Blog 34: Health Club Marketing Customer Service

Yesterday I wrote a blog about who the real boss is in any business or industry. Since you and I are in the health club industry our boss is the member. The customer (prospective member) is unequivocally the boss. Members work hard for their money and have numerous options to spend it on whatever and wherever they want. Being more conscientious of this fact will help you work on your own associations toward your members and therefore make you far better at customer service than your competitor.

You always hear in any business “the customer is always right”. But why is the customer always right? It’s because your customer (prospective member) has several options of places to train and spend their money. I have heard numerous times where owners, GMs, and health club directors have referred to one or two of their members being a major pain in the behind. I truly understand their frustration at times and realize some people are challenging to serve. Even though they are difficult, we can never lose sight of the bottom line and every health club member contributes to the bottom line.

I am a numbers person, always looking at percentages, returns, investment, etc. Let’s just look at a member value to a health club using basic math for a minute. If you have a member that pays $350 for their membership and train an average of 100 training session per year and spending an average of $5 per training session (in your profit centers) making the health club member’s financial value to the health club at $850 per year. In reality, the health club member’s value is far greater than $850 because a lot of health club members stay with their health club at least 2 years which increases the health club member’s value to $1,700 or more. If you take a few minutes and enter into the equation of how much it costs you to procure new members you will soon start to see how valuable customer service is and why you must do everything within reason to satisfy your prospective members.

Customer service should not be abused by the prospective member/member either. There is a line you must set as acceptable behavior and that which is not acceptable behavior. Aside for anything unacceptable, it is your responsibility to go the extra mile and make sure your prospective members have the greatest experience at your health club.

For more free tips on increasing your health club membership base through health club marketing, health club promotions, professional health club membership sales, and advancing your health and fitness career visit us today @ www.healthclubmarketingmmc.com or call 904-448-5727.