Restructuring for Redemption

Bally Total Fitness owners are hoping a judge approves their restructuring plan and their deal with lenders to exit Chapter 11. But a large group of disgruntled former and current customers are probably hoping Bally's plan includes more than moving money around. Bally's members have a long list of complaints, and this is the company's chance to make a new name for itself.

First on the list ought to be a more customer-friendly cancellation process. I'm not saying Bally's ought to stop holding customers to their signed contracts, but they should improve their communication protocols so that members who want to quit are re-informed of what Bally's requires of them.

Second, the company should improve staff training. Bally's is a huge chain. Its employees' dismal customer service reflects on all fitness facilities, whether it's fair or not.

The web is overflowing with negative Bally's reviews, and the company has struggled financially. This is a golden opportunity for Bally's to clean up its reputation. I hope it's not wasted.

Crash Course

For a crash course in the fitness business, check out "Value Added: Working Out the Business" by Thomas Heath of The Washington Post. David von Storch, founder and owner of three VIDA Fitness facilities in Washington, D.C., talks about everything from making the most of industry trade shows to investing money back in the club to getting “over the hump” and into soaring profits.

This industry has a lot of club owners with no shortage of enthusiasm and passion, but it’s too rarely applied in a way that makes financial sense. Much of what von Storch discusses isn’t revolutionary, but he’s applied it with such gusto that his success is energizing and inspiring. He’s absorbed every piece of information available, learned from past failures and created a fitness business that is going nowhere but up.

I thought the article was informative and von Storch’s approach to running a club was refreshingly simple. Your thoughts?

Learning from Our Past

Pioneers and inventors have always amazed me. How did they come up with those ideas? What inspired them? Could I, in their situation, have done the same thing? Those of us in the fitness industry can certainly learn from our “founding fathers,” and gain inspiration from their hard work, creativity and commitment to the cause of “fitness” for the masses.

Ray Wilson is one of our pioneers, and he is still going strong. He recently started a new chain of clubs called Ray Wilson’s Healthy Exercise. And, true to form, this isn’t your typical health club chain. These facilities are geared toward “people of all ages who shy away from the traditional gym,” according to a recent news article. At 80 years old, Wilson is still looking ahead toward the future of our industry.

Wilson’s career can serve as an example to all fitness managers. Here is how he has continued to succeed for more than three decades and through varying financial climates:

1. Work hard: Wilson grew up in a large family of poor migrant farmers who all picked cotton to earn money. From that he gained a strong work ethic.

2. Go with your instincts: Wilson was one of the first to change the image of traditional gyms, transforming them into light, open areas that attracted more than just bodybuilders.

3. Listen to others: Wilson took advice from former astronaut James Lovell, who was also former chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, to include cardio training options in all of his future fitness centers.

4. Create smart partnerships: Wilson bought the rights to an exercise cycle in 1968, which he and business partner Augie Nieto perfected. This eventually became the Lifecycle, and the beginning of a fitness revolution.

5. Continue to reinvent your business: Wilson paid attention to trends and his market when opening new clubs. His original Family Fitness Centers became the model for modern chains, and all were eventually sold to 24 Hour Fitness. His new Healthy Exercise clubs may very well set new models for fitness centers geared toward the non-exerciser.

Compensation vs. Recognition

Today, July 14, 2008, is the official deadline for entries to the 15th annual Nova7 Facility Awards competition. While, each year, the number of entries rises and declines, no doubt due to a variety of factors, I sometimes wonder if facility operators really recognize the importance of this type of award for their facility’s employees.

So, my question for you is, what do you believe motivates your employees more: compensation or recognition? My guess is that the majority of your responses will be split somewhere near the middle. This dissension seems to be caused by a disconnect between what managers think employees want, and what employees really want: cash or other tangibles, such as trophies/plaques and public expressions of gratitude.

The debate between compensation vs. recognition has been ongoing. While many companies realize the need to recognize employees for a job well done, many others take the easy way out by throwing money at employees instead. But, money isn’t everything, especially when it comes to job motivation. That said, everyone has to have a sufficient amount of money to meet their needs. But, rewarding someone by bribing them with cash is hardly an incentive to make them want to excel at their jobs.

The reality is that money pays the bills and buys extras, but it doesn’t make people feel good about themselves. And, everyone wants, or rather needs, to feel good about themselves. Feeling good about their accomplishments is what makes employees want to excel, and then continue to excel.

An online Maritz Poll survey, conducted in October 2005 of 1,002 randomly selected, full-time employed adults (502 men and 500 women) ages 18 to 65-plus from throughout the United States, found that employees who were completely satisfied with their company’s recognition programs were significantly more satisfied with their jobs, more likely to remain with the company and more likely to recommend their workplace to others. Specifically, 55 percent of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that the quality of their company’s recognition efforts affects their job performance. Yet, at the same time, only 10 percent of them strongly agreed that they are completely satisfied with their company’s employee recognition efforts.

According to a MotivationNetwork article, “Webster defines compensation as ‘that which is given or received as an equivalent for services, debt, want, loss, suffering, etc.’ Clearly, compensation is linked to security and safety, for no one feels safe unless sufficiently compensated to meet their needs. Recognition, on the other hand, is defined as ‘acknowledgment and approval, gratitude, etc.’ Recognition appeals to the higher levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, especially social and self-esteem needs.”

Establishing recognition programs can often be time-consuming, especially for independently owned facilities whose owners/managers are already wearing umpteen hats. That’s why I initially asked whether facility operators really understand the importance of such awards programs as the Nova7 Facility Awards. This, and other industry awards, such as the IDEA Health and Fitness Awards and the ICAA Active Aging Awards are meant to take the burden off of you, while, at the same time, provide a service to you. You’re off the hook for developing your own recognition programs, and your employees are recognized not just within your facility, but nationally among the entire industry with trophies and plaques, and, even more importantly, with words of praise in industry publications.

If you didn’t get your staff involved in entering one or more of these awards programs this year, I strongly encourage you to do so in the coming years.

Full Disclosure

Brianna Godfrey was miffed when the personal trainer she’d hired at Gold’s Gym was replaced with no explanation. Wilfredo Rivera was, by her account, a true professional. “He was very motivating, very encouraging, he knew what he was talking about — really a good guy,” Godfrey told a KUTV reporter.

She was even more miffed when she found out why her trainer went missing. Rivera didn’t call in sick or quit. He was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and rape.

This news was upsetting, to say the least, but what upset her most was that she didn’t hear the truth from Gold’s Gym. Instead, she found out her trainer was a wanted criminal — captured thanks to a nationwide manhunt called “Operation Falcon” — from a story on the local news.

Perhaps Gold’s Gym management hoped that by keeping its mouth shut about the circumstances of Rivera’s absence, they’d avoid the fallout. Instead, the club lost a customer and its reputation.

It’s possible that management was embarrassed. Indeed, they should have been. Not only was one of its personal trainers arrested for a violent crime, but he had previously served time in a federal prison for drug and weapons charges.

Gold’s Gym had the chance to prove itself as a forthcoming, up-front business when Rivera was arrested. Management could have stepped up and been honest about the circumstances of his disappearance, and reassured members that the charges weren’t brought by another member. Instead, management kept its mouth shut, leaving Godfrey feeling confused and betrayed.

And why’s that? Apparently, Gold’s doesn’t hire its trainers. Instead, it contracts them through a separate agency called Professional Fitness . “A spokesperson for Gold’s Gym said he was assured background checks were being performed, and that every trainer had come up clean,” reported KUTV. “Now he says they are evaluating if they will continue their relationship with Professional Fitness.”

Um … evaluating? Is that a joke? How about terminating its relationship with Professional Fitness? That seems a more appropriate response to the situation.

But then, I think we can all agree that there was nothing appropriate about how Gold’s handled any of this.

Everyone makes mistakes; but, informing your membership when an employee has been arrested on suspicion of committing a violent crime? That’s a no-brainer.

Big, Black Boxes of Sin

I don’t know about your members, but I go to the gym for one reason: to watch hot chicks and smokin’ guys shake their stuff. There, I said it. I don’t run for an hour on the treadmill for my health; I do it so I can get an eyeful of scantily clad women lip-syncing to top 40 hits, or bumping and grinding next to a shirtless, scowling rap star. Don’t call the cops just yet — I’m not doing anything illegal. I’m just watching the videos playing on the TVs scattered throughout the club. Those big, black boxes of sin are chock full of sex, I tell you. SEX!

OK, so the previous paragraph is not entirely true. I don’t actually go to the gym to watch music videos. I do run on the treadmill for my health, but I’ve only clocked an hour once and that nearly killed me. But there is a group of concerned — no, HORRIFIED — students in Utah who are doing whatever they possibly can to get that filth off two area Gold’s Gym closed-circuit televisions.

I promise you, this time I’m not kidding.

Five “organizations that fight pornography in the community are upset with the videos at the gym and say they have collected nearly 1,000 signatures on a petition calling on Gold’s Gym to quit showing the videos,” reports KSL5. Dallen Johnson told the KSL5 reporter, “I’ve had to leave, honestly! There have been four times I’ve run out of the cardio cinema because of racy and inappropriate things being shown, things I personally view as pornography.” You know, there are certain shoe displays so alluring that I view them as pornography, but I’m not demanding that the stores take them down. I just want a discount.

Jesse Yaffe says the injustice goes even further. Not only does Gold’s broadcast porn, but apparently those sadists force him to watch it. “Once you are a member here, you basically don’t have the choice anymore,” Yaffe told the reporter. “You’re forced to watch indecent material because it seems everywhere you go there’s a TV.” And you thought your members wanted entertainment options!

Gold’s Gym officials in Utah, bless their hearts, are taking the time to listen to the students’ complaints. “Gold’s says music helps to energize people who are there to exercise, and say they don’t want anyone to be offended at the gym during their workout experience,” reports KSL5.

However, it seems the offenses don’t stop at lascivious videos. The students have demanded that Gold’s install blinds on the group exercise room because the exercisers’ “dancing” is “very provocative.” Unless the cocktail-loving ladies from Flirty Girls Fitness have stumbled into a Gold’s by mistake after a wild night of pole dancing, I fail to see how group exercise could be so provocative it should be behind closed doors.

Don’t get me wrong. Some people prefer a more modest environment to work out in, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Heck, we’ve written about facilities that cater to those people. But it’s my opinion that Gold’s should stay strong. A club should not change to accommodate the few — nor should it do so in a manner that suggests all of its other locations are doing something wrong or indecent. If the students are unhappy there, then Gold’s should refund their money and send them on their way.

And I’m not kidding about that, either.

Consumer Reports Takes on the Fitness Industry

If you read my blog entry from a few weeks ago about the Better Business Bureau, you may see a pattern: how outsiders view the fitness industry. Now, the ultimate in consumer guides has, for the first time, rated fitness centers. Consumer Reports recently released its guide for consumers (your potential members) on the types of facilities that rate the best, and what to look for when deciding where to join.

The ratings are based on responses from more than 10,000 ConsumerReports.org subscribers who answered an online survey. Responders rated fitness centers on classes, crowds, locker rooms, billing issues and more. In addition, Consumer Reports sent 12 mystery shoppers to branches of the major chains in nine states. (To view the entire report, you must be a Consumer Reports subscriber.)

Results found that members don’t need a big, fancy facility to be happy. Responders gave higher marks to YMCAs/JCCs, community centers and corporate fitness centers than to most of the big chains that were rated. Yoga, Pilates and dance studios also outscored most of the chains.

In addition to the type of facility members preferred, they were asked about membership fees. Among respondents with paid memberships, 16 percent had a problem with their contract or fees, such as an unexpected dues hike or inability to suspend their membership temporarily. And, many members had difficulty canceling a membership. Thirty-eight percent of respondents who had canceled their membership in one of the big chains had at least one problem, such as receiving bills after cancellation, or excessive time and effort to cancel.

Should you care about this report? Absolutely! Even if you are not one of the big chains reviewed (Bally’s, Life Time Fitness, Curves, Gold’s Gym, 24 Hour Fitness, LA Fitness and Town Sports International), your category of facility is most likely included (independent, YMCA, corporate, etc.). Also, the guide gives tips to potential members on what to look for in a facility, including staff, cleanliness, value, equipment and programs.

Now, in addition to cars and vacuum cleaners, Consumer Reports helps customers make informed buying decisions about fitness centers. The industry should take guides such as this to heart, and find out what current and potential members want and need in a fitness facility. According to this report, it’s not all about brand or having the best equipment. Members are happy with great service, a good value and fair business practices.

The Bandwagon Effect

It sounded like a good idea.

Curves for Women franchises were springing up like dandelions all over the country. It was no surprise that the “what’s good for the gander is good for the goose” mentality was close behind. Enter Cuts Fitness for Men.

The franchise was an unabashed disciple — some would say copycat — of the Curves’ formula for success. Still, despite a strong push for a ride on the single-sex bandwagon, the concept so popular with women failed when applied to men. “Cuts Fitness for Men advertised their franchise opportunity aggressively, promoted its story continuously through the press and strategic alliance partners, then seemed to go silent all at once,” say the folks at FranchisePick.com. The Cuts Fitness for Men website now simply hawks a Cuts book, as if the whole thing never happened.

So, was the Cuts story a fireworks-like flameout after a spectacular start? Or did the franchise ever get off the ground in the first place?

FranchisePick.com reports that “an April 2006 Cuts Fitness press release boasted that the men-only 30-minute fitness company … had more than 100 franchises open in five countries, more than 200 franchises sold, and expected to sell 250 more franchises in 2006.” The media bought the hype, and proclaimed Cuts Fitness for Men as a hot franchise investment. Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Cuts Fitness No. 17 in its Top 20 New Franchises list, No. 65 in its Fastest Growing Franchises list and No. 300 in its 2006 Franchise 500. “The hype continued through mid-2006, when the company press releases slowed and stopped mentioning the number of units,” says FranchsePick.com. “In September 2006, in an otherwise positive article, the New York Times reported that “67 Cuts for Men clubs have either closed or never opened.”

There’s a lesson in here somewhere. Actually, there are a few of them. The most obvious is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to attracting niche markets. Bandwagons are like any other vehicle: The more weight they take on, the slower they move. But consider the marketing angle. Was Cuts Fitness for Men a victim of its own hype? Its PR was making promises franchisees couldn’t deliver, and a relentless forward surge didn’t allow room for a slow-down or slide-back in its business plan. The end result seems, in hindsight, inevitable.

How strong is the temptation to cash in on someone else’s popular idea? Has your fitness center ever fallen victim to the bandwagon effect? Take it from Cuts Fitness for Men: Sometimes the safest place for a business is on solid ground, waving at the bandwagon as it goes by. Don’t worry too much about missing it; another will be along shortly.

Attention Fitness Center Managers!

Ahem. I have an annoucement.

Attention fitness center managers! Your services are no longer needed. Please proceed in an orderly fashion toward the exit, and best of luck in your future professional pursuits.

If this announcement doesn’t fill you with joy — if, in fact, it makes you just the slightest bit angry — don’t shoot the messenger. I only realized fitness center managers were on their way out the door after reading an article about a new kind of manager — the non-human kind — making its debut in one of the largest chains in the business. 24 Hour Fitness, San Ramon, Calif., purchased RetailAction, a software application manufactured by Reflexis Systems Inc., Dedham, Mass., that promises to “boost operational productivity and consistently execute its corporate strategy in all of its more than 375 clubs in 14 states.”

24 Hour Fitness also believes its new, automated managers will actually help make members happier and more satisfied. “We are confident that integrating labor scheduling, task management and compliance management will enhance customer experience significantly at our clubs,” says Dan Benning, senior vice president of operations for 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide.

In light of the renewed focus on making fitness centers a hub of social activity that extends beyond sets and reps, am I alone in thinking that this is a strange step for an industry leader to take? How can a bunch of fitness center employees working at the beck and call of a computer effectively serve the needs of a notoriously unpredicatable group of fitness center members? Call me crazy, or just old-fashioned, but I have a hard time imagining a workforce happy to be micromanaged by a computer chip.

Justice and the Job Hunt

Think back to your last job interview. You were probably asked the standard questions: certifications, professional experience, references, ethnicity, religion.

What’s that? You weren’t asked where you were born, where your parents were born, what religion you are and whether or not you are a Muslim?

Then your name must not be Sukdev Singh Dhaliwal.

Dhaliwal is a Sikh who won $24,000 in damages from Bally Total Fitness when a California judge ruled that the company denied him a job in 2004 on religious and ethnic grounds. He was born and raised in California, but, during the interview, Dhaliwal was asked about his religious and ethnic background, and later denied the job.

According to Wikipedia, a Sikh can be recognized by his turban or beard, or by a steel bracelet on the wrist. That, apparently, was enough to raise a red flag for Bally management, and enough to cause them to ignore this country’s most basic employment rights.

Bally Total Fitness needs to worry about more than its bottom line if its management can look at a man wearing a turban, notice the color of his skin, struggle with the pronunciation of his name – then decide that, based on these factors alone, he is not a candidate for employment.

Is Bally's alone in its discriminatory hiring practices, or is this issue more wide-spread in our industry? If this story shocks you (and especially if it doesn’t), it might be time to look at your own facility’s hiring process and guidelines. Do they follow the law?

Will You Be Successful or Significant?

If you attended the IHRSA Convention this past March and sat in on Augie Nieto's presentation, From Success to Significance, you might be asking yourself, like I am, whether you are on the path in life to be successful or significant.

The truth is, we never really know what dots are going to connect in life to lead us to where our lives will ultimately end up — despite the decisions we make and chances we take along the way. Augie, pioneer of the first piece of cardio equipment, founder of Life Fitness, crusader in the quest to find a cure for Lou Gherig’s disease (ALS), and now legacy, is a keen example of that. But, he has learned that if you have a passion for something, no matter what path your life takes, the dots along the way always end up connecting. In his presentation, Augie explained, “You can’t look forward and connect the dots. You can’t look back. What you have to do is find a passion and the dots will connect.”

I often think of Augie’s presentation. His spirit, his honesty and his message truly touched me. Augie's dots connected because he had a passion. Through his passion for fitness, he strove to make people’s bodies stronger. Augie says that his dad once told him, “Take the biggest risk you can, early.” Augie did, and with the eventual success of the Lifecycle and of his company Life Fitness, he, himself, became successful. Now, with his passion for finding a cure for ALS, he is striving to help science and to stop the disease from afflicting others in the future. With the millions of dollars he has helped to raise to date through Augie’s Quest, scientific progress has been, and is still being, made, and Augie has progressed from being successful to being significant. “How do you go from being successful to significant?” asked Augie. “If you’re gone and you’re successful, you won’t be missed. If you’re gone and you’re significant, you will be missed.”

We could all learn a lesson from Augie. The fitness industry is all about passion. Have you pinpointed what, specifically, your passion is? Will you be successful in our industry, or significant to our industry?

“Success is never final,” says Augie. “Failure is never fatal. What matters is passion. And passion allows you to do what’s right and what’s wrong.”

Is Argibay On Another Planet?

I love it when people prove me right. In case you missed my editorial in the February 2007 edition of Fitness Management, I wrote about the well-hyped Planet Fitness incident in which a member, Albert Argibay, was ousted from the facility for grunting.

Argibay’s and Planet Fitness General Manager Carol Palazzolo’s accounts of the incident differ widely. I took Palazzolo’s side in my editorial for a couple of reasons. First, a facility should have the right to set policies that appeal to a target clientele and to enforce those policies. There are a lot of fitness facilities across the U.S., and I’m sure Argibay could have found one to work out in that permits grunting while lifting weights.

Second, Argibay was clearly out of line in his dealings with Palazzolo. He was abrasive, offensive and downright ugly. And, despite his insistence that Palazzolo’s account of the incident is a lie, his email to me regarding my editorial only goes to show how likely her account is true:

“This is Albert Argibay and I read your editorial. [A]pparently you are a bunch of liberals that did not take the time nor effort to do your homework. Carol, the gm at planet fitness, is a liar and her story had no truth to it. Planet fitness prides its self in being a judgement free zone, but yet it raises the bar on setting a double standard by sounding off an alarm and referring to policy offenders as lunk heads and let me remind you miss doesn’t have a clue editorial writer, this is a place that even the pioneer of bodybuilding himself arnold would not be welcomed. I am not a bully, but one that believes in standing up to his rights and voicing his opinions and I don’t have to hide behind some type writer trying to gain the approval of the average person that had sand kicked in their face or as I prefer to call them liberals. Planet witless is a place for the non serious weight lifter. So if you want a place to spend the night that is open 24 hrs, a warm shower and a place to eat pizza and bagels this is the gym for you. Grunt On!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Argibay is well-spoken, wouldn’t you say? Who wouldn’t want to have a reasonable, level-headed discussion with this man? Apparently, everyone who disagrees with him is a “liberal.” No doubt, he was equally calm, cool and collected in his discussions with Palazzolo when she asked him to stop grunting.

I think Argibay missed the point: Planet Fitness doesn’t want so-called “serious weightlifters”; its goal, as has been repeatedly stated, is to attract the family market. Planet Fitness, in its official statement to the press, says that, before this incident occurred, Argibay was previously a member of Planet Fitness, and terminated his membership, saying “This isn’t the right kind of place for me.” But, then he rejoined, and violated Planet Fitness’ no-grunting policy, despite the fact that he knew the rules. The logical question here is, Why did he elect to rejoin Planet Fitness? Is it possible that he was unable to find another fitness facility that would tolerate his behavior?

For all the publicity this incident generated, it surprises me that the only response I got to my editorial was from Argibay himself. And, I can only deduce that Argibay, not a fitness professional who would even be aware of Fitness Management magazine, located my editorial online only because he was ego-surfing. Is there no one in the fitness industry who has an opinion on no-grunting policies in fitness facilities, or about the incident that occurred at Planet Fitness? I wrote this editorial because it’s an important one to address, in light of the publicity it generated -- not, as Argibay states, to “gain the approval of ... liberals.” It would be nice to get some reasonable feedback from those in our industry -- negative or positive.

Oh, and by the way, Mr. Argibay, we clueless editorial writers use computers these days, not typewriters; computers are much bigger to hide behind!