JULY
2019 ISSUE
FITNESS CLUB
NEWSLETTER
FITNESS CLUB SUCCESS
Issue 9 - July 2019
1-2
Greetings from the Team
16 Questions To Ask Yourself About Your Fitness Club Marketing
3-5
Audience Specific Offers : Seniors
6-7
The Perils of Being Cheap
8-9
Fitness Club Systemisation
10 - 16
Having different Membership Options for New Members
17 - 18
How to Maximise Customer Value
19 - 23
Selling Fitness Services to your Members
24 - 25
Your Club Member Retention In Just 6 Steps
26 - 29
1
Greetings from the Team
Welcome to this months Fitness Club Gold
Frankly I’m astounded by our industry! Did you NOT read this in your INDUSTRY MAG?
If you missed it then you’ve GOT TO HEAR THIS… I’ve just put down a recent issue of Health Club Management. One of the industry’s leading research companies Pro Insight have published some research into membership sales performance amongst UK operators. Often, I take these sorts of reports with a LARGE pinch of salt. After all, 86% of leisure research is made up!!! (That’s a very bad joke I’ve just slipped in by the way).
But in this particular case I take this article from Pro Insight very seriously for 2 reasons: 1) I know the principles and they’re very good at what they do 2) They do a lot of it so I know these results won’t be skewed by a small data set (Which almost makes it all the sadder when you digest the results of their survey.) Ladies and gentlemen, may I remind you that the fitness industry is in a state of commercial “civil war” between the low-cost clubs on one hand and those who represent the Premium and serviced club market at the other end. It’s against this backdrop of fierce competition that the ability of competent sales persons to explain to an educated buyer, a compulsive proposition to subscribe to a more expensive club is at its most important. We have never had a time when the need for great sales people has been so great (if you are not trading at the cheap end of the market). The poor consumer can’t understand what’s going on.
2
Greetings from the Team
Here are their headlines (so you don’t have to read it yourself).
SAD FACT 1
Only 60% of face to face enquiries are asked for contact details at all
SAD FACT 2
44% of all face 2 face tourers are not asked to join
SAD FACT 3
ONLY 35 % of face to face enquiries are followed up within 48 hours
SAD FACT 4
33% of face to face tourers felt that their NEEDS were not being properly considered
SAD FACT 5
25% felt a good level of rapport had not been established
The report went on to look at sector differences and COUNCILS came BOTTOM! Only 28% of prospects were EVER asked to JOIN!!! (WOW!) It doesn’t make great reading does it? Hopefully Fitness Club Gold will help if your club COULD be one of those committing these sales “crimes”. Enjoy the content this month. Speak soon.
Duncan Green
T: 0207 917 2780 E: duncangreen@momentumbd.co.uk W: www.momentumbd.co.uk
3
16 Questions About Marketing
16 Questions To Ask Yourself About Your Fitness Club Marketing
I want to show you a great way to highlight some instant ways for you to bring in more members and grow your fitness club.
These are the questions that I ask my clients – and my experience has been that if you are willing to spend a few minutes giving them serious thought – the results can be quite profound. You should be aware that each question you answer ‘no’ to probably means that you are losing out on untapped income and profits.
1
Can you and your team name three things that set you apart from the competition?
4
16 Questions About Marketing
2
Do you communicate the benefits of your product or service in all your promotional literature, videos, websites, letters etc?
3
Are your marketing messages based on the principles of direct response ads that compel the reader to contact you – or are they mundane like all the competition?
4
When you speak to a potential new member, do you use words that set you apart from the rest and immediately capture the customer’s attention?
5
Have you tested Facebook advertising campaigns to attract specific audiences?
6
Do you send regular email communications and quarterly online newsletters to your customers and prospective customers?
7
How much time each year do your key team members spend learning leading edge sales skills?
8
Do you have an excellent lead generation process in place?
9
Do you obtain and use testimonials from your best customers?
10
Do you have an excellent on-going referrals system in place?
5
16 Questions About Marketing
11
Do you offer something of value to your website visitors in exchange for their contact details?
12
Do you know the most important piece of marketing information there is – your clients’ birthdays!
13
Do your team understand that the best way to sell is to ask questions?
14
Do you take great care of your current customers?
15
Do you use just one or two ways of marketing to promote your business? Do you know why you should be using between six and ten?
16
Do you realise that your competitors probably answered ‘no’ to even more questions than you did!
Pick just three of the above that are important to you and take some action today to improve those areas. Copy this article and come back to this checklist in the weeks and months ahead. You can use it as a very good way of measuring your progress as you implement the marketing strategies that are going to make a difference.
6
Audience Specific Offers : Seniors
Audience Specific Offers : Seniors
As we’ve touched on in previous editions of Fitness Club Gold, the power of Facebook marketing means we can be very precise about who we want to target for our adverts. And one audience that often gets overlooked is the Seniors market.
So why should we advertise to Seniors? There are several reasons why making your fitness club a hub for the senior citizens in your area is a worthwhile exercise.
Firstly, they are a group of people who are likely to have quite a lot of free time on their hands. Aiming at a 60+ years old audience means we’re likely targeting people who are retired and are looking for activities to do. Secondly, it presents a great chance for them to be with like minded people in a social environment that they may not get the chance to do much anymore.
7
Audience Specific Offers : Seniors
Thirdly, it makes great use of your Off-Peak hours when the club might be quieter, if you have a group of Senior members using the facilities during these times. It can help in generating extra revenue where you might not be utilising things now. Lastly, Seniors use Facebook too! That’s right, it isn’t just a social network for the younger generation. Older people like to use the app too and because of that, they’re a target market just like anyone else.
Running 1-Month Trial Offers during Off Peak hours can be a great way to welcome them into the club and give you a chance to offer something different to seniors that no one else is doing. Afterall, trying to be a club that offers something for everyone rarely works. Be different!
8
The Perils of Being Cheap
The Perils Of Being “Cheap”
I spent a fascinating day recently in the company of some industry veterans who are currently charged with running charitable leisure Trusts. I was able to sit in on a day when they discussed the financial problems, they were facing regarding balancing the books of their service. Just to set some context it must be said that these men know their stuff. They are no mugs when it comes to running leisure and have a total handle on all matters sales, marketing, customer service and are astute number crunchers to boot. The big stick that beat them up all day and haunted every possible course of action was the horrible spectre of “low price.”
When your income streams are heavily skewed towards Fitness club membership performance and your headline price is under £20 per month, it must be a very difficult place to operate in. As I made a long journey home, I couldn’t help but ponder how the fitness industry had allowed itself to get to this point with all the issues that low price brings.
9
The Perils of Being Cheap
Recent figures show the UK penetration of Adult Fitness Club memberships has reached nearly 15% of the population. If you consider that we have been running fitness clubs for over 50 years, and health education is so widespread that almost everybody is aware that regular exercise is good for them why are we missing out on 85% of the population. Clearly our established models of operation are flawed.
If we are going to make strides then we need to try out different models and a variety of formulas to see if we can make some traction into the non-joiners. None of this development is helped in any way by low price. It can’t be otherwise we would have seen high levels of participation, already right?
The rise of the low-cost sector has coincided with a reduction of direct staff in fitness clubs. This may have been a justifiable cut as owners and managers wondered what value they brought to members but imagine that we found a way for them to become relevant again. Who would take that chance on the back of these bargain basement prices? Let’s be big enough to face the truth though.
Nothing in life we buy that we TRUST as being QUALITY is CHEAP. Price affects TRUST and trust is based on price. Marketing cheap is lazy marketing! How does Toni and Guy dominate High Street hair salons if people only want a cheap haircut?
The fitness paradox is that operators basing their price on the perceived demographics of the catchment. If only I had a pound for very time that an operator said ”people round here don’t have much money”. Yet having reduced membership to dust they then offer PT at £25 - £45 per hour. Weird!
Three questions need answers:
1
2
3
What tips do you have to make Clubs more relevant to the 85% current non-members?
How can we attract them without asking for higher membership fees?
How can you transition a club from struggling low cost to a financially viable and successful model?
10
Fitness Club Systemisation
Fitness Club Systemisation The Important Lesson for Fitness Club Operators
Why McDonalds has 37,000 shops worldwide and Spicy Burger, Romford has just one! The question is how do Mackie Dees do it? How does a business selling something pretty straight forward like flipping a burger and frying some chips, (which almost everyone could do) ,with competition on every high street offering the same food, can be developed to a level akin to an art form and a global super company with over 37,000 shops and a multibillion dollar turnover? The research shows that a McDonald’s shop opens somewhere in the world, every 90 seconds. Often, they are staffed by minimum wage people who barely speak the same language as the customers they serve. Despite these seemingly significant barriers to success, McDonald’s have managed to achieve a level of brand consistency that makes them trusted by millions of loyal fans and the food retailer of choice for over 5 million people a day!
So, what lessons can we learn from their success?
11
Fitness Club Systemisation
Well, when you bring it all down to brass tacks; to the fundamentals of business; your fitness club, leisure centre, or PT centre operates just like any other fast food burger shop or any other business on the high street, in your town, in the world.
As an owner or manager you have a choice, when you design its operation, its target market, and it’s pricing as to which of the 3 distinct style of business you are going to run. It’s about the style not the sector. You can run any type of business in one of the following 3 styles.
The three types of business are characterised by the amount of concentration and importance that is placed on DEFINED BUSINESS PROCESSES. How organised it is, how systemised it is and most importantly how consistent it is. Let’s review the performance of fitness clubs in each of the 3 characteristic styles.
The 3 Levels of Fitness Club Business Systemisation
At the base level, the club is defined by the personalities that work in it. With no clear operating structure, the value (if there is any) is derived from the aggregate feeling of the relationships between staff members and their member fans. The cliques come togetherto give the club its overall ambience good or bad. It doesn’t mean the business is destined to fail if this is the case but clearly a fitness club which is reliant heavily onstand out reception staff, “star” aerobic teachers and legends of the gym area is going to be severely hampered by both staff turnover and by overloading the capacity of the stars to cope with their member fans.
The owner / operator has very little control over the performance of the club in businesses set up like this and while many have great starts when the enthusiasm of the newly launched facility is at its height, they nearly all suffer from year 2 syndrome and increasingly fall apart as “the stars” move on.
12
Fitness Club Systemisation
It also runs the danger resulting from a very vast diversity of service, between the natural stars, and the rest of the staff. This is very noticeable in clubs where the processes of customer service are under developed and left to the whim of individual members to orchestrate. Typical member comments in clubs like this are “if you’re going to have a programing session, make sure it’s with He’s the best by a long shot”. Or alternatively members say that sometimes the clubs great and sometimes the clubs not so good. “That reception lady never says goodnight when I leave the Club. The others all do”. Unfortunately, members define clubs by the lowest common denominator rather than the highest. The business benefits of longer retention and better sales figures are unfortunately mitigated when consecutive days of great customer service are marred by occasions when the standards are less than acceptable; Members feel the most recent experience most!
That’s why all operators should look at the final experience of the visit when members are leaving the Club as a vital process to manage. Every fitness club operator’s watchword should be “Finish strong“. Michael Gerber, author of the bestselling “E- myth Phenomenon” said that almost all successful businesses are based on being sufficiently systemised that they can be easily replicated. Replication because a consistent coordinated and carefully organised set of processes, procedures and behaviours that lead to a positive financial outcome for the owner should be the aspiration of all business owners.
It’s the key to successful branding and it’s the consistency that people seem to like when they turn to brands as their choice rather than more independent, boutique businesses. In level 2 businesses, Fitness Club owners have learnt the lessons of Gerber and are far more reliant on a set of behaviours, customer service strategies, member’s journeys sales and marketing systems etc. They are business akin to the Airlines, where your whole customer experience of taking a flight is highly predictable from initial ticket purchase; check in, on board service to arrival is delivered with a level of consistency and attention to detail which is the hallmark of the successful companies that carry air passengers. It is no fluke that that the check in process is always the same, that the air steward is waiting at the top of the stairs when you embark to say hello. That the emergency briefing is 99% exactly the same wherever and whenever you fly. Scripted and delivered fluently by almost every air steward in the industry! The inflight cabin service, the debarkation process with uniformed staff again standing in the doors to say a bright breezy bon voyage! It’s nothing more than just a set of well-rehearsed processes that have been carefully designed, trained and managed. The business consequence is that these same processes permit the airlines to charge a level of fees for tickets and build a brand reputation through consistency.
13
Fitness Club Systemisation
How do we as fitness operators match up?
Here’s a selection of Processes that I think are key to the successful operation of any fitness club, wherever and whatever price point. You need a thought through, quantified plan to cover the following:
Lead generation strategies Sales Process Prospect management system Prospect management system Membership administration process The first Visit The first 6 weeks of membership journey On-going member care programme Member Reactivation programme Member Secondary spend development programme
14
Fitness Club Systemisation
On-going Member Recognition schemes Member Renewal promotions Ex Member Reactivation Campaigns Club Performance management system Staff recruitment programme Staff training programme Staff compensation and reward programme
It’s not intended to be an exhaustive list but hopefully it’s a starting point for you. As someone once said “If you can’t write it down, then you haven’t thought it through “a truism that I think has stood the test of time. Think through each process. Log each step. Analyse the process for flaws and weaknesses. Identify the customer interventions, the scripts, the tools, and most importantly the performance measurement. Everything you do has an outcome on the financial result for your Club. Your task is to find the best processes that deliver the best results.
There are 3 ideal outcomes that drive the business:
1
Finding more customers
2
Improve their monthly transaction spend (membership, enhanced services & retail)
3
Increase their life expectancy (paying months rather than chronological age)
15
Fitness Club Systemisation
So develop your replicable processes that characterise Level 2 businesses and help give it a degree of consistency, predictability that builds a reputation.
Gerber gave us 6 rules of business development to be mindful of when developing good process:
1
The model provides consistent value to customers, employees, owners and suppliers BEYOND there expectation!
2
The model is operated by people with the lowest possible level of skill necessary to deliver expectations.
3
The model is operated and stands out as a place of impeccable order.
4
All work undertaken within the model is documented.
5
The model delivers a uniform ally predictable level of service to the customer EVERY TIME.
6
The model utilises and uniform colour, uniform and facility code.
And above these principles are the 4 main concepts underpinning successful Fitness Club development:
Innovation What you think that you might like to introduce that will have a positive impact on your business.
16
Fitness Club Systemisation
Orchestration How you will introduce operationally the new processes from your innovation phase.
Quantification Does it deliver in results statistically or financially what you needed it to? What do you have to do in terms of remodelling to make it happen next time?
Innovation (Again) How you will introduce operationally the new processes from your innovation phase.
It’s a never-ending process of retesting and process improvement but there will always be an increasing degree of continuity where foundation systems will be identified, and which will become the cornerstones of your successful club operation. It will be these that define your reputation. When you add the aerobic stars, the friendly receptionists, and the gym legends that we talked about from the level one businesses, and you persuade them to follow your processes but gain the benefits of their outstanding customer focused personalities, then you ascend to achieve a level 3 status fitness club. Places that can genuinely call themselves a brand. A place where people are proud to be a member, publically praising the facility and it staff and a place where people’s lives are changed for the better.
Good luck in your journey.
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Membership Options for New Members
Having different Membership Options for New Members
A prospect has come into the club and is ready to join you. Good job! But it shouldn’t end there… If you were running a budget gym, you’d collect there £9.99 a month membership and then never speak to them again. All of which will probably end up in them losing motivation, getting frustrated in not seeing results and possibly quitting their membership 5, 6 months down the road.
Becoming a member of a fitness club is no different than paying for any other service. You should get what you pay for. And gyms are no different.
The customer has the choice of going for the cheap option, getting a basic membership package or you can upsell them into more expensive but more benefits heavy memberships too.
18
Presenting customers with Gold, Silver, Bronze membership packages and offering them the choice of the type of membership they want based on their needs.
S.M.A.R.T START RAPID RESULTS PROGRAMME
YOUR LOGO
tion pular Op Most Po
Name:
Welcome Session Date: Time: Instructor:
BRONZE
SILVER
GOLD
You are an experienced trainer, familiar with our equipment and confident in your programming knowledge.
You are new or returning to exercise member, who would benefit from additional support.
For individuals who would like a high degree of service, support, guidance and management.
x1
x2
Personally Tailored Exercise Programmes Follow Up Refresher Session Online & Offline Programme Tracker Personal Progress Pack Before & After Photos Benchmarking Assessment Sessions Mentoring Support 6 Week Re-programme Sessions Friends & Family Nomination Scheme (5 x 14 Day Passes) Monthly Guest Pass
x1
x3
Fitness Services Discount Card
25% OFF
50% OFF
Heart Rate Monitor
50% OFF
100% OFF
MyZone Belt
50% OFF
100% OFF
SAVE £22
£67
SAVE £45 £135
SAVE £73 £218
£45
£90
£145
PT Session (45 min)
Joining Date:
Stacking up the memberships with extra bonuses canhelp to make the customer feel like they’re getting a premium service from you. It’s exactly the same reason why people upgrade their airplane seats to business class. If you give people a bigger and better service, they will be happy to pay for it.
Plus, over time, you’ll have a better indication of the type of clientele you should be focusing more on.
Membership Options for New Members
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How to Maximise Customer Value
How to Maximise Customer Value
The No.1 Mission for all fitness clubs must be to “maximise customer value�. The logics simple. Once the original membership sale is achieved then all further revenue is achieved with virtually nil cost of sale.
In the future, we can expect that the likely cost of acquiring customers will increase as the market becomes invaded by increased marketing noise from all sides both online and offline.
20
How to Maximise Customer Value
You are going to have to commit more money than ever before to get the same results in a crowded market and if you want to dominate then you will need to be spending significantly more than your competition. Leveraging enough financial power to advertise effectively will come from the knowledge and confidence (through factual on-going analysis) that once attracted to your club, the returns from the various monetisation sources you are utilising will easily justify your customer acquisition costs.
These costs fall into 2 categories. Lead generation. The activity to get prospective customers to reveal themselves. Conversion. The process and resources need to turn that non-payer into a subscribing member. The costs may be in staff time or in advertising promotions.
Measurement is king! We can’t stress this point enough. Really understand your numbers if you want to succeed.
6 Ways to Maximise Your Members Value
1
Increase Transaction size–Initial or Repeat
2
Increase Transaction Frequency
3
Increase term of retention and lifetime value
21
How to Maximise Customer Value
4
Increase PROFITS of business conducted with each member
5
Recover lost customers
6
Clone or multiply customers by referral
Maximise the benefits of each of the 6 and you will become the beast of your jungle. Here's a bit more detail and some ideas on how to achieve it.
Increase Transaction Size 1
Offer at the point of joining a Triple price sandwich of new member programmes ranging in quality of support and tuition and reflecting 3 price levels.
2
Offer options with added value for longer term commitment .One year in full, 2 year in full, 3 years paid over 12 months in instalments.
3
Use the concept of transferable memberships and money back guarantees to reduce the barriers to entry.
4
Look at ways you can add value to existing membership options with inclusive coaching, supplements, and other benefits.
5
Think about bundling of Sessions particularly Group exercise where customers are very happy to buy bulk for discounted rates.
22
How to Maximise Customer Value
Increase the Transaction Frequency Build a schedule of things that you can sell to your customers and most importantly work out ways that you can contrive a situation in order that you can simplify selling it directly either online or offline.
Here’s a starter list of things you could sell or add into added value memberships: VIP 6 week & 12-week starter programmes Personal Training
Personal Coaching Programmes
Personal Progress Measurement Packs 4 & 6 Week Specialist Programmes Re-programme Sessions
Dietary Analysis Sessions Fitness Assessments
Individual Group Gym Clinics Guest Passes DNA Testing
Blood Analysis Electrolytes
Small Group Gym Classes Seminars Webinars
Training Groups
Supplementation
Ready to Go Nutrition Meals Training Products
Home Exercise Equipment Consultancy Active Holidays Leisure Groups
At Home Exercise Education
23
How to Maximise Customer Value
Here are some Sales Vehicles that you can use to maximise the opportunity of the product development above: Point of Sale when joining up Online New Member Emails
New Member Follow up Phone Calls Social Media
Website Offers
Lead Magnet Opt-ins Online Initial First Visit to the gym Follow up gym sessions
In-Gym Rituals (10 minute hourly sessions)
New Member Newsletters offline and online Roll Call Webinars
New Member Welcome Nights
New Member Online Education Programme In Club Tannoy Announcements Club Hand-outs
Monthly Member and Guest days Quarterly Member Newsletter
Direct Mailed Fitness Gift Voucher Offers Birthday Offers
Christmas Offers Valentine Offers
Charity Donations
Quarterly Reactivation Fortnights
Monthly Meet the Manager Nights
24
Selling Fitness Services to your Members
Selling Fitness Services to your Members
Fitness Services are a collection of small programmes and events that can be sold to your existing members for an additional ad-hoc fee. These services can consist of Personal Training offers, specialised clinics and support, women-focused programmes, male-focused programmes, weight-loss clinics, group classes, online programmes, nutrition programmes and advice, DNA testing facilities, fitness assessments and many more.
If you can think of a ground-breaking service to sell or a feature of your club that no one else has, you should definitely be selling it as a fitness service.
25
Selling Fitness Services to your Members
Fitness services can be sold to your members via an online store website that can be bolted on to your existing club website. This bolt-on website presents a functional tile-based layout to your members where they can click through to each fitness service on offer. They are then shown a landing page for the fitness service they chose, complete with a call-to-action and data-capture form to register their interest. Once one of your members have registered their interest in a fitness service, you and your team can then upsell them the fitness service they were enquiring about, as well as a whole heap of other backend offers via a thank-you page.
One of the biggest benefits of offering fitness services to your members and suggesting them to try some out is making them feel more valued as a member, rather than a mere customer handing over their hard-earned cash. Talking of money, the other benefit to offering fitness services is that your member will become more valuable to you if they are spending more at your club on top of their membership fee.
26
Why Online Surveys Are Effective
Why Online Surveys Are Effective
Advertising online isn’t just about gathering leads and prospect data, it’s an opportunity to find out more about your target audience. And the more you know about them, the better chance you have of offering them what they want.
This is why advertising online surveys is such a useful thing to do for your fitness club. Like mentioned previously, it’s not just a chance to capture the prospect’s data. It’s an opportunity to sk the type of questions that would give you the best chance of eventually converting them into a customer. You’re almost interviewing them, without even having to talk to them…
You can gather a good amount of valuable information about their exercise history and what they want going forward. Subjects such as: • What’s held them back in the past? • What facilities they’d like to use? • What they’re looking to achieve from an exercise programme?
• What Group Exercise Classes they’re most
interested in? • What level of support they’d like?
27
Why Online Surveys Are Effective
Answers to all these questions will help you learn more about the prospects needs and greatly benefit in putting together a tailored membership to suit their needs.
So how do we promote our Fitness Survey?
We can create an audience on Facebook of the type of people we want to target to take the survey (possibly people looking to lose weight for example).
Then, we want to direct them to a landing page, explaining a bit more about the survey and how in a very short amount of their time, they can get started on getting the fitness programme they’ve always wanted.
From here, they’re directed to the actual survey, where we gather the information we want.
28
Why Online Surveys Are Effective
This can then drop into a results sheet showing all the data of the prospect and the valuable answers they gave for us to follow up with, knowing exactly the type of fitness programme they want from you.
Not only is it a great way to gather lead information, it’s very cost effective too. See how running Survey Campaigns has benefitted some of our clients below:
Hopefully this has given you an insight into why Online Surveys are beneficial for fitness club marketing.
It’s a way of putting together gym memberships that your customers want.
And with that comes better retention rates…
29
Member Retention in Just 6 Steps
Your Club Member Retention In Just 6 Steps
It sounds easy when you write 5 steps but it sure as hell isn’t. At least our formula gives you a blueprint to aspire to.
First off, your member service pyramid must be constructed in the same disciplined way as if you are building a house. The CX pyramid is the equivalent of your architects drawing.
Your Pyramid will only exist if it has robust foundations with every level built on thought through, consistent and appropriate processes.
EXPECTATIONS
30
Member Retention in Just 6 Steps
It simply won’t deliver the sort of results you want if:
• The previous levels are not fully entrenched • You jump levels too early with processes that are not fit for purpose or break down • You miss out some of the vital steps totally At each level of your service level there are 3 key factors which will determine how close you get to the perfect blueprint:
1
Innovation: The “what”
Is your strategy the right one to use? Is it the right way to do things?
2
Orchestration: The “how”
The methodology behind how the “what” is delivered on a consistent most effective manner in the business.
3
Quantification: The “outcome calculator”
Does the “what” deliver the success and the results it’s designed to do. If it does, then, can it be further improved with a tweak to the orchestration or some improved innovation? If it doesn’t, is that the fault of the orchestration and can that be improved or is the basic idea (the “innovation” component) a nonstarter and we need to rethink?
In summary at each of the 6 levels you need to road test the following: • Is it the best set of ideas for the business? • Is it delivered to members in the most appropriate way to deliver results? • Does it work as well as it possibly could? Let’s look at the 6 levels of our Customer Service Pyramid in more detail:
31
Member Retention in Just 6 Steps
At the foot of our model we have the base foundation level we call the “Hygiene factors”.
Level 6 - Hygiene factors Cleanliness
The expectation is that things are kept tidy, appear clear clean and look fit for purpose.
Digital Efficiency
Websites, apps, booking platforms do what they are intended to do all the time.
Operational Effectiveness
Staff turn up on time for things they are expected to turn up for and match the professionalism expectations of the member. At this level it is all about matching customer expectations and never falling below it.
Clubs at this level get no benefit from being ok. They just don’t get hurt because they don’t fall below the desired standard. Being Clean or having an app to book classes doesn’t get you talked about or make customers feel increasingly loyal to you. It’s merely a minimum standard. The contractual arrangement your member signed up to and expect you to deliver consistently.
Level 5 - Cognizance (Customer Relations Management) This is your members “notice me, I’m here” level of customer service.
This is your members “notice me, I’m here” level of customer service. In addition, Clubs need to build a system to offer up appropriate and worthwhile face to face and remotely delivered fitness programming experiences for new customers particularly in the first 6 weeks of membership when the customer is new and adapting to a new environment. Successful implementation of a good “cognizance” strategy DOES have a positive impact although once this recognition is consistently delivered for a length of time, it becomes something that only MEETS expectations albeit at a newly enhanced level.
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The danger for Clubs is in failing to maintain a level of consistency and not fall below it as this does have a negative effect on customer satisfaction. In Part 2 next Month we will look at the stages where the “magic” really happens. Namely...
Level 4 - Tracking & Customer Relationship Management Level 3 - Building Rituals Level 2 - Creating Experiences Level 1 - Delivering “Top of Mind” Touches Don’t miss it… there are some of our favourite, most engaging promotions featuring in it next month.
Member Retention in Just 6 Steps