Here Are 5 Top Ways To Improve Customer Service At Your Gym
- Train Your Staff
- Listen and Encourage Feedback
- Personalised Member Experiences
- Celebrate Customer Milestones
- Make Being a Member Easy
Learn How Customer Service Can Help Grow Your Fitness Business
Having an annual growth rate of 3-4% it’s clear to see that the fitness industry is quickly becoming over-saturated, making it hard to stand out. As such, there is an increasing need to find a point of differentiation that can not only help acquire new members but retain them too. Sound difficult?
What if I could tell you there is a simple way to ensure customer satisfaction… customer service!
The reality is, customer service can have a huge impact on the success of your gym. Providing amazing customer service to your clients has the ability to grow your gym community and keep your existing members happy. In fact, 96% of customers say customer service is important in their choice of loyalty to a brand. This means that by simply providing a high level of service, retention rates and overall member loyalty can be maximised. The value of customer service can also be seen on the financial side of the business. A study reported that 73% of companies with above average customer experience perform better financially than their competitors that do not focus on customer service.
As such, improving customer service initiatives could not only improve customer loyalty towards the gym, but build value in your business, improve member retention and increase your business revenue. So enough chit-chat, here are 5 strategies that can help you and your fitness business improve customer experiences and stand out from the rest!
Train Your Staff
It is essential your gym staff are sufficiently trained in order to provide the amazing customer service that leads to so many benefits and the success of your gym. The truth is, if one of your staff is unfriendly at the front desk or a trainer does not teach a great class, will your customers be satisfied? When member’s have a bad experience, this will not only reflect negatively on the staff member but the entire gym.
A survey reported that 95% of customers cited the teacher being a key element when deciding what class to attend, this highlights that a staff member could make or break the class. This is why customer service should be included in staff training, teaching them how to provide exceptional service and highlight the reasons why.
This will ensure your staff are trained on the same set of competencies and know the standard process to manage customers in the most efficient way. Teaching them to resolve issues and making the customer feel appreciated. Improving the quality of customer service through training will enhance the customer experience leading to higher retention rates and satisfied customers, which is crucial to the success of your fitness business.
Listen and Encourage Feedback
We understand that receiving criticism might be frustrating at times, but we urge you to listen and remain open to your members suggestions. Such feedback can be extremely valuable and allow you to make your gym even better!
Taking a proactive approach and collecting feedback from you gym members will make sure you do not stray far from your community’s needs. Whether good or bad, feedback can provide great insights into what you are doing right and wrong from your customer’s perspective. From these insights you can pull things to adjust or adapt, to ultimately improve your customer experience over time.
When feedback is heard and implemented, it can increase your customers satisfaction and empower positive change in your gym. There are several ways you can encourage and receive feedback from your clients, consisting of online reviews, placing an anonymous box at the gym, emailing out surveys or have your staff ask members what they would like to see improved at the gym.
Feedback is a powerful guide to the success of your business and allows you to keep your gym community at the heart of everything you do.
Personalised Member Experiences
Creating personalised member experiences will help you maintain customer satisfaction levels and ensure they have a positive experience each time they walk through the door. In fact, 63% of customers expect personalisation as a standard of a service.
A simple gesture can go a long way, for example a warm greeting by name can make a huge difference in the members experience. When addressing your member’s by name it will build a personal relationship and makes them feel valued. After classes, check in with your member again and ask if they enjoyed their class or workout. Listen to what customers have to say and focus on their interest, that 5 minute chat could end up being a highlight of your customers’ day.
Personalise any communications sent to your members, use your customer data to analyse their goals, interests, what classes they like and how often they attend the club. This information can assist you in
figuring out what they want from their gym experience and send them helpful personalised content.
An example of going above and beyond to make your customers feel valued is to schedule targeted emails before or after classes have finished. The VIGYR Member System has great tools that will assist with scheduling and automating communications. Providing great customer service and personalised experiences can create a valuable competitive advantage and a point of differentiation between you and other gyms
Celebrate Customer Milestones
Celebrating member milestones will play a big role in keeping your loyal customers satisfied and maximising the member experience. This could range from celebrating your member’s 1 year anniversary, reaching a 1000 visits to your gym, your client achieving their weight goal or birthdays.
Recognising member birthdays gives you a chance to make their day special and memorable. Small gestures could consist of all staff members signing a card, singing happy birthday at the end of a class or giving them a buddy pass so they can bring a friend or family member next time. The sound feature in the VIGYR System could also be a great way to celebrate your members birthday by playing the happy birthday song when they walk into the gym.
You can get creative when rewarding your members for these milestones, as it recognises their loyalty and dedication to your gym. Here are some fun ways to commemorate them:
- Sending a thank you card
- Buddy pass
- A social media post dedicated to your member
- Gym branded items – towel, bottle or merchandise
Make Being A Member Easy
Complicated procedures or processes can affect customer satisfaction and retention levels at any organisation. A few questions you have to ask yourself is; how easy is it to pay for gym memberships? To check the class schedule? To book classes? To get in contact with the gym? These factors all need to be considered and simplified in order to provide the best customer service. It should be easy to manage memberships, book classes, signing up to the gym and any other services offered. Feedback from your customers could be extremely valuable here to identify any areas that require improvement.
Your gym management software should be able to assist you with managing your members and streamlining business procedures. If you are looking to upgrade your current system, the VIGYR Member Systems offers a great variety of features to ease any processes. Including, online sign on, online booking system, member management, extensive reporting and charts.
Discover how VIGYR Gym Management Software can help deliver the ultimate customer service experience
While these top 5 customer service tips can set you on your way to building a fitter business, one of the most underrated tools when looking to enhance the customer experience and increase retention rates is your gym management software.
So, whether you run a small gym studio or lead a global fitness empire VIGYR Gym Software can help drive business growth like never before. The VIGYR System was built with the end consumer in mind – maximising results for both you and your member.
With a long standing vision to enable the fitness industry to build happier, healthier, and more inclusive communities around the globe, VIGYR Member Systems is the perfect way to access complete process optimisation across a powerful suite of features proven to drive leading results.
