What Would Your Members Want?

May 17, 2009

Let me start this blog by defining two terms:

TACTICAL Decisions are short-term, reactive, disruptive (not a bad thing) and possibly impulsive. They are smaller, faster, easier, more intuitive and qualitative. And they are important to your day-to-day operations as your members will see and feel them immediately. For the most part TACTICAL decisions are lower cost.

Some examples of TACTICAL decisions are:

• Buying a new piece of equipment (based on what the gym across the street has);
• Hiring new or more cleaning staff (in response to member complaints);
• Or, buying ad space in a new magazine.

STRATEGIC Decisions (not to be confused with strategy) are long-term, proactive, and rarely impulsive. They are bigger, slower, more thought intensive, and should have a quantitative component. The decisions will effect the gym over time, and could change the course of the entire business. For the most part STRATEGIC decisions are higher cost.

Some examples of STRATEGIC decisions:

• Marketing decisions (how you present yourself in your advertising);
• Whether or not your personal trainers are W-2s or 1099s;
• Or, expanding existing space or opening a new store.

Consistency
I think we can all agree that SUCCESSFUL gyms have one thing in common, they stopped being providers of leads, and started to be providers of service. The problem of course is that they (members and employees) don’t just want service, they want CONSISTENT service. This blog entry will address what I see as a major obstacle that smaller operators deal with on a regular basis…making the right decisions in delivering the right, consistent service.

Members are finicky. Some people go to the gym and enjoy talking with the your staff at check-in and having conversations with friends as they work out. At the other extreme, you have members who want to check themselves in, workout without talking to anyone, and leave. Unfortunately, you as the gym owner need to provide a space and a service that cater to both types of members, and everyone in between. Therein lies the challenge!

I believe that you can’t be everything to everybody. Looking at the big box gyms, the one thing they provide is…consistency. They know what they want to provide, how they want to provide it, and they provide it well:

LA Fitness has attended check-in, no pro-shop, and a limited floor staff.

Equinox has a full pro-shop, encourages members to buy personal training, and invests in learning about individual members.

Both are highly successful chains, yet they have very different approaches.

Why are large chains able to do this, while smaller operators seem to falter? The answer is good decision-making. I’ll explain in more detail in my next blog.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend and visit back on the Tuesday after!