Retention and Marketing Advice

Top ‘3’ Challenge

Everyone has got 3 main priorities in life. These vary considerably; however, examples may include work, hobbies, family, and friends. As a Personal Trainer or any other Exercise Professional we want to make sure we are in the ‘Top 3’ of our member / client priorities and stay there.  This is one of the easiest ways to improve client retention.

For instance, people come from stressful jobs that they hate, busy lifestyles at home, commutes, hectic traffic and other stressors. But they COME. They show up at your gym or studio or wherever you train and they want to put in the work. Your place is one place that they can blow off steam, boost their own confidence, make friends, laugh, push past their limits (you know everyone lives in a little comfort circle so it feels great to get out of that) and make their bodies look awesome at the same time.

There are some really simple ways to make sure that you are making the ‘Top 3’ and not just making it another “thing” they have to do every day. We all know if you’re delivering great service and are being motivating and supportive, people will want to stick around.

Here is what we can do to stay in our clients ‘Top 3’ priorities!

1. Know everyone. I mean on a personal level. We keep our classes to around 10-20 people so we literally know about their families and significant others (kids, jobs, what they did on the weekend, when they trained last). If you can cope with more numbers in a class and still know all this information even better. Always be honest and realistic with yourself though!
2. Say their names during workouts. There’s nothing more powerful for a person than to be acknowledged and praised. Instead of just saying “great job” be sure to say “great job Joe” and it makes it that much more effective.
3. Interaction - whenever with whoever. There are some people that we don’t see because they train in the ladies classes / in the machine weights area. Regardless, we’re always interacting when we can, on the gym floor, when collecting kit from the studio and on Facebook. Posting workout pics, praising people and just being motivating and enthusiastic.
4. Member / Client parties. Make the effort to interact with the members and clients inside and outside of the gym / class. Run a class night out or attend your clients Birthday drinks when invited. They will appreciate your attendance and you will gain additional respect.
5. Show you have time for people. If you have spare time and bump into your clients / members offer your advice, offer to do a little 10-15 minute blast or even train with them.
6. Have fun. We push people in the workouts but we make sure they have fun. Everyone knows each other and they look forward to seeing their friends.

Overall we make sure this is not just a workout, it’s a lifestyle……. and slowly as people get acclimatised to our culture, it does become their third place (if not first or second place)!