Increase Member Retention with "Teachable Moments"

One of the best ways to create loyal gym members is to become their reliable source for health and fitness advice. When they feel that you, the health club owner, are on their side in the fight against fat then they'll be far more likely to recommend you to friends and remain a happy gym member.

A great way to become a reliable source of health and fitness advice is to review the daily news and turn current events into "teachable moments" for your gym members. For example, today the New York Daily News ran this story: "Worse than fast food? Meals at independent restaurants average over 1,300 calories a plate, study finds". (read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/worse-fast-food-meals-independent-restaurants-pack-caloric-punch-article-1.1342837#ixzz2TSHACuyK).

As you're probably aware, articles and studies like this are a dime-a-dozen. Just about every health and fitness magazine has done a similar article, and for good reason. This stuff SELLS. People are interested about fast food nutrition. People want small, sound-bite nuggets they can use to make healthier choices in their everyday lives. (Hence the runaway success of the "Eat This, Not That" books.)

So how do you use current events to increase member retention? How do you become a reliable source of health and fitness advice by using current events?

The easiest way is to write short, informative articles and distribute them to your gym members. Come up with a clever name "Jane's Nutrition Blast" or "Notes From The Weight Loss Boss". Distribute these short articles as a handout in the health club, by email newsletter, by posting on your site and by posting on your Facebook page. Get 'em OUT THERE and make sure each one includes your gym name and contact information.

When you've been doing this for a while, you'll gain a reputation as a gym owner that ALWAYS knows what's going on with health and fitness news. Gym members will come to you FIRST for advice on the latest weight loss story or gimmick or fad, and you'll be the local expert! Don't be surprised if word eventually gets out and you have the local media asking you for quotes or opinions!

Need an idea to help you get started? Here's a link to an article about fast food and weight loss, which coincidentally is in the news today.

The bottom line is that using teachable moments to help your gym members lose weight will inevitably increase member retention and turn you into a local fitness expert. Eventually you'll have a growing library of AWESOME articles.

 

How to Increase Gym Membership Retention

How to Increase Gym Membership Retention

How Partnering with Medical Providers Creates a Win-Win-Win Situation

Perhaps more than anyone else, people trust their health care provider. According to a poll done by Gallup in November 2012, the #1 most trusted profession in the United States is nursing. The 2nd most trusted professional is the local pharmacist, followed by medical doctors at #3.

As a gym owner, one of the best things you can do to increase member retention is to get members' health care professionals involved in their weight loss journey. By getting a doctor or nurse involved in the fitness process, you're actually creating a win-win-win situation where the provider, the gym member and YOU the health club owner all benefit.

The first "win" is obviously for the gym member. Deciding to exercise is a pretty big decision for most folks, and one that's hard to stick with for the long term. By getting their doctor involved, they'll get some personalized advice and yet another person in their corner cheering them on as they seek to lose weight. That gym member will (hopefully) have the support of their family, friends, co-workers and now their doctor as they push themselves to new heights of physical fitness. That's a huge win for them! After all, who's more qualified to provide accurate advice and reassurance that exercise is indeed worth the effort?

The second "win" that occurs when you partner with medical providers is reserved for you, the gym owner. When you have a member who's making typical progress with weight loss and overall fitness, it's often the case that this "typical" progress is too slow for them. This feeling of too-slow is the danger zone of member retention! If Sally is exercising 3x per week and isn't seeing immediate payoff, she may quit the health club in frustration (just like she quit the last 14 diets she was on).

By partnering with Sally's medical providers, however, you can give her some serious reassurance that she is indeed making worthwhile progress! The doctor can show that discouraged gym member that although the scale may not be dropping as fast as she may like, there are other significant and measurable benefits to regular exercise. For example, maybe Sally's blood pressure has dropped since she joined the gym. Maybe Sally's resting heart rate has decreased since she joined the gym. Maybe Sally's balance has improved, or maybe her strength has increased, or.....well, you get the picture.

When the doctor or nurse is involved, you can let THEM explain the benefits of regular exercise to your gym members. In other words, you'll have the most trusted professionals in the country affirming what you've been saying for years: consistent exercise works and is specifically working for Sally (or Bob, or Jane, or Mary). THAT is the big win for the gym owner, and that's how to increase member retention by partnering with medical providers.

So, exactly how do you partner with medical providers?

The easiest way is to encourage the gym member to discuss their fitness results with their doctor. You're probably already measuring and weighing them on a monthly basis (if you're not, you should be) and tracking that information to show them progress. Each and every time you add to that tracking page, you should provide the gym member with a copy and encourage them to share it with their doctor. Every time. Those that do discuss their progress with their doctor will hear nothing but positive reinforcement to keep at it, keep exercising, stay motivated and overall to NOT QUIT. Can you think of a doctor that wouldn't recommend continued exercise?

Another way to partner with medical providers is to bring them into the health club. Any time you can get a doctor, physical therapist, or chiropractor into your fitness center, it's a very positive thing.

But how do you get medical providers into the gym? This brings us to the third and final "win" for this member retention strategy, and that win is for the medical providers themselves.

Many health care providers are out there actively seeking new patients. Health care is, after all, a business and every business needs customers. Find a doctor that needs more patients, and invite that doctor to do a 1-hour guest lecture in your gym. They can give a speech about the benefits of exercise, a different topic, or just host a no-holds-barred question and answer session with your gym members. This format is VERY successful in drawing a crowd (anyone heard of a little show called The Doctors?).

Okay, so to summarize this strategy of how to increase gym membership retention by partnering with medical providers, you'll basically be creating a win-win-win scenario. The "win" for the doctor is that they basically get to give a 1-hour commercial to a captive audience of targeted consumers who already care about their health. That's PERFECT for any health care provider who needs to pick up some new clients. The win for the gym member is that they'll get some expert advice that is personalized to them, along with a dose of encouragement that could make all the difference as they strive to achieve their fitness goals.

Finally, the "win" for you as the gym owner is that you get educated and motivated health club members who will not quit the gym because their doctor told them not to! Exercising to lose a few pounds and look better is one thing. Exercising because your doctor has personally examined the gym and has instructed (prescribed?) that you continue working out is another thing entirely! Once you obtain the endorsement of a member's health care provider, chances are you've got them as a member for life.

How Are You Going To Sell More Gym Memberships Today?

How are YOU going to sell more gym memberships today?

Are you content with the number of health club memberships you sold last week? How about last month?

If last month wasn't good enough for you, then maybe it's time to set a new goal.

C. S. Lewis once said that "You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.".

So, do you have a goal for how many gym memberships you're going to sell this month? How about TODAY. Do you have a goal, written down, for how many gym memberships you're going to sell today?

If you don't know where you're going, how will you know which direction to take or how fast to run?

If you don't have a goal, then how will you find the motivation to get started? If you don't have a goal, how will you ever find a sense of satisfaction upon reaching that goal? If you don't have a goal, then how will you ever decide to change strategies? If you don't have a goal, then how will you ever accurately and objectively measure success?

Running a health club business (or ANY business) without goals is bit like driving a car without a steering wheel - it's possible to go fast, but where are you headed?

If you don't have a goal for selling gym memberships, then you don't know where you're headed today. Set a goal, and do it today. Because "You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.".

Are Anytime Fitness Enrollment Fees Too Low?

Are Anytime Fitness Enrollment Fees Too Low?

Here's a question you don't often hear asked: are Anytime Fitness enrollment fees too low for their own good?

Too low for WHOSE own good, you ask? After all, people joining as new gym members of Anytime Fitness surely don't mind if prices drop.

But from the standpoint of a small business owner, and specifically as a health club owner, are Anytime Fitness enrollment fees too low right now?

Anytime Fitness "regular" prices may vary depending on where you live, but some sources have quoted these averages:
1 year Membership: $33 a month plus a one-time $39 key-fee for anytime access,
2 year Membership: $29 a month plus a one-time $39 key-fee for anytime access.

Take a look at the picture posted to the right. This is a real promotion being offered by Anytime Fitness in my area. For a very limited time, you can join for $1 + 1 month free. I took this picture today. While I'm sure this promotion may indeed "make the door swing", there are two distinct drawbacks to running a health club promotion where you DRAMATICALLY drop the price:
1) The existing health club members who paid more than a buck for their membership will feel like they were ripped off. At best, they will feel disappointed that they missed out on a good deal because they joined too soon. Some of them who joined very recently may ask the gym owner to honor the sale price for them as well and give them a partial refund.
2) The second drawback to running a health club promotion like this is that, for SOME people, you effectively (and permanently) lower the value of the membership. Many customers keep a "running tally" in their mind of how much things should cost. When a price drops to a new low, what you've done is set that price mentally lower for the price-conscious customer. You've lowered the bar, so to speak.

Many potential customers who haven't yet joined the health club, but WANT to join, will refuse to join the gym until the price is back down to that "new low" of $1 + 1 month free. It's a mental game of sorts, where people take pride in achieving the lowest possible price on their purchases. They'll remember that price, and some of them will remember it for a long time. So next month when Anytime Fitness offers memberships for $10 (or whatever), those price-conscious consumers won't bite.

This concept that the customer remembers the lowest market price and waits to buy until they can meet or beat that price isn't exclusive to the fitness center industry. Many consumers "stock up" on groceries when they can get a great price. I've been known, for example, to buy ten tubes of toothpaste when I see it on sale for less than I've ever seen it before. I remember that lowest market price and buy accordingly.

Another great example is the purchase of stocks. Many traders will analyze a stock and look at the 52-week high and 52-week low. If nothing intrinsic to the business has changed since it hit that 52-week low, then I may decide to wait and buy when it hits that 52-week low again. Why pay more for the stock than the 52-week low?

To summarize, the major drawback to running a great health club sale is that you run the risk of angering existing gym members who recently paid more while at the same time "cheapening" the value of the membership in the minds of some cost-conscious consumers.

So, back to the original question: are Anytime Fitness enrollment fees too low?

Despite the theory that this $1 sale can backfire, Anytime Fitness has been doing quite well for itself: "The chain of franchised gyms spans 14 countries. As No. 14 on our list, the company notched steady growth even as sales climbed to nine digits. Revenues approached $500 million last year, nearly double the company’s 2009 take" (SOURCE: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2013/02/06/americas-most-promising-companies-the-top-25/)

The bottom line is that there are probably better ways to run a health club promotion. But that fact doesn't seem to be hurting Anytime Fitness, who was recently awarded a #6 ranking in Entrepreneur's "Franchise 500 List".

 

JC Penny Back To Issuing Coupons In 2013

JC Penny Back To Issuing Coupons In 2013

Small business owners, take note of what has happened to JC Penny over the last 17 months! Books will be written, and classes will be taught, about the story we've seen unfold at this once-dominant retailer.

Just in case you're not aware of the JC Penny story, here's the Cliff Notes version. About 17 months ago (November 2011) they hired Ron Johnson as their new CEO. Johnson was basically hired to attract younger, richer customers. Ron was "a good bet" too, because he used to be Apple Inc.'s senior vice president of retail and helped create that company's very successful retail stores.

Under Ron's leadership, JC Penny rolled out their "fair and square" advertising campaign. Instead of advertising specific products, and a temporary price reduction for those products, this new ad strategy instead emphasized the convenience of Every Day Low Prices (referred to as EDLP in the retail world). "In one spot, a dog jumped through a hula hoop held by a little girl. The text read: 'No more jumping through hoops. No coupon clipping. No door busting. Just great prices from the start.' (SOURCE: http://www.9news.com/money/333745/344/JC-Penney-ad-apologizes-to-customers)

To make a long story short, the switch from coupons and sales to Every Day Low Pricing simply didn't work. The company's sales dropped faster than Lance Armstrong's popularity after he admitted using performance-enhancing drugs. In early May 2013 JC Penny released a commercial confessing to the blunder: “It’s no secret,” begins a new J.C. Penney television ad, to a soft piano soundtrack and nostalgic images of old storefronts. “Recently, J.C. Penney changed.” In the ad, the company shies away from directly addressing Johnson’s upgrades, including Denim Bars to help J.C. Penney shoppers find the perfect jeans, not unlike Apple’s Genius Bars.....these and other missteps (including, presumably, the chain’s much-derided moratorium on discounts and sales) are glossed over as “changes” in the ad" (SOURCE: http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2013/05/01/j-c-penney-releases-apology-ad-begging-shoppers-to-come-back/)

Okay, so what's the take-home message for small business owners like us? While many business lessons can, and will, be taught from the JC Penny story the salient point here is that customers LOVE a sale. Always have. Always will.

Maybe you've seen the bumper sticker that boldly states "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers." This classic American quote has been around for decades, becoming famous when it was featured in the movie 'Red Dawn'. It's not a huge leap of the imagination to see JC Penny customers shaking their collective fists at Ron Johnson, screaming out their mantra: "You can have my coupons when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers".

Taking away their coupons was probably the death-knell for Ron Johnson.

So, as a small business owner, are YOU offering coupons and sales to your customers?

Be honest. When was the last time you ran an ad in the local newspaper that had a coupon for $___ off the usual price? When was the last time you ran a radio ad offering $___ off for the next 10 people who called your business? When was the last time you announced (on your Facebook page) that you were offering a $___ discount today only? Have you grown complacent and quit sending out coupons?

If you quit sending out coupons, and quit offering sales, you do so at your own peril.

After all JC Penny is back to issuing coupons in 2013 and THEY had to learn this lesson the hard way.

Take a lesson from Ron Johnson and issue some coupons in 2013.....because customers LOVE a sale. Always have. Always will.

FREE Small Business Marketing Ideas

Since when do small business marketing ideas have to cost an arm and a leg? The simple answer is: THEY DON'T. Some of the best small business marketing ideas are completely FREE of charge.

Today, like many days, I went into the nearby Subway for a $5 footlong sandwich. Love that deal! Anyway, as I entered the clerk behind the counter said "Hi, welcome to Subway" in a friendly voice. As I was paying for my order that same clerk greeted another customer that had just entered. I got the distinct feeling that this crew is greeting EVERY customer that enters their store. It sounded like an honest greeting, too, not contrived or forced.

Maybe they got the idea from Jacksons, one of many local gas stations. I've been going there for years, and it is a very rare day when you can enter without being verbally greeted with a friendly "hello" or "how are you today?"

How much does it cost these businesses to greet their customers? ZERO.

How much goodwill does this simple gesture create? Hard to say.

There are studies upon studies proving that people value good customer service. It's been proven again and again. Without a doubt, a friendly greeting is plain old-fashioned good customer service.

This tactic not only creates loyalty, but it can also make the cash register ring. People will pay more for good customer service, and that's a fact. For example, near my home we have a grocery store where the service is bare-bones. They don't bag your purchases. They don't even have "baggers" on staff. Carry it out to your car? Forget about it! As a matter of fact, if you encounter one of their employees on the sales floor you almost guaranteed to be ignored completely.

On the other hand, I also live near another grocery store that is more traditional. They have a Courtesy Clerk bagging groceries, and they'll take it out to your car if you want. Some of the clerks will smile and greet you. They are, at least, making an effort towards customer service. This store charges much higher prices than the no-service store.

The service-oriented grocery store is still in business. This means that at least some consumers will pay more for the same product when that product is offered with a serving of customer service.

Back to the smile and greet thing. Smiling and greeting each customer as they walk in the door is a free small business marketing idea that just may pay off for you and your business. It takes little effort. The cost is zero. The goodwill created, while hard to quantify, is still real enough to generate more sales.

.....and that, ladies and gentlemen, is enough for both you and I to take a good hard look at implementing this free small business marketing idea.

Why not require the front desk staff in our gyms to greet each person as they arrive? In doing so, we'll be adopting the tactics embraced by:
-> Subway (the world's largest submarine sandwich chain with more than 37,000 locations around the world)
-> Jacksons (a nationally recognized chain of over 200 Chevron/Texaco/Shell branded convenience stores in 5 western states)
-> Walmart (each week, more than 200 million customers and members visit their 10,700 stores under 69 banners in 27 countries and e-commerce websites in 10 countries. With fiscal year 2013 sales of approximately $466 billion, Walmart employs 2.2 million associates worldwide.)

Yup. Walmart has perfected this free small business marketing idea. They hire people to be nothing but greeters. You think you know better than Walmart, the biggest retailer in the world? Hey, Walmart does a lot of things wrong but this is one thing they do right.

So, it really is true. Some of the best small business marketing ideas are completely FREE of charge.