The Front Desk

November 30, 2009

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know it’s a drag to be back in the office again, but the Holidays are right around the corner!

Now, for the nitty gritty…

Whether you are a small fitness only facility, a 200,000 sq. ft. multi purpose gym, a hospital-based wellness center, or a personal training studio there is one common component to every gym…the front desk.

Most gym owners spend hours designing there cardio room, picking there spin bikes, choosing their favorite weight stacks, but only about five minutes designing their front desks! This seems a bit odd to me, especially since we are a service based industry and first impressions are so important. With every new encounter and every member visit, you, the club and your employees are evaluated and an impression of you and your club is formed.

This brings us to the front desk. Since there are so many different ways to man and run a front desk, for the sake of this entry, I will focus in on manned front desk. I’ll save unmanned, self-check-in, and 24/7 facilities for another entry!

I know I promised not to make this blog a sales pitch for our software but I want to point out that good software (ours or ABC Financial, FiServ, Twin Oaks, iGo!, Get Physical etc.) all have the ability to address some of the biggest issues that your front desk staff might encounter. Let me also reiterate that software doesn’t solve all your problems (we are not the little blue pill) but it can certainly help!

The Look
The desk itself needs to be clean, and clutter free. I know the last thing I want to see are tons of yellow post-it notes, and old contracts lying around when I walk into my gym.

Front Desk Software
There are couple of software functions that should help you at the front desk:

ELECTRONIC “YELLOW POST-IT NOTES”

• Departmental notes (i.e. accounting telling PT manager about doing time sheets)
• Check-in notes (i.e. give an extra warm greeting to a member who is recovering from surgery)
• Reminder notes (i.e. telling the next shift to remember to refill hand sanitizer)
• Call-back notes (self-explanatory)
• Forward facing notes (alerting staff to contact, stop, call, or email a member)
• Plus it frees up your post-it notes to do more important stuff…http://blog.shoplet.com/office-supplies/post-it-notes-art/

CONTRACTS
I am still surprised at how often you walk into a club and see old contracts laying around. This includes personal information, often times credit card numbers, and in some cases social security numbers. Aside from the aesthetic reason not to do this…think about PCI and how much it would hurt your business if you were to get sued because a members private information ended up in the wrong hands.

Let your software help:

• Scan and attach a contract (or any document) to a member record;
• Or, go green! Paperless contracts and electronic signature capture!

The Feel
The front desk needs to be consistent with the rest of the club…similar color schemes and design. I will say this problem is getting better but in the very recent past it always seemed like the front desk was an afterthought!

How Picking the Right Hardware Helps
You know the old adage…cleanliness is next to holiness! Make good hardware decisions:

COMPUTERS AS ART
Twenty years ago computers were beige and square. Today they are pieces of art! I can’t take credit for it but you might want to consider upgrading that large beige desktop for something cool and sleek…http://www.amoswong.com/images/modded-computer.jpg

WIRES AND CABLES
Don’t clutter the front desk area with wires and cables. Everything is wireless these days…including that keyboard and mouse!

POS
We work with touchscreens…just sayin’!

The People
This one is VERY important!
As with most things, good people can overcome a lot. For the most part the front desk staff is generally the lowest compensated employees; but they often times have the biggest impact for retention, sales, and even new membership.

How good software can help
Aside from making our health club management software easy to use, this one falls on you! Take the time to train, and retrain your front desk staff. Every professional needs continuing education, treat your front desk staff the same way.

We could spend 50 entries just digging into the minutia of front desk management…so this is just a teaser.