Three Words That Will Make You a Tonne of Money

This morning I received an email from one of my subscribers explaining the classic collections situation that occurs within the big box gyms. You know the one I am referring to, member signs up, member doesn’t use membership, either credit card expires or other billing situation occurs, gym calls member and threatens to send member to collections. Pretty standard since most big box gyms have iron clad member contracts that you cannot get out of.

Another situation that was told to me recently, long term active gym members cancelled their membership at their local gym. The owner believed the cancelled their membership because of a conversation between employees, as it turns out their cancellation was due to being frustrated that the gym was always publically acknowledging the progress and achievements of all the athletes that train there but not the achievements of the every day people.

This brings me to the three little words that will make you a tonne of money as a personal trainer…

Appreciate your customers.

It’s that simple, as personal trainers we have an amazing opportunity and our industry is rapidly growing and here’s why. The classic gym is failed to realize what many personal trainers have, we are most profitable when people actually use our services and get full value for them. They then refer and send many others to use or services, it’s that simple. Our whole process of tracking goals and providing accountability is the very thing that could greatly increase revenues of any public gym but it seems far from their attention.

Here are7 ways to appreciate your clients:

1)      Create a Facebook fanpage and acknowledge achievements frequently.

2)      Send a thank you card to anyone that signs up. (Even better is to include a value add to really make them feel appreciated.)

3)      If they cancel or miss an appointment always call and follow up and see how they are doing. In fact just do this seemingly randomly to really go over the top.

4)      Send regular text messages or emails to acknowledge their efforts and thank them for their business.

5)      Provide automatic, unpublished rewards for referrals.

6)      Acknowledge your mistakes and give them extra value if you need to  solve a problem.

7)      Never let them miss more than 1-2 sessions without substantial follow up to make sure they are satisfied with their programming.

This may sound like a lot of extra work but the truth is it’s far less expensive and far more valuable to keep the customers you have than it is to find new ones. And the best part is if you work more on keeping them happy they will find new customers for you and everybody wins!