Making It Easy

When a member wants to cancel his or her membership due to financial hardship, does your club make it easy, or hard?

It seems like common sense: If a client is having trouble paying, give them a break and they’ll be more likely to return as customers when the going is good again.

So why are huge chains like LA Fitness and 24 Hour Fitness making it so tough for members to quit?

It’s easy to chalk it up to the impersonal “service” members get at big box clubs vs. the personal touch they get at small independent facilities — each client means more to them, so they work harder to keep not only their business, but their favor.

But is it really so black and white? I hate to think so.

Pick! Your! Spin!

Welcome, ladies and gentleman, to the first-ever game of Pick Your Spin! Today’s topic is how to use the recent study on caffeine and muscle pain to your club’s advantage without falling victim to the undesirable effects of poorly chosen spin.

In today’s game we’re picking the perfect article to post on the bulletin board in hopes it inspires members to take a regular pre-workout trip to the coffee bar.

We’re generous folks at the FM Blog, so let’s start off with a “gimmie” to get things going. The actual study is out of play due to its snooze-inducing title: “Effect of Caffeine on Quadriceps Muscle Pain During Acute Cycling Exercise in Low Versus High Caffeine Consumers.” Sorry, scientists.

Now grab your wheel, players, and get ready to Pick! Your! Spin!

The losers: Surprisingly, some big names are big losers in our little contest. Scientific American is a reputable source, but its headline has the “p” word: Pain. Same with a number of other outlets. Do you really want to emphasize that working out can hurt? We didn’t think so.

The runner-up: The obscure Twirlit makes an impressive showing with its article titled “Better Workout? Drink Caffeine.” It’s unlikely that any of your members are regular Twirlit readers, but the headline doesn’t mention pain so its obscurity could be outweighed by its message.

The winner: The New York Times! Its headline — "It’s Time To Make A Coffee Run" — is pure spin magic. The source is respected and has instant name recognition. Print this article, blow it up and make sure your members see it.

Thanks for joining us in the FM Blog’s first game of Pick Your Spin. We hope you had fun and encourage you to play at home.

A New Idea

I’ve never liked people who criticize someone without offering their own ideas for a solution. It’s counterproductive and, on some level, cowardly.

Last week I said believe Planet Fitness’ low-priced membership strategy may cause long-term harm to the industry. Whether I agree with it or not, it is a valid attempt by a successful business to find a solution for a problem every club is facing: getting more customers in an economic crisis. And, in the spirit of my statement above, I would be remiss if I didn’t offer another possible solution for clubs looking to lower prices without devaluing their services.

Here is my idea:*

Forget the “Pay as You Go” membership model. What about “Pay as you DON’T Go”?

Clubs want to build loyalty, right? You want your clients to build fitness into their routines, value the services they receive at the club, want to spend time there. Why not reward them for doing exactly that?

Say each club visit is worth $5. You establish an “ideal” visit rate of three times per week, averaging out to $60 per month. So, the member’s base fee is $15 per week. If they go once a week, knock $5 off their dues. Twice a week, knock off $10. Three times per week, and that week is free. Your members are saving money by working out at your club.

And while these sensible members are at your club, sell, sell, sell. Sell personal training sessions, sell smoothies, sell weight gloves, sell private Pilates lessons. Sell the heck out of everything you’ve got without being too aggressive or annoying.

If you employ this model, you’re obviously taking a risk. What if members do exactly what you want them to and come to the club like clockwork? Perhaps you could establish a base fee, and the $5 per visit is on top of that. What if members stop by on their way to the grocery store, swipe their card at the front desk and count it as a workout? Perhaps you could require members to swipe in and swipe out, with a minimum visit length of 20 minutes. Problems will pop up, but so will solutions.

Now’s your chance to tell me why you think this idea won’t work — or why it will. The comments are open.

*Whether you love it or hate it, I promise this is my own idea. I thought of it at my dining room table while nursing an epic Easter head cold. However, if another club has already come up with a similar idea, please let us know in the comments section.

The Dollar Dilemma

Have you heard? Planet Fitness has devalued the fitness industry lowered its dues to an offensive amazing $1 sign-up fee and $10 monthly dues with no commitment requirements! Isn’t that awful great?

It’s not like I didn’t expect this. Businesses lower prices to compete. But even if this means Planet Fitness can keep its lights on for another month or so, what does it mean for the industry after the economy rights itself?

Will the fitness industry end up like the airline industry? Airfare wars have driven prices so low that I wonder how long it takes before somebody offers to pay me to fly, instead of the other way around.

A $10-per-month price-tag is ridiculous. I can’t see how this lowball strategy will help the industry in the long run.

What am I missing? How can this possibly be a good idea? I seek enlightenment in the FM Blog’s comments section …

Fighting the Urge

On March 25, a four-year-old boy drowned in the Omni 41 Health & Fitness Connection, Schererville, Ind., pool. By any account, this was a tragic event. As a parent of a four-year-old myself, I can’t imagine the grief his parents must be suffering as they attempt to come to grips with what happened.

However, it appears these victims — the boy and those who grieve him — are not satisfactory. Some people are looking for even more victims.

A few articles were written about the drowning, and many news outlets allow comments on their stories. One commenter, posting in response to the Post-Tribune article about the boy’s death, demands that the identities of the four responsible supervisors and counselors be revealed. One can only imagine the commenter believes these people should be exposed so they can be publicly punished in some way, suffer more than the unimaginable guilt and regret they must already feel.

Like those calling for the greedy AIG employees’ heads, eager to inflict injury in the mistaken belief that it will in some way assuage the pain they feel themselves, this commenter is misguided. He is angry, and he hurts for this boy and for those who mourn him.

I can understand this feeling, this urge to pull others down into our black hole so we do not suffer alone. But now more than ever, while each of us struggles to manage our own challenges and unique wounds, we cannot afford to give in to it.

Operation: ReLaunch

Have you heard about The Collective? The Michigan chain operation is a kind of blended facility that offers members access to workspaces, music and art classes and a 20,000-square-foot fitness center. I admire its scope. Building a community by adding a coffee bar in the front desk area is one thing; offering meeting rooms, wi-fi and other business-related amenities takes the concept to another level.

But with the economy tanking, The Collective is taking a hit. Struggling small businesses aren’t as willing to shell out extra money to hold a meeting in a unique location — if they have meetings on the books at all. But The Collective isn’t sitting back and waiting for things to get better. Instead, it’s initiated an interesting, four-pronged program called ReLaunch aimed at Michigan’s unemployed. It focuses not only on building up resumes, but also building confidence by way of a reduced $50 fee good for three months’ use of the fitness center, along with workshops designed to give participants the tools to get their careers — and their lives — back on track.

I like the message this program sends. It gives a life expectancy to members’ hard times: three months. It gives them a place to go to look for work that connects them with other people suffering similar hardships, and it gets them out of the house. It’s harder to be depressed about being unemployed when you don’t feel unemployed, and that’s probably the biggest favor this program does for people with an extra $50 in the couch cushions.

It’s a positive, feel-good program. For everyone’s sake, I hope it works.

Techno-Connect

Natalia was a popular Body Pump instructor at a Los Angeles club. She was toned and fit, but hardly a candidate for the SI swimsuit edition. Her accent sometimes made it hard to understand exactly what she was saying, but her enthusiasm was crystal clear in any language. I never had a single personal conversation with Natalia, but I identified with her and never missed a class. When Natalia eventually left the club, so did I.

Finding an instructor like Natalia is like catching motivation in a bottle. Most likely, you have an instructor like that on your staff. If you’re lucky, you’ve got a whole group fitness schedule filled with Natalias. And, chances are, you’re wasting their talent.

The situation: MSNBC.com says more people are getting their workouts on the Internet. Enterprising personal trainers are putting their workouts online — like Gwyneth Paltrow’s trainer, who emails the Oscar-winner intense workouts while on tour with Madonna. (Let's ignore the fact that Ms. Paltrow aims to open her own NYC gym with the same personal trainer, shall we?) It’s time to harness that technology and make it work for your business, rather than against it.

The idea: Set up a members-only section of your club's website and post videos of your group exercises classes online. This should be an added value for members — the ability to maintain their relationship with the club, instructors and fellow exercisers even when they’re not able or willing to make it into the club.

For too long people have taken cracks at clubs for saying they don’t care if members actually use the club or not, so long as they pay their dues. This is a way to quash those critics and keep the club community strong. Best of all, it’s a way the fitness industry can make the most of a medium that too often isolates users even as it claims to connect them.