Category: Blog

Creating Infographics

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This season, to startlingly effective results, the San Francisco 49ers have been flooding fans with infographics. The great thing about infographics, visual representations of data or knowledge, is their quick, clear presentation of complex information. And the great thing about infographics designed by someone who knows what they’re doing is their quick, clear, and beautiful presentation.

Take, for example, the one the 49ers posted a couple weeks ago, just before their last game at Candlestick Park, where they played for 42 years (which I know from glancing at the infographic). It’s truly a work of art, and in addition to its stellar design, it gives fans all the detailed information they need to feed their nostalgia till long after the team moves to their new stadium later this year. But what I really like about this is that it’s a great model for any sports or fitness facility, whether you’re a stadium, an ice rink, a health club, a baseball center, or any other venue in the industry.

Any facility could design and distribute something similar to bolster support from clients, members, fans, or just the surrounding community. Make a timeline of your history, starting with when you first opened or when plans for your facility first began. Pick out the moments you want to highlight, and then make a list of interesting facts. You can mix up both number facts and fun-to-know facts: for example, the number of trainers you have, the number of young athletes you serve who have gone into professional sports, the number of Olympic medalists who have visited your facility, or: tidbits about celebrities who have visited, a description of the most outrageous kind of class you ever offered, and anecdote about a funny or moving incident that occurred. You can also include, as the 49ers did, interesting quotes about your facility from the people who work there. You can add a thank-you message, if your goal is to show appreciation for your members. What you choose to include is limited only by your imagination and your designer’s talents.

After you’ve got an infographic you’re happy with, send it out into social media-land. This is a place where infographics thrive, because they attract attention, so people like to share them; they provide a whole load of information at a glance, so there’s a quick payoff to looking at them; and they efficiently demonstrate to others the loyalties and interests of the individual posting them. Depending on the occasion — if it’s an important anniversary, for example, or if you’re sponsoring a big fundraiser — you can even turn them into posters to hand out. (Sometimes, they really do look good enough to hang on the wall.)

If you get positive feedback, consider creating infographics regularly. The 49ers did one every few days this season and got tons of comments and shares in response. Even if you do it only once a month, you’ll have found a great way to spread information about your facility, hold people’s attention, and dole out some eye candy.

customer satisfaction

Have You Created a Survey for Your Sports Facility?

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When my son was five and had great enthusiasm for building with blocks, a friend of mine asked him if he’s going to be an engineer when he grows up. “Maybe when I retire from professional soccer,” he replied. Almost from the time he took his first step, the kid has known that sports will always be an important part of his life. And so, since more or less that time, and he’s eight now, he’s used sports facilities of various sorts, engaging in some kind of training or game or competition or workout. But it was only recently that a facility did something that seemed so obvious I couldn’t believe I hadn’t encountered it before: It offered me a chance to fill out a survey.

The facility is a huge, multi-sports complex that caters to all ages. My son joined a soccer league there this fall. When the season ended a couple weeks ago, I got an email asking me to fill out a survey online about our experiences with the facility. Now, I don’t fill out every survey request that comes my way, but I leapt at the chance to do this one. Youth sports are so central to my life, as they have become central to so many families’ lives; like it or not, our plans revolve around when practice is, when games are, what the weekend commitment will be, and where tournaments are taking place. So it seemed important to make my voice heard in this regard, and I welcomed the chance to do it.

What impressed me was how thorough the survey was. There were questions you’d expect: “What sport is being evaluated?” “What gender is your child?” “What grade is your child in?” But then there were more intriguing questions: “What gender is your child’s coach?” “Did you play sports during high school or college? If so, at what level?” And then statements with which to “strongly agree” or “disagree,” or to remain neutral about: “The coach is approachable”, “The coach defines success as more than winning/losing”, “The coach treats players with respect.” Other questions solicited opinions about the coaches’ and facility’s communications with parents, about ways in which participating in the given sport helped the child, about what sources of information were being considered while answering these questions (discussions with children, coaches, or other parents, for example).

I realized that as much as the survey allowed me to voice my opinion, it also allowed the facility to gather an enormous amount of feedback about how its operations align with its clientele’s values. I liked almost everything about the facility, for example, but I did not feel that it made its Athletic Handbook policies clear to parents, and I heard other parents voicing the same complaint. If we all note on our surveys that this is an issue, will things improve? Will we know more about the policies upfront, and be kept better informed about what is expected of us and our children? That remains to be seen, but at least the facility now knows that that’s what we want.

Have you created a survey for your sports facility? Websites like surveymonkey.com make it easier than ever to design and distribute surveys. If you haven’t done it yet, think about all the data you can gather to help you better gear your services to your clientele. Better serving them can lead only to desirable outcomes — I know I’ll definitely be signing my son up for soccer lessons at the facility this spring.

Wearable Tech

Be Indispensable To Wearable Technology Users

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This fall, my gym buddy acquired wearable technology. You know the drill: a sleek-looking wristband; an endless stream of personal fitness data collected, analyzed, advertised on social media; a self-regulated, continuously fine-tuned fitness plan based on the constant feedback. All well and good, but suddenly I found myself going to the gym on my own a lot more. With a sort of built-in trainer and a shift in fitness goals (now, instead of running for thirty minutes on the treadmill, she aimed to take 10,000 steps per day) my friend seemed not to need the gym so much any more — at first.

Wearable technology trends certainly threaten to change both the fitness and sports industries. With the ability to stay minutely informed about their progress toward fitness and competitive goals, exercisers and athletes acquire a level of self-sufficiency they haven’t had before, along with the realization that fitness and practice are everywhere, not just in the gym, not just at the training center.

But rather than fear these trends, our industries must embrace them. They’re inevitable, so there’s no reason not to. And once we accept and fully understand them, we can start thinking creatively about how to turn them into an advantage. The questions become not “How can we compete with wearable technology?” but “How can we incorporate wearable technology?” “How can we help our members or our athletes understand the data their devices are giving them?” “How can we be indispensable to wearable technology users?”
As I mentioned, my friend’s attendance at the gym waned only at first. After a month and a half or so, I began to see her back in her old places: on the treadmill, in the free weight area, in spin class. She was still wearing her bracelet.

“What happened?” I asked. “Did it stop working?”

“No,” she said. “I just missed everyone.”

For me, that reply seemed to answer many of those questions above. Even if you have a social media cohort that witnesses and observes your progress as you work out, the one thing fitness devices can’t give you is a community. Exercisers want other exercisers to work out with, plain and simple. Seeing others push themselves in the gym helps us push ourselves; commiserating with the person on the treadmill next to yours eases the pain; asking a trainer about the proper form for push-up rotations leads directly to improved performance and better results. As facilities that serve the fitness and sports industries, we have to jump at the chance to provide members and clients with a community, to make them feel nurtured, needed, and connected. Then they could wear entire suits of technology, and they’ll still show up at our doorsteps.

2014 Trends

Sports and Fitness Trends in 2014

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It’s that time again — time to make predictions. Here, based on what’s been big and what’s been growing, are some predictions for sports and fitness trends in 2014:

  1. HIIT Workouts. Everyone from the American College of Sports Medicine, to trainer Jillian Michaels, to USA Today, the Huffington Post, and a host of other domestic and international publications is citing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) as the top fitness trend in 2013, and they say it’s here to stay. As Michaels puts it: “Based on current research that suggests high-intensity interval training is the best way to achieve training improvements and body change results, metabolic training will continue to top the list of trends for 2014.”
  2. Right up there with HIIT workouts will be body-weight training. A “back-to-the-basics” approach that uses little equipment but requires a good deal of know-how, body-weight training became more popular than ever in 2013. It will continue as a trend in the coming year, especially used in combination with intervals and circuits.
  3. Sports tourism will continue to soar. In 2013, destination sports complexes, sports-related tours and camps, and adventure travel packages boomed; even as other tourist activities floundered, these flourished. In 2014, their popularity will only grow; in particular, complexes with established tourism programs will benefit.
  4. Express classes and workouts also will prevail, as people continue to look for more efficient ways to squeeze effective workouts into their busy schedules. Fueled by HIIT-style programs that take as little as thirty, twenty, ten, or even just seven minutes, the desire for quick, super-intense workouts grew in 2013 and will continue to shape consumers’ choices in 2014.
  5. Programs for older adults. As the population ages and the number of older gym-goers increases, classes designed for older adults will multiply. Says Colin Milner, CEO of Canada’s International Council on Active Aging, “By 2017, 50 percent of people who walk into a health club will be over the age of 50…. Over the age of 80, 46 percent of people cannot lift 10 pounds. There is a necessity to help people be stronger longer as people need to be driven by quality of life and not just longevity.”

There will, of course, be additional trends — such as more sports and fitness opportunities for kids, the proliferation of wearable fitness technology, a focus on staying fit as means toward health (more than as a method of weight loss), and more boutique fitness centers — but the ones detailed here are the ones you’re likely to hear most about. It’ll be fun to check in again a year from now and see how accurate this list is (and what looks hot for 2015). Happy New Year!

Risk Management

Don’t Forget Risk Management

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My son calls me a scaredy-cat because I’m constantly throwing warnings out at him: “Don’t run on the ice, you could fall and hurt yourself!” “Be careful on those rocks; they look slippery.” “Please don’t climb any higher up that fence; if you fall and crack your head open, you’ll be sorry!” I’m not a scaredy-cat, I tell him; I just have to give the warning because if something actually happens, I’ll feel even worse about it if I failed to alert him to the danger beforehand. The better tactic, I know, would be to remove the ice, the rocks, and the fence before he can even test them, but out in the world that’s just not possible.  In the gym – it is!

Because of the nature of the fitness business, the level of risk is much higher than with other businesses. In order to make sure you’re protecting your clients — and yourselves, should any unfortunate accidents occur — it’s good practice to run frequent risk management checks. At least once a quarter, do a walk-through of your facility. Identify potential risks, ensure that you have adequate warning signs posted (you can probably leave out the part about cracking your head open), and evaluate whether you’re doing everything you can to reduce (or, better yet, eliminate) the risk.

What are the highest-risk areas? Well, the free weights and the machines carry risk of injury, of course. Your cardio court and other workout rooms should be carefully supervised at all times, with appropriate signage offering instructions, warnings, and advice about what to do if an injury occurs. You already know this, of course, and you know about the other danger spots too, but until something actually happens, it’s easy to become complacent about what could go wrong. So let’s review:

  • The Pool: There’s always the danger of slipping on a wet surface. Strictly enforce a “no running in the pool area” rule: Your lifeguards and pool attendants should aggressively monitor running and blow the whistle whenever they see it. Make sure many signs with big lettering announcing the rule — and other pool safety rules — are visible. Also make sure there’s nothing adding to the already risky fact of just having a pool — no algae or mats that could cause slipping, no hoses or cleaning equipment that could cause tripping.
  • Shower Facilities: As with the pool, showers are dangerous because of water. Your members sign a waiver when they join, but it’s your responsibility to make sure water-related dangers aren’t exacerbated by soap, oils, or other potentially hazardous shower-area materials. Train your locker room staff to keep a sharp eye out for anything on the floor that could cause harm.

All this is just for starters. Think through your own facility and the unique risks it might present. Do everything you can to prevent an accident from happening, and constantly check to make sure your safety measures are in place. Trust me on this one. If your mother were writing this blog, she’d tell you the same thing – don’t forget risk management.

Solution

Become the Solution

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You struggle with retaining members and signing up new clients. How could you not? With the proliferation of low-cost health clubs, wearable technology, home video exercise plans, and YouTube workout videos that go viral within hours, traditional fitness facilities face enormous challenges these days — and experts tell us we’re only at the beginning of what will be a sea change in the way the fitness industry operates. In this blog space there’s been a lot of talk about facing the challenges by building communities; investing in trainers, staff, and other human resources; and incorporating technology. Here’s another approach to consider: becoming the solution.

In a recent article for FitBusiness Insider, Pat Rigsby, fitness industry consultant and co-owner of both the International Youth Conditioning Association and Athletic Revolution, says that if you can pinpoint the group you want your facility to serve and then “become the solution” for that group — that is, be the place that group automatically turns to to fulfill its needs — then you’ll establish a strong business that can withstand today’s challenges.

When you become passionate about helping a specific group, Rigsby says, you simplify your business. As he puts it: “You know what you have to focus on. What to study. Who to market to. What your identity is.” He provides several examples: “In Boston, baseball players seek out Eric Cressey’s gym. In Edison, NJ, wrestlers flock to Zack Even-Esh’s Underground Gym. If you’re in Santa Clarita and you want to lose fat, you go to the Cosgrove gym.” In other words, if you establish yourself as the go-to place for a particular group in a particular area with a particular interest or problem, you’ll find you don’t really have to compete with new technologies or other fitness facilities. You’ll simply be the place where people go.

What if your facility is already established as a more general gym, one that has pitched itself as a solution for everyone? That can work in your favor. Keep your generalist side, and keep inviting in members who simply want a good workout. But in addition choose one group to focus on, hone in on their needs, and begin investing in the resources needed to fulfill those needs. Be the go-to place for that group while also providing others with their daily exercise fix.

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The CEO Pledge

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Have you heard about the CEO Pledge? It’s a campaign promoted by the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity (NCPPA) to encourage CEOs to recognize physical activity as an important driver of employee health and business performance. In other words, it’s a great opportunity for health clubs to connect with corporate clients.
The idea is that company leaders promise to make their employees’ health and wellness — and their own health and wellness — a priority by providing opportunities and resources for physical activity before, during, or after the workday. They agree to implement at least six strategies from a list of suggested strategies to create a workplace culture of physical activity. The list of strategies is broken into three categories — behavioral, educational, and environmental/policy — and participants are encouraged to choose strategies from each category. Some of the suggested strategies include “organize onsite fitness classes,” “reimburse employees for purchases of fitness equipment or physical activity-related programs,” and “create an onsite fitness area or reimburse/subsidize the cost of an offsite fitness center membership.”

This is good news for fitness facilities, particularly because the campaign is pretty ambitious — its goal is to get every CEO in the United States to take the pledge. Why not make it easier for them to do so? Now would be a great time to reach out to companies in your area, asking if they’ve heard about the pledge and are willing to take it, informing them about it if they don’t already know, and offering special deals to organizations whose CEOs sign up.
While you’re at it, it might be a good time to review your corporate outreach program in general. Do you have one? Have you considered how corporate sales could positively impact your facility, and whether you have the infrastructure to support such sales? If you already have a corporate outreach program in place, is it robust enough? Have you kept up to date on the latest workplace fitness programs, read the studies about physical activity in the workplace, understood the issues, and come up with strong sales pitches?

With the CEO Pledge campaign under way, there’s an opportunity in front of you. Polish up your connections to corporate clients and knock on the doors of those CEOs getting ready to sign the pledge.

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Tried-and-True Advertising

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Over at the website of the International Health, Racquet, and Sports Club Association (IHRSA), there’s an interesting post about advertising. It features three very different clubs and the three very different forms of advertising they use.

B-fit, a center for women in Turkey, identifies itself not as a fitness club but as a “women’s club.” It relies on word of mouth, creating activities, seminars, and services that give members something to talk about. Brooklyn Sports Club, in New York, uses event-based marketing, offering special events, such as indoor triathlons, self-defense classes, and Zumabathons, that are open to the public (for paid programs, members get discounts and others pay a slightly higher fee). Even if just one nonmember attends and joins, the cost of the event generally is covered, and the club comes out ahead. Re Creation Health Club in Australia relies on good, old-fashioned newspaper advertising. They make sure their ads are big and colorful, and they emphasize the ease of joining a health club these days.

I find it fascinating that not one of these clubs mentions Facebook or other social media. We hear so much about the importance of reaching out to all our audiences via electronic means. (In fact, on the IHRSA website, a post that appeared just a couple days after the advertising post says, “Technology in the fitness industry is here to stay. Not only should it be part of everyday life but, if you want your business to survive, it really needs to be incorporated into all areas.” The post goes to on to describe an important online survey the Fitness Industry Technology Council [Fit-C] is conducting for a technology trends report). But I wonder whether the technology-based methods of advertisement that are available today simply are not the best methods for the fitness industry. Judging by the very small sample of clubs featured in IHRSA’s post, it seems that more personalized, bricks-and-mortar–based methods are preferred.

It’s good to know and worth pondering. Maybe Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and all the other forms of social media out there are fantastic for building a brand identity and for adding a personal dimension to communications from facilities to their members and clients (and that personal dimension is crucial in an industry so reliant on building relationships with individuals who are managing their own health). But for getting your name out, and for selling memberships and programs, it might be best to stick with longstanding, old-fashioned, tried-and-true advertising (for now, at any rate).

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Help Your Clients Make It to the Gym

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Every year around this time of year, it feels like someone has turned the dial up a couple notches. Whereas earlier in the fall everything was just busy, suddenly now everything is insanely chaotic. Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving break mean quite a few no-school days, and there always seem to be a couple professional development and parent-teacher conference half-days around the same time. At work, everyone is scrambling to finish projects before the end of the year, and all of those projects seem to land up on your desk at the same time. Meanwhile, you find yourself invited, in the span of three weeks, to more parties than you’ve been invited to all year. And then there’s the holiday shopping, cooking, planning, and wrapping to do (don’t even ask me about season’s-greetings cards — I gave up on those years ago).

What this means for your facility is that client visits will slow down. Fewer client visits equal less revenue, either in the short term, because you’re missing out on class payments or members aren’t spending on personal trainer sessions, massages, and other extras; or in the long term, because if a member goes for a month or two without making it to the gym, she’s less likely to renew her membership when the time comes. What can you do to help your clients make it to the gym in the midst of their busy schedules?

First, remind them that the most important time to maintain gym-going habits is now, when stress increases and tempting, sugary foods abound. Come up with a simple slogan: something like “Make Time,” for example. Hang up motivational signs bearing the slogan, and reiterate the message via email and on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets.

Consider extending your hours for the season, and if you’re able to do so, then widely—and proudly—advertise your extended hours.

If possible, have your instructors or trainers develop abbreviated workouts. Give these a snappy name, something like Twenty-Minute-Holiday-Workout, and, again, advertise heavily: Let everyone know that you’ve got a new program created specifically to address the trouble we all have making time to exercise right now. Luckily, the high-intensity interval training workouts widely praised these days for their dramatic results and intense health benefits are perfectly suited to short workouts; pull together a few of these and you’re all set.

Finally, craft a message specifically for patrons whose records indicate they haven’t made it in for a while. If you have a fitness concierge, have him or her send the message personally, with an invitation to call and discuss their difficulties making it to the gym. Offer to help devise a plan. You won’t hear from everyone, and there may well be a client or two who disappears and never renews, but chances are you’ll reach at least a handful who will feel grateful to you for reaching out, and who will re-apply themselves with new vigor. Happy holidays.

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Take Advantage of Special Events

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Wandering around among witches, dragons, princesses, and Harry Potters this Halloween, I watched my own little ninja’s jack-o-lantern fill up with various forms of sugar, and I despaired — not at the thought of all the junk food he’d be consuming, because I knew that after a few days the novelty would wear off and he’d forget about it, but at the thought of all the tempting treats that would be sitting in my cabinet over the next couple months. While I’m pretty good at defeating sugar cravings day to day, Halloween candy undoes me. There’s so much of it, it’s all so accessible (when my son’s not looking), and it ignites so many nostalgic childhood pleasures.

That’s why I was grateful for the fitness center employee dressed in a Superman costume (replete with giant, fake muscles — not that he needed them), who was standing on the street corner handing trick-or-treating chaperones coupons for a free cycling class. His mere presence reminded me, first of all, that I needed to keep my eyes on the prize, no matter how many tiny Butterfinger bars my son was collecting; more than that, he lifted from my shoulders the burden of excuses I’d been carrying around. I had wanted to try a cycling class for a long time, but I kept coming up with reasons not to. Now, at a key moment, I was being offered one for free.

What a great idea, I realized. Halloween is a terrific opportunity for a business to rustle up new clients — especially if that business is in the fitness industry. People are out in the streets, there’s a festive atmosphere, and there are a lot of guilt-inducing treats for folks to indulge in. What better time is there to remind people of the benefits of working out, and to give them an opportunity to try your offerings at no charge? Better yet, if you send an employee already scheduled to work for the day out to handle distribution, the cost to you is nothing more than what it takes to print the flyers.

This goes not just for Halloween, but really for any kind of special day: the upcoming cookie-, pie-, and sweets-filled holidays, for sure; a community fair or carnival; even Veteran’s Day. Whenever people are out and about, take advantage of special events and spread the word about what your business offers. And, with fitness, the work you do is always relevant.

That Superman must have pulled in at least a dozen new clients on Halloween — I saw parents and babysitters eagerly reaching out for his handouts. And when I took the free class, I was pretty sure the woman next to me had the same help-I-just-ate-another-mini-Kit-Kat look on her face that I did. I think she and I will both be going back for another class.

How Do You Let Employees Know They Are Valued?

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“The quality of any club’s performance is directly related to how the employees are treated every day.” That’s Bill Brackman, Sports Manager of the Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY, responding to a question posed recently on the International Health, Racquet and Sports Club Association’s (IHRSA) blog. The question? How do you let employees know they are valued?

It’s a crucial issue. If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes one to make a health club successful — you can’t do every job that needs to be done yourself, after all. But it doesn’t take just any village; it takes one that’s dedicated, caring, loyal, energetic, driven, self-motivated, and content (for starters). How do you ensure that your staff is all of those things? Small, fun rewards help. At Brackman’s club, employees and their guests were invited to an open-bar dinner party at the clubhouse when Golf World Magazine named theirs the “Best Private Club in the U.S.” Also, the club provides a couple annual staff appreciation events — a poolside barbeque, a holiday party.
But be careful. You have to already have thriving employees before you start offering such rewards; otherwise, you might end up with a disgruntled crew feeling like you’re trying to buy their happiness without paying attention to their real needs. Are your employees fairly compensated? Do you offer them the best benefits you can? Do you appreciate their lives outside of work, and let them know it? Do you praise their accomplishments publicly (both the work-related and the personal ones)? Perhaps most importantly, do your employees voice to you their concerns? (If they don’t, don’t fool yourself into believing it’s because they don’t have any; it’s impossible to be an employee without having them. But if you’re not hearing about them, that may be a sign that the staff doesn’t feel free to come to you with them.)

Darren Kanwisher, owner of the Fifth Avenue Club in Alberta, Canada, takes a pretty radical approach to ensuring employee satisfaction: “Our members don’t come first—our employees do,” he explains on the IHRSA blog. “…[E]mployees know—even before they’re hired—that they’re our priority in terms of time, attention, and care.” Putting staff before customers, and boldly declaring that you do so, might seem like a risk, but think about the trickle-down effect: If your employees know how important they are to management, they have a model for understanding how to let customers know how important they are to your employees. At Kanwischer’s club, the importance of staff members’ personal lives is placed above the importance of the business — there is a sense that they are humans before they are workers. This must work wonders for morale, and the day-to-day positive effects of a high morale cannot be underestimated.

In general, giving positive feedback, emphasizing the importance of each employee, letting staff know they can approach you at any time with any concern, making sure their basic needs are taken care of, and giving them small extras all go a long way toward creating an upbeat, fulfilling place to work — and that goes a long way toward creating a successful business.

Sharing Local Stories With Your Clients

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I don’t know Albert, a fifty-two-year-old marketing specialist and father of two, but I know he lost fifty pounds at my gym. How do I know? The gym posted a video on Facebook of him telling his story. Last month there was one of Maria, a stay-at-home mother of three who faced dangerous health conditions because of obesity. She hadn’t yet lost much weight, but she talked about her commitment to doing so. And recently, in a blog on the gym’s website, there was a first-person narrative by a twenty-five-year-old man who was confined to a wheelchair for eight months because of a car accident. When he was finally able to walk again, he realized that he’d gained thirty pounds while wheelchair-bound. Even though using his legs was still difficult and painful, he set a goal of losing a pound a week, and, taking it slowly and steadily, he’d already lost ten.

Now, I’m not the type of person who randomly clicks on website links and reads strangers’ stories. I never follow the path to those articles with headlines like, “How Did This Middle-Aged Mom Lose Fifteen Pounds in Two Weeks?” or “Amazing Story of Determination and Success!” But I do follow my gym on Facebook, and when I see that the gym has posted stories about fellow members, I happily read those stories. There’s something about the fearlessness of ordinary people describing their struggles, triumphs, and failures to others — and not just any ordinary people, but ordinary people who do the same things I do, who have similar goals, who maybe even live in my neighborhood.

We’re hardwired to pay attention to stories that are local. It starts in childhood: When you tuck your kids in at night and they ask you for an adventure story, they’re not looking for Lord of the Rings — they want a tale that stars them and their friends, one that takes place in their own backyards. And they want those stories — need them, really — because the stories teach them what is possible in their own small worlds; they teach them what they are capable of achieving. It’s the same for grown-ups. We need stories that come from close to home to show us what we can do. If Albert and Maria and the twenty-five-year-old go to my gym and they can do it, then I’m much more likely to believe that I can do it myself.

Are you sharing local stories with your clients? Are you letting them inspire each other to push themselves further, to hold on to their gym memberships even if they’re tempted to quit, to transform themselves through what your facility has to offer? If not, it’s time. Social media makes it easy, whether you blog, email, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, or do something else. Talk to your members about their stories; ask them to share; post those stories widely, and trust that they’ll reach the people who need to be reached.

I should add that I saw Albert at the gym the other day. He was on the elliptical next to mine. I recognized him from the video.

Marketing to Women

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“How are we going to make the women happy in this club?” That’s the question health clubs and similar facilities should be asking themselves says Bridget Brennan, author of the book Why She Buys; founder and CEO of Female Factor, a Chicago-based consulting firm that specializes in marketing to women; and keynote speaker at the 2013 Club Industry Conference and Exposition later this week. According to Brennan, women drive 70 to 80 percent of consumer spending worldwide. If they’re not spending the money themselves, she says, then they’re influencing or vetoing someone else’s decision to spend it. Either way, women tend to spread the word: “[They] are the drivers of word-of-mouth publicity,” Brennan explained to Club Industry.

If it’s true that women are the decision-makers when it comes to spending money, then might your club benefit from ad campaigns better geared toward them? On a more pragmatic note, how do you gear your marketing to women?
As Brennan puts it, “The message is not to paint your facility pink.” Nor do you have to buy lacy towels or fill the cardio court with flower arrangements. But you do want to let women know that you’re thinking about how to serve their needs. First of all, how many of your posters and brochures include pictures of women — women looking serious about their workouts and happy to be in your facility? If the answer is not many, then consider a redesign that highlights their presence.

Second, do you have programs geared toward women, and do you promote them? Maybe you offer women-only high-intensity interval training classes, extra women-only swim times, or self-defense classes for women. Or maybe you have co-ed programs eager for more female participants, like basketball leagues or squash tournaments. Whatever you offer that is specifically geared toward women, make sure people know about it. Talk about it on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Send emails. Offer prospective clients chances to take part for free, and invite current members to bring a friend at no charge.

Third, advertise in establishments and publications that cater to women. Is there a cute clothing boutique or nail salon near the gym? Ask if you can hang flyers announcing a new women-only cycling class. Partner with local businesswomen’s associations and request that they include mention of your facility in their next newsletter. If you have branches nationally, consider buying ad space in magazines like Self, Women’s World, and Women’s Health.

Finally, engage the advice of the experts. Ask the women in your club what kinds of services they want; do your best to provide those services, and let everyone know that you’re doing so. And go to the official experts, too. Marketing consultants like Brennan can point out weaknesses in your existing campaign and show you how to polish it up for women. Her book, Why She Buys, and others like it also can shed valuable light on the subject. Oh, and there’s no need to forget about the men in your world: “If you lead by thinking [about making women happy], then you’re going to make your male customers happy, too,” Brennan says.

A Natural Alliance – Gyms and Schools

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In New York City, it’s common for schools to raise funds by holding yearly auctions. In the months leading up to an auction, parents stump all around town, trying to win donations from local businesses so auction attendees will have a wide variety of items on which to bid. Common donations include free piano lessons, handmade jewelry, restaurant gift certificates — and month-long gym memberships.

Now you see what all that was leading to. Full disclosure: I did not belong to a gym until a couple years ago, when I bid on a month-long membership during an auction for my son’s school. For $35, I had full access to the facility: pool (including family swim times), cardio court, all classes, trainers, massages, steam room, sauna. After a month of indulging in these pleasures, I was hooked: There was no way I could any longer imagine my life without them. I bought an annual membership and I haven’t looked back since.

Schools could represent an untapped source of new business for your facility. Not all schools hold auctions, of course, but there are other ways to give to a school community and grow your business as a result. Many schools sell raffle tickets; could you donate a month’s membership as a raffle prize? As with auctions, raffles can be doubly rewarding because they spread your name not just to the adults in a given school community, but also to friends, relatives, and professional associates of those adults. Could you open your doors for special kid-oriented free activities once a month, or once a quarter, and ask the local school to hand out flyers? Could you offer a discount to all parents, faculty, and other staff members of a certain school, or sponsor the school’s field day, or donate water bottles, your logo prominently displayed, to the football team?

It’s a natural alliance – gyms and schools. Children are the original physical fitness experts, after all. Parents are always looking for ways to run them around, and maybe you have a facility that allows for that. Even if not, the parents themselves need a way to run around — they need to blow off the stress of parenthood, among other stressors, and maybe they also need to lose the ten or fifteen pounds they put on since having kids. If you start trying to reach new members through schools, you will gain a bunch, without a doubt. And if you can attract them first with a clear incentive — that $35 month-long membership I won felt like such a boon — then all the better; you’ll probably hold on to them for a good long time.

Turning Your Racquetball Court Into a Yoga Studio

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I love my gym. I do not, however, love my gym’s yoga offerings. The first time I went to one of its (few) yoga classes, I left with a longing for the studio I used to live near, where I’d gotten into the habit of attending daily classes. It was a struggle to fit the classes in to my busy schedule, but I loved the instructors, who had studied and taught nothing but yoga for years and who could even make me chant without feeling phony or self-conscious. I loved the wide, airy room, with candles and overgrown plants on the windowsills and a giant Buddha statue near the entryway. I loved the long, green, silky curtains that billowed out when a breeze came in through the open windows — it was the perfect space, with the perfect people, for a practice dedicated to awareness of the spirit/body connection.

At my gym, yoga, zumba, and something called Belly Boot Camp are all held in the same small space. There are no windows. There are no decorations. It smells of sweat. The fluorescent lights in the ceiling remind me of my high school homeroom. The instructors, while well-meaning and good class leaders, sound more like drill sergeants than dharma students. So, although I revel in my gym’s cardio court, run around its elevated track whenever I can, and have a great time with my son in the pool on the weekends, I go elsewhere for my yoga fix.

What if I didn’t have to? What if my yoga studio were inside my gym? According to a recent article in Club Industry, some health club facilities are beginning to create spaces solely for the practice of yoga, Pilates, or some other boutique-type exercise. Many clubs are reluctant to do this; the commitment required to create a dedicated space, find high-caliber instructors, and pull together a devoted marketing team seems too daunting. But, the article argues, the clubs that have taken the leap have reaped economic benefits and increased member retention rates.

In general, the article states, yoga and Pilates studios were among the top 10 fastest-growing industries in the United States in 2012 — despite the recession. Health clubs that have opened studios of their own have found members willing to pay extra for workouts that address both their body and spirit. Carol Tricoche, vice president of education sales for Toronto-based Merrithew Health and Fitness, told Club Industry about her experience as director of group exercise for Pilates and yoga programs at the Claremont Club in Claremont, California. While there, Tricoche helped convert existing racquetball courts into a Pilates studio. “[Members] embraced it as a Pilates studio, and they paid for it,” she said. “Pricing was very comparable to the Pilates studios in the area. They still had their showers, the day care, things they could not get at the studio down the street.”

That’s what I want — my studio, where there’s the kind of yoga I want to practice, inside my gym, where there’s a steam room and a sauna and a locker full of my things. Like the clients at the Claremont Club and at other clubs featured in the article, I’d be willing to pay extra to have that. And my gym would benefit — an added revenue stream, plus the ability to hold on to members like me, who sometimes wonder whether the membership fees are worth it when we spend most of our workout time at the yoga studio. Maybe it’s time to look into how your facility and clients might benefit from turning your racquetball court into a yoga studio. If you are thinking about transforming your racquetball court, checkout out our yoga studio software to make class check-in a breeze.

Reviewing the Basics of Gym Management

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I was talking the other day with a friend of mine who manages a gym in New York City. He had recently attended an informal networking meeting for gym managers, and he said they got reviewing the basics of gym management — the fundamental tasks that gym managers should undertake each day to make sure they’re doing what needs to be done. I got him to share his notes with me, and now I’m sharing some of them with you. Nothing here is earth-shattering, but even my friend, who’s been in the field for at least a dozen years, found it useful to have a refresher in the basics. Here’s what the group covered:

  1. The Importance of Walking Around: Every day, gym managers should stroll around their facility, looking at all areas of the gym and consciously seeing the spaces in the way clients and members might. Ask yourself: What problems need fixing here? Does everything look orderly? Is the equipment working properly? Are gym systems functioning as expected? What about the HVAC system? Lighting? Be as detailed in your observations as possible.
  2. The Necessity of the Notepad: With scores of details to keep track of each day, a good gym manager will never be seen without a notepad. During your daily rounds, note down anything that doesn’t meet your usual standards, any ideas you have for improvement, any significant comments you overhear from members, anything at all you think you might want to return to later.
  3. The Usefulness of Checklists: Make sure your notepad contains a checklist that tracks specific items to pay attention to each day. All the equipment working properly? Check. Safety standards being met? Check. Locker rooms and public areas up to cleanliness standards? Check. Let your checklist be a living thing, something that can change and grow each day. Never had “Water fountains functioning properly?” on your checklist before? Time to add it.
  4. The Primacy of the Immediate Problem: As you do your daily walk, some days you will encounter some problems that can’t just be noted down and attended to later – They need immediate attention. For example, if there’s a health or safety issue that could affect a client, it will be necessary to resolve it before moving on to anything else. Be prepared to make the fix yourself or to call on a staff member with the skills and training to do so.
  5. The Beauty of the To-Do List: The best thing about to-do lists is that they remind you of what needs to be done — later (but not too much later). Unlike immediate fixes, to-do items should be gathered in a list in the notepad, and that day or the next day the manager should assign the task to a staff member, give him or her a deadline for accomplishing the task, and follow up on the deadline or the next day to make sure the task has been completed.
Helping Your Clients Through Injuries

Can Your Staff Adapt to Client Injuries?

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I had a nice little visit to the emergency room the other day. I injured my foot, and I wish I could say I did so while training for a marathon or participating in an Insanity workout or some such thing, but truthfully I was just racing my seven-year-old downhill, and I landed on it awkwardly.

Needless to say, the seven-year-old won. As for the injury, it’s thankfully only minor, but I still have to go easy on it for a few weeks. The first question I asked the doctor: Do I have to stop working out? She told me I could continue with my usual routine — as long as I put absolutely no pressure on the foot.

I had no idea how to do both things at once — continue with my usual routine and put no pressure on the foot. Thank goodness for my gym. That’s where I headed straight from the ER. First I asked to speak with the Fitness Concierge. She sat down with me right away while I explained that I injured my foot but I still wanted to work out and I wasn’t sure how to go about it. She offered me some water, cracked a few jokes, and did me a world of good just by listening. Then she squeezed me in for a consultation with a personal trainer who had experience dealing with injuries and with a physical therapist. The trainer gave me tips for adapting my workout. The physical therapist showed me simple stretches I could do to speed up my recovery (and made me promise to take it easy for a few days). I left the gym feeling like one very lucky patron.

What is it like at your facility? Do you offer such immediate, personalized care? Can your staff adapt to client injuries? Can you reassure an injured client and help him or her figure out how to push ahead with workout goals safely, despite the injury? Can you offer something we don’t usually expect from places of business — a sympathetic ear and a comforting presence? I can guarantee that if you do, you won’t ever have to worry much about member retention.

Green Your Facility

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When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its Green Sports Resource Directory in August, I remembered the horse farm my son and I visited earlier this year. A sprawling establishment, with state-of-the-art stables, a vast indoor arena, 34 acres of beautiful land, and a big, old-fashioned farmhouse – the place must have cost a fortune to maintain. Or so I thought, until I noticed the solar panels blanketing one side of the barn roof. I asked the owner if using solar energy cut down on his costs. “My electricity bill is about $19 a month,” he said proudly. “No,” I said, “I don’t mean for the stables; I mean for the whole farm.” “Yep,” he said. “Nineteen dollars a month.”

Like the farm I visited, fitness facilities can save money by making “greener” choices — that is, by relying on sustainable energy sources. And not only can they save money; also, they can conserve valuable resources, reduce pollution, create safer environments for workers and clients, and use their investment in environmental protection to attract new clients and retain current ones.

The EPA’s Green Sports Resource Directory can help. A collection of online resources designed to help sports facilities, teams, colleges and universities clean up their acts, the website explains the benefits of green sports, offers inspiring success stories, and provides links to organizations devoted to helping sports-oriented businesses make environmentally sound decisions. It also links to tools that can help you track and control your facility’s energy consumption. These include EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager and lists of products that perform well and are cost efficient — while also being safer for the environment.

Chances are your business already has taken some steps toward becoming greener. You reuse, reduce, and recycle; you advise your employees not to print out e-mails unnecessarily, you communicate with your clientele virtually more than on paper; and you choose machines that use energy efficiently. But you probably can take your efforts further. Gyms and other fitness facilities require a ton of energy to power equipment, keep pools functioning, provide heat for showers and saunas, wash towels, and run general day-to-day operations. Can you invest in solar energy like the horse farm does? Can you find products that conserve energy and/or products that clean without harmful chemicals? Can you boost efforts to get everyone in your facility — managers, employees, and members alike — wasting less and conserving more?

Once you green your facility, you can effectively advertise your accomplishments – because like that farm-owner, you should be proud. Your efforts will benefit you and your community in untold ways, beyond the foreseeable future. If you are looking to make your business more efficient checkout our sports facility management software.

Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

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It’s back-to-school month — and Childhood Obesity Awareness month. Even if your fitness facility caters mostly (or exclusively) to adults, you can contribute to the effort to draw attention to childhood obesity and its devastating consequences.

Why should you want to? The long-term health of millions of citizens is at stake; as an institution devoted to fostering good health, your investment in the wellbeing of the population at large is crucial. Moreover, the more than one-third of children and adolescents who are overweight or obese in this country make up your future clientele. In ten or fifteen years, they will be coming to your facility to try to reverse decades’ worth of physical damage — or they won’t be coming at all, because they’ll be too ill even to take that step. Finally, showing your support for the community, in addition to being good for the community, is simply good business. Parents and others who care for children’s health and their own will be more likely to choose your facility over another if yours is the one that’s been vocal about fighting childhood obesity.

So what can you do? At the least, advertise your support for Childhood Obesity Awareness Month so your clients know that it’s important to you. Hang up flyers or posters, send e-mails, talk about it on Facebook and other social media sites. Consider inviting experts to your facility to discuss childhood obesity and what can be done to fight it.
If space, personnel resources, and other logistical conditions allow for it, invite kids in for a fun day of physical activity. Have a dance party or set up an obstacle course; incorporate lessons on healthy eating and the importance of exercise. Emphasize the philosophy of personal achievement over competition — kids, especially kids who might feel self-conscious about their weight or appearance, need to understand that they can become healthier by focusing on their own goals and accomplishments.

Consider whether your facility has the resources to serve children’s needs on a more long-term basis. Rather than just a day of physical activity, can you offer classes for kids in addition to adults? If you already offer them, can you step them up in some way in honor of Childhood Obesity Awareness month? And can you offer special family-focused classes for the month, so that kids and parents can have fun working toward their fitness goals together?
Whatever you do, contributing in some way to the effort to raise awareness ultimately will benefit your facility. Give it a shot, and see what you get in return.

Continue reading “Childhood Obesity Awareness Month” →

Retaining Members Effectively

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For many gyms, the end-of-summer push for new members is coming to a close; that effort won’t be ramped up again for another six months or so. So what do you concentrate on in the meantime? Retaining members, of course! As profitable as new sign-ups, or sometimes, with upselling, more profitable, retaining members is a goal all clubs have — but the goal is sometimes elusive. Here are a few refresher tips on retaining members effectively.

  1. Train Your Employees to Treat Each Member Like a V.I.P. – If you make your members feel important, no matter how big or small your facility, they’ll want to keep coming back. And the truth is, they are important — each one is someone whose loyalty is valuable to you. The trouble is that, as a manager or owner, you can’t be on the floor everyday, personally greeting members and doing whatever you can to make them happy. Showing them their importance starts with training your employees to treat them right — greet them with a smile, recognize them and address them by name (this can work wonders), and always be approachable. These are gold standards.
  2. Offer Something Special – During college application season, you sometimes hear the phrase “cookie-cutter” being tossed around. Schools are eager to make clear the fact that they are not “cookie-cutter” institutions — that is, that they’re not like all the rest. Don’t be a cookie-cutter facility. Find something that makes you stand out. Offer a service or a product that your competitors don’t; if your competitors start to offer it, move on to the next thing. Be the pioneer in discovering new offerings; your members and clients will stick around just to see what you come up with next.
  3. Cultivate Suspense – This is related to Number 2. A few months before your new offering, let your members know that something exciting will soon be revealed. Tease them a bit; mention it often in e-mails, on blogs and social media sites, and via posters and flyers in-house. Get them worked up about seeing what’s to come.
  4. Incentives – This one needs little explaining. We see it work all the time, because all successful businesses engage in it. Just as airlines, credit cards companies, banks, and other institutions keep their customers loyal by offering incentives — frequent-flyer miles, cash rewards, appliances or other products — gyms and health clubs must find incentives that keep members signing up again and again. A free month, a discounted session with a personal trainer, a discount at the facility store or juice bar — all these are viable options. If you’re not sure what kinds of incentives your members would be interested in, ask them. You can send out e-mails or, more effectively, have your front desk staff or trainers take an informal, in-person poll, and find a service (such as Perkville) to help automate the reward process.  Your members will appreciate the personal touch, and you’ll gain valuable information.

These are tried-and-true methods for keeping current members happy. If you haven’t given them a shot, begin doing so immediately — you’ll see results. And if the worst thing happens, if a member leaves, don’t give up on him or her. Pick up the phone and make it clear that you’ll do what it takes to get them to sign up again. Then offer whatever discounts you can to get them to come back, or figure out how to fix what was making them unhappy. If you can’t win them back, at least try to get them to tell you why they left — you’ll know what to fix for the next client.

HIIT the Gym

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I (and millions of other people) have a new obsession: high-intensity interval training (HIIT).   It seems that everyday there’s a new study showing how effective HIIT is as a method for keeping the heart in shape, burning fat, increasing muscle, and generally just feeling great. But what I love most about it, and I know I’m not alone in this, is how quickly it’s over.  It’s true that, for the seven, twelve, twenty, or however many relatively brief minutes you’re doing it, you think you’re killing yourself — but then you’re done (done except for the fact that, as an added bonus, you raise your metabolism and continue burning calories at rest).

I love how quickly it’s over because I never have enough time for everything on my to-do list. Between work, child-rearing, housekeeping, socializing, and all the other demands of modern adult life, I was always desperately trying, often unsuccessfully, to squeeze in workouts.  Adopting a HIIT approach has helped hugely — except for one problem; I want to do my working out at the gym. Sometimes it’s hard to justify leaving the house when travel time to and from the gym takes longer than my actual workout. I’ll admit it: Sometimes I just do it in my living room.

How can facilities make it worthwhile for members to continue bringing their workouts to the gym floor when those workouts are short and sweet (well, short anyway)? One answer is machines: Most people do not have treadmills or stairmasters or other such equipment at home. Though it’s possible to raise the heart rate doing jumping jacks in the living room, a thirty-second treadmill sprint followed by a sixty-second walk on the same machine, repeated a bunch of times, is simply more efficient. The trick is making your members aware of this: Convince them that their HIIT routines will work better if they’re carried out using your equipment.

The other answer is personnel. I don’t have a trainer wandering around my living room, giving me tips on posture and performance, pushing me to work harder (if only…). Sometimes, when I’m really in a rush, it’s easy to believe I can do it just as well myself. But the truth is, I work out better when there’s a knowledgeable professional helping me out. We all do.  Just having one in the same room — even just having other exercisers in the same room — makes me push myself harder. I know this. And this is one of the best things any gym has to offer: a supportive community. HIIT might change the game in a lot of ways, but that’s one thing it doesn’t change.

As a fitness facility, you’ve got your core strengths. Machines and personnel are two of them. With HIIT workouts increasing in popularity day by day, you have to find a way to put your core strengths in the service of providing the best HIIT experience possible — and you’ve got to communicate to your members that this is what you’re doing. And not only to your members: You’ve got to communicate it to prospective clients as well. Pull them in by showing them how seamlessly you’ve incorporated HIIT techniques into your facility.

All right now, I’m ending here because I’m off to HIIT the gym.

The Personal Approach To Collecting Feedback

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I have a confession to make. I never, ever fill out surveys. I feel irritated when any business interrupts my day with an email seeking my feedback. The impersonal nature of the questions, the idea that I’m just a source of data to be collected, the time it takes to respond — all of these things push my buttons. It’s not that I don’t understand why businesses do it and how the information they gather is useful; I know it’s so that services can be better tailored to consumers. But I can’t help feeling that the cost of filling out a survey, no matter how short and sweet the survey might be, isn’t worth the benefits I reap.

That’s why a recent Q&A on IHRSA’s blog caught my interest. The association asked two club presidents and a chief executive officer what methods they use for eliciting feedback from members. Each of the respondents said they use email-based surveys to gather information about customers’ experiences.
I know not everyone feels the same way I do about responding to questionnaires; some people are more generous with their time and opinions. But I also know that I’m not alone. We’re all overwhelmed with emails all the time; how many of the people who receive a request to complete a survey actually go ahead and do it? How many hit the delete button and move on?

I was pleased to see that email surveys aren’t the only methods clubs are using. The respondents to IHRSA’s question also reported using suggestion boxes throughout their facilities, including “give us feedback” links on their websites, and training employees to make note of customer opinions and share those opinions with management. It’s this last method that speaks to me the most. If I’m at the gym and a smiling employee approaches me and asks how I’m doing, how my workout is going, and whether she can talk to me for a few minutes about my experiences, I’m going to be all ears. And mouth. That is, I’m going to happily talk about it. This is the personal approach to collecting feedback.  A human being genuinely interested in how I feel and having an actual exchange with me rather than half answering cookie-cutter questions — that feels worthwhile to me.

If your club has the resources to invest in in-person information gathering, go for it. It’s by far the best method. If not, or if more details than can be gathered that way are needed, try a mix of methods: email surveys, web-based links, old-fashioned suggestion boxes, and opportunities to interact with staff. Whatever you do, don’t just rely on email surveys alone. You’ll be missing out on the thoughts and opinions of a significant portion of your membership if you do.

8-27-2013-Drink-Up

Drink Up

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This summer, I was fortunate to get to spend some time at California’s Joshua Tree National Park. One morning, I got up early to view the sunrise from atop a boulder in the park. At 4:45 a.m., I was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt; by 7:30 a.m., my sweatshirt had been abandoned, I’d donned a wide-brimmed hat, and I felt like my jeans were on fire. What’s more, I needed a long swig of water every fifteen minutes or so.

Luckily, every Joshua Tree brochure or website you read — especially during the height of summer — tells you to carry water with you wherever you go, even if it’s just a few steps from your car. I’d followed the guidelines and was glad I did. Keeping well-hydrated, I was able to hike some of the trails in the park and see incredible rock formations, weird vegetation, and an adorable jackrabbit.

This mini adventure got me thinking about hydration in other contexts, especially at the gym. As a gym owner or manager, how do you know your clients are drinking enough water?

As with most things, the best way is to educate. Many exercisers, even veteran ones, do not realize that it’s dangerous to wait until thirst kicks in to take a drink. Studies have shown that most exercisers underestimate their water needs. One researcher found that 98 percent of the members of one college football team started out daily workouts underhydrated. And many have never heard of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s rule of thumb: Drink 7 to 10 ounces — about one cup or a little more — of water or a sports drink every 10 to 20 minutes during a workout. The Association’s guidelines for post-workout imbibing are even more intense: Weigh yourself nude before and after workouts to discover how much weight you lose from sweat, and then drink fluid equal to 150 percent of the weight loss within two hours of exercising.

The trick is to get the message across to club members. Send e-mails, hang up informational posters, offer lectures. Even just a chalkboard in the cardio room with the word “water” written across it in big letters could make a difference — a friendly reminder about what our bodies need. Or you might want to try hanging up a photo of the desert: Trust me, it will make everyone want to drink up.

What Does Being Sensitive Have to do With Running a Gym?

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In a recent post on the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) blog, fitness consultant Michael R. Mantell discussed “the 4 S’s” of membership retention. To keep members — and keep them happy — you have to pay attention to four things that begin with the letter S: Social, Success, Sensitive, and Science. Three of these are pretty intuitive: For the “Social” element, you have to have a friendly, well-trained staff; for “Success,” you have to find ways to motivate your members toward meeting their own goals; for “Science,” you have to pay attention to new advances in technology and how the rest of the fitness world is putting them to use. But what’s this about “Sensitive”? What does being sensitive have to do with running a gym and keeping membership retention high?

Here’s what Mantell writes: “Today’s thriving clubs are busy cultivating relationships with medical and other health professionals, creating critical services to help people live healthier and otherwise better lives—fit, happy, and exceptional. Does your club make it easy for the overweight and obese individual to feel comfortable?”
It’s that question that made me realize that it’s true: As a service provider in the business of helping people find their fittest selves, a gym, health club, or fitness center does have to be sensitive. You can replace the “overweight and obese” part of the question with any descriptor, really: Does your club make it easy for the elderly individual to feel comfortable? Does your club make it easy for the disabled individual to feel comfortable? Does your club make it easy for the foreign individual to feel comfortable? Whatever the particular condition of the individuals in question, it’s worth considering what your club is doing to make everyone who walks through the door feel welcome. Do you offer services that meet your members’ needs? Does your staff speak the languages they speak? Are you cultivating relationships with medical professionals and others who might enhance your offerings? What can do you do to ensure that you’re being sensitive to their needs?

Retention is, of course, a tricky business. But at the same time it’s straightforward. Would you want to stick around in a place where no one is sensitive to your individual needs and issues? Probably not. Your members don’t want to, either. It’s a good piece of advice: Think about who your members are; ask them what they need; try to provide it. If you do, you’ll find they stay members for a long, long time.

Too Much of a Good Thing

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Having dedicated members is every fitness facility’s dream — the ones who come in regularly, several times a week, pushing themselves through a routine that leaves them feeling good about themselves and good about the place where they choose to work out. But what if members become not so much dedicated as compulsive? Is that good for them? And is it good for your facility?

Psychologists call people who can’t stop working out “obligatory exercisers.” Pushing themselves and their bodies through physical routines that carry them beyond the requirements for good health, such exercisers forget that physical activity can be fun. They sneak time from work, school, and relationships in order to work out. They exercise to get rid of feelings, and if they miss exercising they feel anxious, guilty, or empty. They also risk working out when injured or sick, and they tend to be fanatical about weight and diet.

What’s the problem with exercising too much? Is there really too much of a good thing when it comes to working out?  Some researchers point out that obligatory exercisers often come to resemble drug addicts. Like addicts, these exercisers find no pleasure in their primary activity. They report that working out has taken over their lives, and that it no longer feels like a free choice. Doing it provides temporary relief and feelings of euphoria, but not doing it leads to overwhelming anxiety that mirrors the experience of withdrawal. And the potential for physical pain is huge.

If you have obligatory exercisers at your facility, you probably know it. You see them everyday, maybe multiple times a day. They speak of nothing but their workouts, their training schedules, and their injuries. When injured, they take no time off; you might even see them exercising in casts. They’re clearly not having a good time doing what they’re doing, and they’re never satisfied with their achievements, even if those achievements seem significant or outstanding.

How do they affect your facility? First and foremost, there are safety issues: You want all your members working out in the safest way possible. If someone with an injury is pushing him or herself beyond where he or she should, then safety is being compromised. Also, you want happy members. You want to see them looking happy, and you want other clients to see them looking happy. Most of all, you want them to feel good about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it — and to feel good about where they’re doing it. If you’ve got compulsive exercisers who are in your facility because they feel like they must be, because exercising has taken over their lives and they have no choice, then you have people with a lot of negative emotions associated with your space.

You can help them. The most effective step might be to pair them with a personal trainer. Trainers can help obligatory exercisers set limits and stick to them. Just knowing that someone is paying attention, that someone cares about whether they push themselves too hard, could be enough to start turning an obligatory exerciser around. Also, make your members aware of the danger. Some might not realize that it’s a disease; they might feel alone in their subjection to exercising, not knowing that there are others like them — and that help is available.

Finally, train your employees. Help them understand the warning signs, and teach them how to reach out to sufferers. Your interventions could benefit your facility as much as it does your members.