Customer’s motivation –the topic that keeps gym owners, managers, personal trainers and group instructors awake at night. How do you make your members "want to" workout? And it's not that they want to "just" work out. The point is that they NEED to want to exercise regularly, all year long, at this particular club, with this particular coach and to pay for it adequate money. In the era of self-service fitness clubs, trend towards jogging, training programs posted for free on social media and YouTube, it is important to remember that we are there just not to motivate for training, physical activity as such. It is all about showing the customer the benefits of training with us, the opportunity to use our knowledge, experience, care, help and support. On the basis of my knowledge and many years of observation, I find that the client’s motivation for regular training in a fitness club is mainly due tothe combination of three key factors:
- relationship with a customer
- satisfaction, joy and customer satisfaction during and after the workout
- training effects achieved by a customer
Relationship
To effectively motivate for regular training, we must be the authority and support for a customer, and he must feel that he is important to us. We certainly will not be able to maintain a customer with whom we have not been able to build good relationships. The relationship begins with client’s from first visit, from his first interview, first consultation, first introductory training. First training is treated like first date, you have to do everything to be a chance for another. All club members want to feel like someone special. They deserve it. Every client showing up for training or group classes must be warmly welcomed. Welcome him by his name and say, and also show your body language, that you are happy to see him again and cannot wait for upcoming workout. Let your customer feel, how important to you and critically important to the client, is to train regularly. Short phone call or text message 24 hours before the scheduled session is very good practice. Monitoring regular visits is our duty today. Note down all important information about your customer starting from birthday to all important life events – it will come handy and it will prove that you are good listener.
Satisfaction, joy and satisfaction during and after workout
If you want your client to train with you for a long time, you need to make him/her feel good. You cannot just carry out training, it has to be a customer’s experience. The more positive experience you provide to the customer, the more customers will appreciate the time spent with you. A happy customer is a loyal customer. It is very important that each training session is beneficial to your client. This means he/she should see the benefits on both sides: physical and emotional. A customer must feel good about what he/she does. Moreover, training needs to be first and foremost interesting and diverse. Observe what a customer likes, if he/she likes it and it gives him/her the satisfaction, he/she will be willing to work out. Regardless of the exercise, you should make each session enjoyable and cheerful.
Training effects
Anyone who sees and feels effects of the work done, becomes more motivated. Set realistic, short, midand long-term goals. This is very important. A training plan must be based on them. When your training plan is ready, take the time to explain the program to your customer so he/she is fully aware what and why you will be doing. A good trainer is a teacher and knows how to explain some issues to a client. Another thing is that trainees want and like to know the results achieved for their money. The fact that they feel better is not enough, they need a constant reminder of the benefits of training. Show your customers objective data concerning their progress on a paper –it will be a huge motivator.
I would recommend to send from time to time customer’s satisfaction survey through PerfectGym management software which enables you to do it without the cost, easy and fast. You can choose a specific group of customers, i.e. for example: specific group class participants, to evaluate their motivational level. It can help to check how our trainers are working and what steps need to be taken in the future, where to put more attention.