of a powder energy drink we sold downstairs and offered to fill members bottles. We would see a huge increase in sales of energy drinks and it was a talking point.

3. Create a signature smoothie that members can try before a workout to give them an energy boost.

4. Your trainers should be encouraged to train with members for short periods e.g. grab a member off the abdominal machine and tell them you will go through a 5 minute abdominal routine that will take their training up a level. Same with inner and outer thighs, same with back strengthening.

These are all problem areas and all members want strong abs, back and butt! Look for the opportunity and members will tell everyone about the experience.

5. Speak to other local businesses and see what they can do to help. Can you get some discount vouchers, gift certificates, samples etc. My wife has a Pilates studio and has a relationship with the local baby/children's clothes shop. Anyone spending over 100euros gets a free gift certificate for an introductory PT session. In return, my wife's customers get 25% discount vouchers off children's clothes. Everyone wins!

The critical thing is that you physically had out the reward, do not leave them on reception or send them in the mail. You will miss the opportunity to get the reaction and interact.

6. Member appreciation month could be a great idea to show members that you love them. Do lots of activities and create a real buzz with special classes, small group training, new programs and presentations on training, back care, nutrition etc. Get the press involved and make sure the story shows your love of your customers.

Of course there are many things that you can do to create an experience, I read a blog the other day that had a really good idea. When you replace or buy any new equipment, dont just put it in the gym, present it as a gift to members and have an evening launch to say thanks for their loyalty. Keep them covered up and then pull the sheet off creates a real sense of excitement. Speak to your Technogym Sales Manager about supporting this.

Clearly there is a number of ways of using the system to support the whole experience. Use contact manager to send different messages to different users to get them involved. Create programs that you can promote and offer customers.

I hope this is useful and of course if you want any specific advice drop me a line

George

Top 5 Retention Trends 2010

In this blog we look at what are predicted to be the top retention trends in the coming year.

1. Measuring retention accurately and benchmarking

As the economic climate took its inevitable toll on membership cancellations last year, many operators began to focus more feverishly on retention. This starts with measuring it properly. Purely looking at cancellation numbers and percentages will offer little comfort when trying to establish strategies to prevent them. In 2010 measuring the ‘membership life’, or more specifically, the ‘median length of stay’ of your member base will become much more popular. This measure will help operators to determine how they compare with their competition and, more importantly, what action to take to improve performance.

2. Targeting ‘high yield’ customers

Operators who measure retention using ‘length of stay’ are ahead of the game as they are able to analyse key member characteristics in their data, to identify which types of members stay the longest. This year there will be an increasing trend towards understanding the ‘lifetime value’ of the member base, that is, which members stay longest and pay more over the course of their membership life. These are the ‘high yield’ customers. Knowing which members produce the highest yield will influence marketing and sales trends, leading to operators gaining a much higher return on marketing investment for every member who joins.

3. Inductions

For the last few years many operators have been implementing some form of induction process, but the big trend in 2010 is towards clearly understanding if the process is working and how / what to do to improve it. A member’s experience in the early weeks of membership is key in determining whether they are retained in the long term. As sales pressure has increased over the past year, sharp operators have begun to turn their focus to not just creating a ‘member journey’ but measuring it and managing it effectively.

4. High Risk Customers

In the last year many of the major operators have conducted studies and analysis into ‘high risk’ customers, i.e. those customers most likely to cancel at a given point in time. This trend and increased investment is set to continue in 2010. It’s demonstrative of the simple acknowledgement that when it comes to retention, prevention is far better than cure. Just as operators want to understand our ‘high yield’ members so they can attract more of them, many of the major players are identifying existing members who are at risk of leaving so that we have time to intervene before they make the decision to leave.

5. The changing role of the ‘Fitness Instructor’

Although research has shown for some time that interacting with your members on the gym floor will encourage them to stay longer, many operators are now going one step further in ensuring that any interventions are ‘quality controlled’. This recognition that staff are at the heart of membership retention has seen new methods of staff management being developed, including new tools and processes to assess the impact that staff have on member motivation and ultimately membership life. Incentive schemes are also beginning to be introduced, rewarding staff for their skills and contribution towards improving visit frequency of members and hence retention.

DO YOU STINK?

Dear all,

Hope we are all well and membership numbers are creeping up.

Be warned, this post has nothing to do with Wellness System.

I want to share something with you that I have been reading in a fascinating book. Buyology by a Danish marketing expert Martin Lindstrom. Basically it looks at why we make the buying decisions we do based on the different activity in the brain when we are exposed to information by advertisers and brands to get our attention.

I want to share one of the areas that it looks at that I feel is relevant to our industry. How much a smell can have on your decision to buy something.

I want you to think for a second about your club. Think about what it smells like. How would you describe it? is it a pleasant smell? does it give you a good positive feeling?, does it energize you, do you control the smell or does your members sweaty shoes create the smell? what impact does the smell have when a completely new customer walks in on their likelihood of joining your club.

What kind of an environment are you trying to create? a relaxing area for sitting and sharing coffee, a high energy feeling, a luxury spa feel etc?

There are many questions above which you should know the answer to. What you might not know is the power that smell has over your emotions, and how powerful emotions are when we are making buying decisions.

The most recognizable smell in the world is Johnson's Baby Powder. This has been scientifically proven. This is because it was an extremely widely used product and in its day there were very few other baby powders on the market.

The slightest smell of Johnson's baby Powder instantly transports you to a safe place, a place of comfort, security and happiness (for most people). It is this reaction in the brain that we call association. What does a smell do to us that makes us instantly think or visualize something in our memory so clearly. we have all experienced this at some stage.

One of the most popular smells in the western world is vanilla. This has been demonstrated all over the world with brands such as Coca Cola choosing Vanilla as a key flavor to it secret formula. Many luxury perfumes are vanilla based and of course the most popular type of ice cream is vanilla. It is also one of the key smells in Johnsons Baby Powder. Ikea sell nearly 8 times more vanilla candles then any other scent.

One of my wifes clients told her the other day that she was in Ikea and when walking through the candle section was instantly reminded of her last Pilates session. (She fills the room with them)

So, what is my point?

Based on the research presented on how our brains respond to smell and it association with something we do or have done, I can strongly recommend that you control the smell in your club as much as possible. Whether it is the smell of fresh coffee, lemon air freshener or the luxury smell of Vanilla candles, there has never been more choice or methods of creating a pleasant smell in your club. The important thing is to keep it consistent. (If you are clever, you will strike a deal with your local gift/interior shop and say that you will put a sign next to the fragrance saying where it is available. Don't worry, people will still associate the smell with a good feeling of working out.)

Think about the type of feeling you want people to have when they walk into your club and find a smell that best represents that. The nose creates far more emotional response than the eyes.

Looking forward to smelling the difference.

Why are our 'Weight Loss' programs not full?

Good evening all,
Hope you have all had a nice summer vacation.

Something has been playing on my mind since a couple of Friday's ago when I visited a really good club in Oslo.
I was being shown round the club for the first time. I got the studio tour, the various group exercise studio's, spinning etc, I was then shown into a room which had a U shaped table and a projector in the middle of the room.
'This room we use for our weight loss program' I was told. The club had approximatly 700 members and they had a grand total of 55 people enrolled on the course.

Now, I have been in this industry for a good while, and I know that the majority of people who join clubs are still wanting the same outcome. Weight Loss. This is a fact. Some clubs will have a higher proportion than others but I would stick my neck out and say that between 60 and 75% of your members joined wanting to reduce their weight/bodyfat.

It is also a fact that the majority of people that are overweight do not want to or do not enjoy physical exercise.

Lets face it, if Health Clubs were the answer to permanent weight loss, we would all be full and turning people away at the door.
So where are we going wrong?

My first suggestion is that the education programs that our 'expert trainers' have done to become qualified do not set them up to deal with the vast majority of customers.
Secondly, we do not set our new, nervous, overweight members up to succeed. (see previous blog)
We do not have a good enough 'Weight Loss Program'

Let me try to put this in simple terms to try to demonstrate how bad we are at this.
Imagine you own a restaurant. You have a menu offering 10 dishes. As customers start to come in, you can see a trend forming. The steak is selling like crazy. 7 out of 10 customers coming in want steak. You start to get a reputation in the area as THE place to get steak and more and more people come from further away to try it. They tell their friends and very soon you have started to market your restaurant as 'the talk of the town', best steak in town etc. It is a simple case of meeting the needs of your customers and ensuring that you deliver results.

What do we do? We open a club, we start to see a trend of people coming in are asking for the same thing, we dont automatically enroll them into the weight loss club/program because we have either priced it so out of reach of the majority of members that we are afraid to tell them the price, or, we dont have a dedicated program for this group of people. We therefore put them into the same catagory as the rest of our members, give them a program and hope to seem them in 2-3 months all happy and thinner. If they ask for steak but we give them fish, can we be suprised if they dont come back or tell anyone.

One of the reason I think that we do not get more people to enroll on WLP's is that we are unable to effectively show the results that are achieved by previous students.

Answer honestly, how many of you reading this can answer the following questions if I called you right now?
1. How many people have achieved their weight loss goal since you started the program?
2. What is the percentage success rate of your weight loss program?
3. What is the normal success rate of a weight loss program (are you better)

4. How many of your members are aware of your weight loss program?

5. Can you prove it!

So how do we use the Wellness System to effectively 1. support your WLP?, and most importantly, how can we show the results in an effective way.

The first step is simple. Every member who enters your club looking to lose weight MUST join the program. If they are not, what was the barrier for the customer. It is rarely about price. This is simply the easiest excuse and we often are not comfortable or confident defending it.
As business people are we honestly saying that 10% of our customers getting what they NEED is OK?

The next step is to get every single one of your trainers to accept that most of the members in your club are not interested in their qualifications, how many different things they can do with the latest trend e.g. kettle bells, redcord etc.

They want support, simplicity and above everything else to be surrounded by people who are going through the same thing as them. Any trainer that thinks that a weight loss member has the strengh and will power to do it alone is simply increasing that members Drop out Risk.

Could I call your club tommorow, ask the receptionist to tell me about the weight loss program and get a good enough response that I think i should come down and join? If not, you are missing a huge opportunity

Creating quality, calorie based programs in your system is the first step. Make sure that they are fun and do not keep people doing the same thing for very long. Mix them up so a member has a 300, 400 and 500 calorie program with a recommended total per week. Do not forget to add some activity when they are not at the club, walking etc.

Ensure that you take benchmark readings of the customer at the beginning of the program. two reasons for this. 1. You will be able to demonstrate to the member that it is effective and 2. You will be able to collect the data and use it to market the program to new prospects.

The Fitness test and the strength test are a great start as they improve very quickly and will motivate the member to continue. Body Fat is not such a good test and neither is body weight as they do not move very quickly.

Go through the test with you member and then print out the result for them to take home.

After you have done the test, it is critical that you make the appointment for the next test. This provides the member with something to aim for short term.

Think about your weight loss Program and if you would like to respond to this blog with any suggestions or good ideas it would be great.

Busy period coming up.... Good luck out there

Translating this blog

Hi all,
Trying really hard to find a way of simply translating this for all countries. As you can see on the right, there are languages avilable. When you select your language it comes up with an error. At the top of the page however, you can select to translate from English to XXXXX. Choose your language and it should be fine.
BR
George

Are you setting your members up to fail?

Evening everyone,

Can't believe it snowed all night!!! Not funny any more.

I want to share my thoughts on a common problem that we have in our industry.
When a new person joins our club, we go through all the usual questions about what they want to achieve, why they want to lose weight, how much etc. We probably ask what they like and create a program for the customer that lasts between 30 ad 60 minutes.

The question I would like to focus on in this blog is this;
'How often will you be coming to the club?'

This is probably one of the most important questions you can ask a new member.
I always ask trainers during WS education, what they normally say to a member who responds with 'How many times SHOULD I train per week?'
The answer is always 2-3 times!
Believe me, if all your members visited your club 2-3 times per week, you would have big problems.

The problem with responding to the members question, we (the trainer) take full responsibility for the members visit frequency. We therefore can not be surprised if our members do not meet this goal and in the process feel guilty that they are not doing what the trainer recommended.

This is what I mean by 'setting them up to fail'

When someone joins your club, please do not think for one second that they have worked out what day/time of the week they will be coming. People join and then try to make it fit. Some much better than others. This is why you will find that the average visit frequency for your club is probably less than one visit per week.

It is your trainers responsibility to set your members up to succeed. To do this effectively, they must help the member to plan their week and ask the member to say when they can commit to visiting the club. Believe me, this is not easy as most people want to avoid responsibility and commitment at all cost. However, if the member commits, they are much more likely to actually follow through with THEIR visit goal.

So, what to do. My suggestion is that you create a one page, branded/logo week planner which has the days of the week along the top, and then morning, lunchtime and evening down the side.
The trainer can then simply go through a customers week and tick the days and times they can commit to. They can then go and stick it on their fridge to remind them of their exercise days.
The simple things in life are often the most effective.

Good luck and have a great week

George