What is your clients Journeys?
So you have great gym equipment,
really good engaging and knowledgeable team, solid cleaning processes, your
Health and safety is spot on, you post regularly on social media and feel like
you have a good club.
The question though is, do you know
what your client journeys are?
In other words, do you know where
the touch points are and where you can effectively influence their decision making?
Not always in terms of additonal revenues but also those touch points that
encourage members to refer you to friends, that encourage them to stay longer
than they may otherwise have done and yes of course those touch points that
encourage your clients to spend more money.
Don't forget you will have a range
of clients in your business and each one of these should have defined journey
you want them to follow. Once you know who these people are you can
create the journey and train your teams to deliver them. It is no
surprise that the likes of Disney and Marriott hotels are known for their
service levels. Whilst the staff are often very engaged and love to interact
with clients, much of that interaction is pre-determined, its planned, its
trained out and standards are then audited to ensure it happens every time.
Don't mistake your gym for being
different. If you set out these rules of engagement and get your
teams to deliver it seamlessly you will not only improve your retention rates
but also your revenues, your customer satisfaction and your referral
business. Know who you are and deliver it consistently and with excellence.
So who are your potential customers?
Every club is slightly different so
some or all of these may apply
- Your membership prospect
(telephone enquiry, appointments and walk-ins)
- Your members (including current
and ex-members)
- Club guests
- Aggregator members (Hussle,
gympass, classpass etc)
- Spa clients
- Members friends/referrals
- Online clients
- Personal training clients (current
and previous clients)
- Group X clients
- Group Personal training clients
- Corporate Members
There are bound to be more that are
more bespoke to your business but you get the idea. Your aim now is to
look at each one of these clients and review what their journey should
entail. I will give you some examples to make the process easier for you.
If you want more detailed support please give us a shout at Black
Raccoon Consultants and we will guide you through the process.
Remember throughout this process we
all as humans have 5 senses? as much as possible we want to hitting all of
those. Also take into account that people communicate and take in
information in 3 different ways. We are wither Auditory, Visual or
Kinaesthetic. In essence we either like to here the information, see it
or feel it. Your journeys need to take all these types of people into
account.
Examples:
A new Member Prospect
- The telephone enquiry:
i. Who handles the
telephone enquiry? does a receptionist answer the phone and pass the enquiry to
the sales team or is the receptions and the sales consultant the same person
ii. Is the telephone
answered the same by all staff? sounds simple but most clubs I work with allow
their teams to answer the phone anyway they wish, some staff are therefor
great, others are downright unprofessional. Clients wont remember the
professional but the will recall the bad?
iii. Do you have a
telephone script that every member of staff follows? This is important to
ensure consistency and also allow you to ensure clients are set up for the tour
properly when they arrive. The tours starts at this initial enquiry so it
needs to be right.
iv. Have all staff
been trained properly. Not just shown the scripted but has the process
been roll played
v. Do you have a
process for ensuring solid data collection
- The Tour
Remember throughout this process we
all have 5 senses? as much as possible we want to hitting all of those.
All take into account that people communicate and take in information in 3
different ways
i. What is the
customers first impression of the club. Is the front doors and outside
clean? Is the entrance area inviting and easy to find? Is a members of staff
available when they arrive at the front desk? Does the reception smell
inviting? what is the music playing?
ii. Is it clear where
they need to report to?
iii. What is the meet
and Greet process?
iv. What is your needs
analysis process and where will this take place? Sounds strange but often the
reception is not the best place for this. Its too busy, to impersonal and not a
great place to discuss goals and personal information. Or you can decide
not to do a detailed needs analysis and just chat about training on your walk
around the club. (I am not a fan of the second but some clubs chose this
as their journey)
v. What does the tour
look like? It should be the same, hitting the same key points, showing
off what you do well. It shouldn’t be a wander around the club with statements
like "here is the treadmill". All tours should be needs
specific, show them what will help them or what they want to see and show them
what you do well. Show them pictures of members working hard, introduce
them to members of staff, get them on the kit and show them how it
works.
You need to know how that looks for
your club, but it should be exciting, vibrant, tailored to the client and show
off why they should join you
vi. The price presentation:
Where will this take place, reception or the bar? How are you presenting the
price? what collateral are you using, at what point do you mention personal
training and other services in the presentation?
vii. What is your process
for closing and overcoming objections
viii. If the
clients decided not to join what information are they given to take away
viiii. What is
your follow-up process? is this automated, how often are they called, texted,
emailed. How is this process managed?
The sales process is probably one
most clubs are familiar with but the example about should be applied to all
clients and their various journeys. Probably the most ignored is the new
members/current members journey. We spend thousands on advertising,
dragging new enquiries in, we then sign them up, some may do an
induction/orientation into the gym but that’s about it and then we simply
forget about them and hope they keep paying
What is amazing, we then decide to
send these members adverts to buy pt., protein packs or group training sessions
having not engaged with them for weeks or months. We then wonder why our
amazing new offers don't get any bites.
In the same way you create and train
your sales process, you should do the same for your members. So when
creating the members journey you have to consider the following points
- What/where will be the touchpoints
for your members. In other words what opportunities do you have to
interact with members:
i. On reception,
every time they enter and leave the club. if you don't man reception, how
do you plan to meet and greet every member every time
ii. The induction/orientation.
When does this take place? i would suggest to aim for at worst within 7 days of
joining. How often do you intend to offer this support in the future? if
not at all, then how do you push them to the personal trainers without consistently
just throwing PT offers at them
iii. What is the
contact journey from the club manager. I would suggest every member gets a
welcome call from the GM/Owner with 1 month
iv. What is the
process of staff supporting members on the gym floor?
v. Do members
have a program card, an app with their program and how often is this reviewed
vi. Are members
allocated their own coach who's job it is to maintain regular contact each
month? If not how are you planning on keeping the touchpoints personal?
vii. What is
your automated e-mail process?
viii. Do you
Send a Newsletter every month or Bi-monthly?
viiii. At what
point are you introducing members to the personal training team
- How do you encourage members to
sign up to your social media pages
- Do you have social events to
encourage member/member interaction
- The physical club - do you need to
review how your club is set out to maximise comfort and use of the club.
Whilst you may like the look of the club, does it allow for nervous members to
train away from the 'Crew'.
taking in all the above you also
need to think:
- Is my club clean,
- Does it smell right
- Are the posters and marketing up
to date and informative
- Are the staff in uniform and do
they look smart and portray the right image.
- Are the staff trained and
understand the journeys
I appreciate there is a lot of
things to consider for each client type. What you do need to remember
though, by setting out what you want and how you want it delivered you are able
to create the right atmosphere, manager and deliver the service levels you want
and manage the performance of the staff based on these guidelines.
You cannot simply ask staff for
exceptional behaviour, you need to set out and train out the
expectations. You cant train anything if you don’t understand what this
looks like 100%
I work with so many Franchise clubs
where the message gets lost. The only things that makes each one
recognisable is the brand above the door. This is often because the
message of what the journey is gets lost. If you want to see clubs that
do this well, visit the likes of 1Rebel, their service delivery is exceptional
and you can see this in any of their clubs not just the odd one. Outside
of our industry, check out the big hotel chains. Gyms can learn a huge
amounts form hotels, they have developed guest journeys that are delivered time
after time to make your visits feel special. Trust me whilst you believe its
personal, they do this to every client but because its so well trained and
delivered its fells personal.
With so much potential time on your
hands during the lock down, you would be silly not to take some time to review
your business. Yes, looking at costs savings and potential revenue
opportunities are important, so is being in a position to take your club to the
next level and being able to wow your clients simply by doing the basics.
None of this should be rocket science but simple processes that can be repeated
time after time but which when done well deliver the desired outcome for you
and your customers
Here at Black Raccoon we have
experience of working not only with gyms, leisure clubs, spa and golf clubs but
also within hotels and can support you on creating your own personal set of
client journeys
Get in touch today
Black Raccoon Consultants
www.blackraccoon.org
ryancharlesworth@blackraccoon.org
07929369658
