Tag: Customer Care

How to Keep ‘Em Coming Back

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We know that in most cases, the longevity of a business is only as good as the clients it maintains, so keeping clients happy and ensuring they come back is one of the most vital things you can do for your business. While it’s important to continue to secure new members, it’s also essential to keep the ones you have. That’s why we’ve outlined a few keys to keeping your customers happy and coming back.

  • Great Product – Offering a quality product is the best way to keep clients happy. Not giving them a reason to complain will in-turn give them no reason to leave. Maintaining your gym or facility in the best condition possible will prove to be one of the best ways you can retain your members. Additionally, making sure you have well-trained staff and trainers is also an integral part of offering a quality product.
  • Excellent Value – Giving new members a great introductory offer and following that up with other money-saving promotions is a good way of showing customers that you care about them. Always make sure you price services appropriately.
  • Courteous Customer Service – Showing customers that you’re out to make their lives as simple as possible is a smart way to keep them coming back. We know that “not giving them a reason to complain” can often be easier said than done. Rise to the challenge of taking care of whatever problem they might have. By appropriately and quickly addressing their concerns, you’ll show that you are truly interested in their health and well-being.
  • Referrals – Having a member refer your business is the ultimate compliment. Not only does this boost your sales and profits, but you’ve just further ensured that this customer will keep coming back – and coming back with friends too! Don’t forget to reward your members with perks for bringing in a friend. See our post on how to start rewarding your members with minimal time investment on your part.

What all of this boils down to is making sure your members are happy. Doing whatever it takes to make this happen will ultimately lead to the success of your business.

Thanks for reading and come back soon for more tips!

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The Building Blocks of Customer Loyalty

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While much of the battle is attracting new customers to your business, a key element to a successful business is retaining these customers you worked so hard to get. Like any crucial business activity, it is worth putting time and effort into doing it right. Sometimes following up is difficult and takes a large amount of work, but in the long run it will pay off for you 100 times over. Don’t let your customers slip away as keeping an existing customer costs far less than getting a new one. Below are tips to keeping your customers happy and coming back for more!

Send thank-you notes 

Take the time to tell customers that you genuinely appreciate their business. The thought will remain with them for a long time. A small gesture like this will stand out in their minds because most of your competition won’t send that you notes.

Mail postcards 

Make the message of your postcards meaningful if you want to have customers look forward to receiving them. Customers should want to keep the cards handy, especially if you keep it exciting with a “Health tip of the month” or “Quote of the month” type of theme. In these cases it may be best to avoid being promotional as they will appreciate information that is beneficial for them.

Send email updates 

Provide customers with information on product sales, special events, customer service updates, etc. Thinking of them as your personal press releases will ensure customers receive information at least once per month and will help build momentum. Over time, it gets them excited to be involved with your gym or facility and motivates them to give you referrals.

Follow up on health issues 

If you find out a customer has been sick, call periodically just to offer support. Send flowers or a card if the situation warrants it.

Offer referrals 

Keep records of which of your customers are self-employed. A great way to encourage loyalty is to refer people to your customers’ businesses. If they do, record the information which will enable you to help them through referrals, and chances are, they will return the favor.

Ask for post-sale feedback 

Demonstrate that you care about the quality of your service. Call customers and ask questions such as: Are you pleased with the service you received? What would you like to see improved? What product or program would you like to see more of? If you could change anything what would it be?

Send out 20 “great job!” cards per week 

This is both a fun and exciting task. It helps boost morale and keeps everyone excited. A simple card that tells a customer that you think he or she is doing a great job really goes a long way.

These tips will help you take your company to an entirely new level. Following up on all aspects of your customer interactions shows your customers that you are actively involved in keeping them thrilled with the service you provide. And when you ask customers for feedback and implement their suggestions, they feel a sense of ownership in what you’re doing and become even more loyal to your business. This is a great way to build your empire.

Keeping Up-to-Date in Your Industry

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It’s been over a week since we attended the Club Industry show, and it got us thinking about how important it is to be present at these sorts of industry events. While it produces significant leads for us, it also serves as an ideal avenue to connect face to face with some of our clients. It’s great to receive feedback from our current clients and not to mention the fact that this is the perfect opportunity to answer many questions they may have. Furthermore, we’re always connecting with others in the industry leading us to form great partnerships that benefit not only us, but our own clients as well.

That being said, we encourage you to take part in industry events and shows. You’ll have the opportunity to not only exchange ideas with your fellow fitness colleagues but become inspired by what others in the industry are doing as well. Being a part of these types of events is also important in order to stay up to date on the latest trends in your industry. While it’s vital to stay true to your own business model, it’s just as vital to keep up with the ever-evolving needs of consumers. You’ll find that just by intermingling with them, you can learn how to roll with the punches and stay relevant.

Gaining industry knowledge will serve in helping you improve your business and better service your customers. In the end, keeping up with your industry’s evolution is essential to being successful in today’s business world. Stay on top of it and later enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Some of the major upcoming industry events include:

  • Athletic Business Conference & Expo – December 1-3, 2011
  • IHRSA 31st Annual International Convention & Trade Show – March 14-17, 2012
  • NIRSA Annual Conference and Recreational Sports Exposition – March 27-30, 2012
  • United States Indoor Sports Association’s 2012 Facility Operators Conference & Trade Show – June 11-14, 2012

Check back often for more ideas and tips and we’ll hopefully see some of you at these events!

Good Customer Service Results in Higher Member Retention

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Providing good customer service is essential for member retention and spreading the (good) word on your club or facility. It’s important to ensure that staff members give meaningful service to your customers in order to show that you value their patronage. There are a few simple steps that gym and facility owners can take in order to deliver excellent customer service.

Greet members

Greeting members when they check-in is an easy way to build relationships with your customers, especially with membership software that displays their information upon check-in. This makes personalizing the greeting a more effective way of connecting and showing that you value them. It’s also a great opportunity to speak with them prior to their work out and find out if they have any questions or concerns. Sending them away with a sincere parting will ensure they leave with a positive feeling and experience.

Address and listen to members

Identifying and addressing problems is another essential component of keeping your members happy. By being proactive, you’ll be able to nip issues in the bud. Additionally, frequently asking members their opinion on what can be improved will assist in finding and fixing any problems. Gym and facility owners can easily do this by utilizing their software to send out an occasional email requesting opinions and comments from members.

Reward members

Rewarding members for being loyal customers will show your appreciation for them and the business they give you. Even the smallest show of gratitude can go a long way to improving the image of your club or facility. Using your management software, you can identify long-time members and reward them with a free month of membership or personal training session.

Make Good on Promises

Gaining and keeping loyalty from your members is integral to the success of your club or facility. Keeping promises and making promises you are sure to keep will cement member loyalty to your facility. Members that feel you are undeserving of their trust may reconsider giving you their business. The rule to this one is simple, keep any promises made.

By following these steps, you can be sure that customers will always remain happy and that you’ve pushed your club or facility to its fullest potential. Adjusting customer service to be completely about your member is a full-proof way of increasing member satisfaction and retention, ultimately leading to the total success of your club or facility. As always, stay tuned for more ideas and news from EZFacility.

How to Succeed with EZFacility

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We know time is tight and your goal is to see the benefits of EZFacility right away. So here are a few best practices to help accelerate your company’s success.
Even before you login, you will want to focus on 3 key areas:

  1. Identifying a business champion
  2. Defining clear goals to start with
  3. Committing to good habits in alignment with these goals


Let’s explore each of these, and see where to lean more:


Identifying a business champion


A champion can be anyone in your business – and since your’re reading this, it might be you. As a champion, you will help your company adopt EZFacility successfully. You don’t need strong technical skills; you just need to be able to communicate effectively. You will need to communicate with management to understand their needs, communicate with staff to show how EZFacility will help them, and communicate about the quick wins you achieve once you start using EZFacility daily. Celebrating these quick wins is a great way to help everyone in your organization see the benefits of this amazing new system.


Defining clear goals right from the start


While EZFacility offers hundreds of features, our most successful customers start with a simple goal – such as increasing customer service or reducing phone calls using Online Registrations. Trying to solve every challenge at once can lead to being overwhelmed and slowing down your implementation. So start by writing down your top 1 or 2 key business goals.


You then need to create a simple process map, as it is very helpful to define this before you begin using and customizing EZFacility. If for example, your goal is a decrease in phone calls, you will want to map out the process that will get you there.


Once you define your process, it becomes easy to customize EZFacility to help you achieve those goals. After EZFacility helps you reach your initial goal, you will be able to implement more sophisticated processes that save time, money, increase sales, and create happier customers.


EZFacility allows you grow over time, versus having to solve everything up front. So simply repeat the steps of setting a goal, defining your process, and then building the solution – and you’ll continue to celebrate quick wins regularly.


Committing to good habits in alignment with these goals


As you grow, you’ll want to make sure your staff enters their info consistently in the system and keeps it up to date as well. EZFacility helps keep track of the day-to-day elements that are important to your business, and the quality of this information is critical to a successful program. Good habits begin when all your users agree to the terms that are used to describe your process. Be sure to train your staff, not only on how to use EZFacility, but also on your pre-defined process and terminology.


Integrating EZFacility into day-to-day operations using scheduling, billing, and customer management is a great way to keep information up to date. The more staff that “live” inside of EZFacility, the more it becomes a trusted source of “go to” information. To help everyone see the importance of keeping your information up to date, run your departmental and company meetings based on EZFacility reports and dashboards. For example, a weekly sales review can run like clockwork if your sales managers used the Revenue report from within the system. Our most successful customers remember this maxim – “If it isn’t in EZFacility, it doesn’t exist”.


Ensuring your success


We are committed to ensuring your success, so we make it easy to find the resources that will help you succeed. The single place to go whenever you are trying something new is https://support.ezfacility.com. Here, you will find how-to videos, user guides, F.A.Q’s., best practices and more. And don’t forget, you can always search our entire knowledge base and reach-out to our support team by clicking the Help & Training link located at the top of the page directly within your EZFacility system.
Thank you for choosing EZFacility! We hope this overview will accelerate your success with our system.
Check back often for best practices and new ideas.

Is Your Club Primed for Growth with Personal Training? Part 3 of 3

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In this final part of a three part post I have outlined below the remaining two of what I consider four key reasons for implementing a strong personal trainer scheduling and management solution as a component of your club management software:

  1. Enhanced Visibility Into Your Business

    A good system will provide the ability to view departmental performance in real-time, yet the power lies in its ability to uncover inefficiencies and provide insight. Creative club owners armed with this information can see how to better monetize facility resources and staff, and help to improve the overall profitability of their club. This information can help to uncover inefficiencies in the use of a trainer’s time each day, as well as help to more quickly and accurately determine when another trainer should be added to the days scheduled, etc. It can also help to identify which trainers are consistently converting free trials into revenue-generating customers, and which trainers are struggling with this extremely critical aspect of their jobs. All of this various information should help club owners and managers answer the key questions that will help them streamline the operations of their training business and improve the revenues derived as a result.
  2. Improved Customer Service

    Real-time visibility into your club’s daily processes also translates into improved customer service for your members. For example, when training clients call in to check on trainer availability, payments owed, or to change an appointment, a good scheduling and management system will provide these answers right at your fingertips – giving the member the answers they need, when they need them. A growing number of club owners are realizing that a powerful trainer scheduling and management system is an ongoing way to deliver enhanced business performance and in turn, significantly improve customer service.

Hopefully the information outlined in this three part post will help to show why researching and implementing a powerful trainer scheduling and management system, either stand-alone or as part of your core club management software solution, is an important process for your facility – and will help to prime your club for long-term growth and success.