Right, so you’ve got your gym. It is stocked with the best equipment, it’s in a great location and your marketing is bringing you plenty of new members. Now the real challenge begins – effective gym management. This is the part most gym-trepreneurs aren’t prepared for.
Here are a few gym management tips that will help you run your gym or fitness studio effectively.
The Front Desk
Friendly
In hiring and training people for the front desk, you need to re-iterate that every client should be treated like a family member (the ones we like anyway). The front desk is more often that not someone’s first encounter with your gym – if they are met with grumpy or lazy staff then they won’t enjoy their session and most likely not become a member.
Prepared
Go through every possible scenario with your staff: angry clients, computer malfunctions, instructor lateness/no-shows, celebrity appearances… anything that could happen in your facilty. Your staff needs to know how to handle it in a way that represents your brand.
Culture
Reward staff for handling tough situations gracefully. It is extremely stressful to deal with a raving unhappy customer. Create a culture of pride when it comes to customer service.
Sales
Easy Signing Up
This goes for your sales personnel, front desk staff, personal trainers and your website. However a person chooses to enter into your sales pipeline – the process of signing up must be easy.
For example, if you have someone who is willing to sign up and ready to pay, but your sales staff have lost the papers or the front desk is having issues with the card machine – all that’s happening is you are giving that person time to second guess themselves on whether this is the right gym/purchase for them.
Routing Form
The sales process needs to be quick and easy. A good idea is to have what is called a “Routing Form” for each customer. A routing form is a piece of paper which maps out your sales process. It’s much like those forms you fill out at Home Affairs with the different sections (A, B, C, D etc). Except the difference here is that routing forms are internal forms where each department will complete their relevant section. So for example:
When someone wants to sign up, the front desk enters their details on Section A of the routing form
The form is then passed to sales who would take the person on a tour, and that Salesman would complete Section B
Once the person is ready to sign up and has agreed to a contract, the form is passed to Admin/Finances where payment is recorded on Section C
If you offer a free training session with sign up, then the form (and client) are passed onto a Trainer who would complete the free session and fill in Section D on the routing form
See how the form has followed the client through your sales process? So at any time you will be able to see where certain clients are in the sales process.
Develop a strict ‘angry member’ protocol
There is no avoiding it – you WILL come across upset members. Whether they are annoyed because a machine is always in use, or your soap dispensers are out of soap there will always be the complainers.
However, just remember that sometimes (actually most times) you and your gym just happens to be the outlet of their anger on that particular day. Don’t take it personally.
Unhappy Clients Aren’t the Be-All-And-End-All
Here is another way to look at it: A client who is both unhappy AND eager to express that unhappiness is, by definition, a passionate consumer. Passionate consumers are more precious than gold. When they hate something, they HATE it, but when they love something, they can’t get enough of it.
So, if you can respond to an angry client in a way that wins their favour, you will create a super-supporter, a client for life who does your marketing for you. These types of clients are typically very receptive to above-and-beyond customer service.
Silence Is NOT Golden
And constantly check yourself. For every vocal angry client, there are likely 5 silent angry clients. Most people will avoid confrontation or criticism and just won’t come back to your studio. Evaluate every complaint to make your business better.
Incentivize your instructors
If you want to hire instructors then we recommend paying them a base salary + commission for sign-ups. Knowing that your salary can grow every month is a great motivator. Incentivise your instructors to gain clients by offering them incentives for each new client.
Your instructors are the key to a successful gym. Why? Because they help your members get results, and a member who achieved results is a member for life! They will rant and rave to their friends about how great your gym was.
Another way to do it is to charge your instructors a monthly rent, and then whatever the instructor makes is theirs to keep. This is a good way to do it because nothing motivates someone more than survival – “if I don’t sign up some clients this month, I don’t eat” kind of thing.
Stick to the Schedule
People are creatures of habit and routine. When that routine is disturbed they can turn in nasty creatures with big, pointy teeth. If you run classes, ensure that they run on time and that your instructors are always there – and if they can’t make it, be sure to have a back-up instructor.
Foster the sales-instructor culture
Create a collaborative working environment between the ALL sales staff and instructors. Believe us when we say this is harder than it sounds. Favouritism and nepotism will always sneak in and it will be easier for a salesman to pass a new client lead onto an instructor who he has a better relationship with. Ensure that leads are spread equally and that there is a good working ethic between the sales and instructors.
Safety
Accidents happen all the time and you can never be prepared enough.
Emergencies
Safety is a major concern for most fitness facilities, and it should be for you too. Ensure that you have safety and emergency procedures in the event of a disaster. These procedures need to be typed up and your staff should know it backwards.
Instructors
Make sure that all your instructors have a CPR (if you have a pool in your facility) and First Aid qualification.
Facility
The layout of your gym is also important – an overcrowded space cluttered with equipment is a recipe for disaster. Plan your gym in such a way that it allows people to move freely with little to know obstruction.
Cleanliness
This could almost be a point by itself, but it falls under safety because a dirty, un-kept environment is a dangerous environment. In the gym itself, have instructors replace weights and bars. Dumbbells and Barbells lying al over the floor is an accident waiting to happen.
Your change rooms must also always be kept as clean as possible. Hire a change room attendant to keep the toilets clean and the floor dry.
Maintenance
People come to your gym/facility to use your equipment – I guarantee you they don’t come for the good food. Make sure that your equipment is ALWAYS working and in good condition.
Broken equipment (and change rooms) is probably the no. 1 complaint in a gym facility. If you decided to lease equipment, then ensure that the company you are leasing from provides full (and quick) maintenance support.
If you purchased your equipment cash, then chat to the company you purchased the equipment from to see if they have maintenance plans for you.
So there you have it, 8 very useful gym management tips! There are countless other factors that play a part in the effective management of a gym, and in this case knowledge is power. So when you are resting between bench press sets or waiting for you clients to sprint round the block, use your smartphone to read up the ins-and-outs of gym management.
For further details please visit our website: http://matrixfitness.co.za
