Photo courtesy of Lockers.com.

Although locker thefts are an ongoing issue for club owners and members alike, it appears that locker room thieves have become even smarter. Police in Chico, Calif. are currently looking for a three-man burglary team that has targeted local fitness and health clubs in the area over the last three years.

The men reportedly focus on secured lockers to steal credit and debit cards, according to the Chico Police Department. The cards are then used at local businesses to make large purchases, including high-end electronics.

Although Chico police are unable to detail the method in which the suspects were entering lockers, as the information is part of an ongoing investigation, Chico Police Detective Joel Schmid said that multiple locker types were broken into, including both keyed lockers and those with external locks, such as padlock or combination locks.

“The suspects did seem very savvy, using a variety of methods to bypass regular security on the lockers,” said Schmid in a phone interview.

The alleged burglars are thought to have been operating in Chico since January 2010, Schmid said. The men have also reportedly targeted other cities and counties in Northern California. The three suspects may also be traveling through the Western United States, said Schmid. Their activity suggests they’re moving through a wide geographical area.

Police estimate more than $40,000 was stolen from the victims in these cases.

Ricardo Alva, the director of sales for Salsbury Industries, the company that launched Lockers.com, discussed a product that could be your next offensive move in the battle against locker theft.

“That’s a tough one, because we can’t put cameras in locker rooms,” he said. “Basically, it comes down to where you’re storing valuables.”

To deter thieves from targeting lockers at gyms and other health facilities, Alva recommended the Cell Phone Locker to club owners. “They go up front, in high-visibility areas, generally by a front counter,” he said.

The Cell Phone Locker is quick and easy to store valuables in, and is just small enough to deposit iPads, other tablets, cell phones, watches, wallets and keys for the duration of a member’s stay at the gym.

The location is also much easier for club owners and employees to monitor. “From a security standpoint, members feel more comfortable leaving valuables there, without the concern that someone will break in without being noticed,” he said.

The Cell Phone Locker can be used with or without a key. Alva noted that keyless systems are more common, due to the convenience for both club members and club owners.

While implementing this new product will deter theft in your club, not all thieves will heed your warning. “If lockers are there,” said Alva. “They’re being targeted.”

By Sam Rogers

One of those damaged buildings included an Anytime Fitness, which indirectly experienced the mile-wide tornado’s destruction. “The tornado actually swung around the gym, and the debris cloud was what did the damage,” explained Reid Bradley, the franchisee owner who operates the gym from Minnesota. According to Bradley, the debris shattered some of his club’s windows, partially destroyed the roof and caused water damage.

Jessica Kinder-Vasquez, the personal training manager of Anytime Fitness in Moore, was inside the gym on Monday when she saw on the news that the tornado was headed her way. “I knew the storm was coming, and I just had a gut feeling my general manager (Erica Jones) and I needed to leave,” recalled Kinder-Vasquez.

After ensuring no members remained in the club, Kinder-Vasquez explained that she and Jones drove to a nearby jewelry store, Lewis Jewelers, and hid in the store’s vault as the tornado rampaged less than a mile away. “It was so frightening,” said Kinder-Vasquez. “Erica and I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

Soon after Kinder-Vasquez and Jones had entered the jewelry vault, Kinder-Vasquez said she received a phone call from Blaine Jackson, one of the club’s personal trainers, informing her that Jackson had just made it to Anytime Fitness. “I was worried for him,” said Kinder-Vasquez.

Jackson said he had been worried as well. “When I got to the club nobody was there, so I started watching the news and saw that the tornado was due to hit at any moment,” he recalled. At first, Jackson said he took cover within the club’s bathroom, as there was no basement. “My dad called and told me that if I wanted to leave, I had to do it now,” he recalled.

Deciding it would be safer to get in his car and leave versus staying in the club’s bathroom, Jackson explained that as he left the club, he observed the tornado about half a mile away, and headed in his direction. According to Jackson, the sight was horrifying. “I’d seen tornadoes before, but never that close,” he said. “You could hear it howling like a freight train.”

Jackson said he immediately jumped into his car and headed south, away from the tornado. “It was like a nightmare, seeing a tornado in my rearview mirror,” he said. He drove straight to Norman, a nearby town, where he waited out the storm.

Soon after the tornado had dispersed, Kinder-Vasquez explained that she and Jones drove back to Anytime Fitness to see what damage had been done. Considering the fact that homes behind the club and nearby buildings had been completely destroyed, Kinder-Vasquez said the damage could have been a lot worse. “There are homes behind our Anytime Fitness completely destroyed,” she said.

Now, Bradley said he and his team are focused on reaching out to members and helping the community. “Ninety percent of our members live within a mile and half to two miles from the club,” said Bradley. “We’re calling every single one of them to see how they’re doing and if there’s anything they need. We’re hoping for the best.”

On Saturday, the club will host a gathering for members and any other Moore residents affected by the tornado. Supplies will be dispersed to those in need.

According to Bradley, it’s unclear when the gym will be back up and running. “It’s hard to think about fixing the gym when people’s homes have been completely destroyed,” he said. “We’ll be down for at least a month. Right now, the main thing we’re focusing on is what we can do for the community.”

In the mean time, Bradley explained that membership dues have been frozen until the damage has been repaired and members can access the club.

Despite the devastation in Moore, Kinder-Vasquez said residents are surprisingly upbeat. “The surprising thing to me is that a lot of people who’ve lost everything are in good spirits,” she said. “They’re just happy if their families are okay.”

By Rachel Zabonick

Club Solutions Editor Tyler Montgomery.

Louisville, Ky. – Club Solutions has reached the milestone of achieving 10,000 “Likes” on Facebook. The accomplishment has been proof of the growing influence and reputation of Club Solutions as the number one business resource for the health and fitness industry.

“Today, social proof is everything,” said Club Solutions Magazine Editor Tyler Montgomery. “Media platforms have expanded and social media has become very important to media companies all over the world. Social media gives us another avenue to connect with our audience. Media companies can now use social media platforms like Facebook to prove their influence and dominance in a market.”

In the last 10 months Club Solutions has seen their Facebook “Likes” increase by over 625 percent. Club Solutions has continued to be the industry leader among media companies harnessing the power of social media.

“When I started at Club Solutions Magazine four years ago I launched our Facebook page,” said Montgomery. “We looked at social media as another opportunity to engage and communicate with our audience. Over the years of evolving with the Facebook platform it has been a lot of trial and error in generating our presence. We constantly strive to provide best practice resources that educate and empower health club professionals because that is how we have defined ourselves within the marketplace. We believe our influence and support continues to grow, and our Facebook “Likes” support that belief. We are grateful for the support and look forward to sharing the ride with our readers, providing deals and giveaways, as we march on towards 20,000!”

I’d like to dedicate this blog to all of our readers who made this possible. After all, we wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you!

Each month, the Club Solutions team works hard to provide our readers with quality information that benefits both your club and your members. With over 10,000 Likes, it’s nice to know our efforts are appreciated!

To thank you, Editor Tyler Montgomery put together this short video to express our gratitude:

If you haven’t liked us on Facebook yet, be sure to in order to receive the latest news and business tips from Club Solutions!

Once again, thank you for helping us reach 10,000 Likes!

Rachel Zabonick is the assistant editor for Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@clubsolutionsmagazine.com. Reach out to her about exciting events or programs your club has implemented, or to share the amazing accomplishments of a member.

1. Practice empathetic listening. Let them vent if necessary.

2. No matter what, STAY CALM.

3. Paraphrase back to the member the information presented. Respond with a question.

4. Determine the solution the member desires.

5. Propose a solution (only if this is a situation you know a clear solution to; otherwise leave this step to a supervisor or the manager) and carry out the solution.

6. THANK the member for bringing the situation to your attention and inform him/her that you will pass their concerns along to upper management.

You should role play the different “moments of truths” that your staff may face each day and script out the best responses. The more they practice, the more natural it will become for you and your staff leaving every member feeling better!

Adrian Antigua is the operations manager for Gainesville Health and Fitness in Tioga, Fla. Formerly a desk manager, Antigua is heavily involved in customer service and staff training. For questions on operations, e-mail Antigua at AdrianA@ghfc.com.

This week my co-worker, Brian McDonald, started using a new website called DailyHIIT, or dailyhiit.com. Each video walks you through the exercises for that day. They provide you with an interval and even a picture-by-picture breakdown of each exercise.

Although many of the trainers I speak with on a regular basis have great workout plans, I always believe you can gain some inspiration from watching others perform your craft.

For a couple of months now, I’ve been doing some HIIT exercises as well, and I really enjoy how it makes me feel for days following the workout. It’s much more different than when I used to stick to my cardio and free weight routine. The only problem I have is finding time to get to my trainers regularly throughout the week. The HIIT classes are only held four times a day, two in the morning and two in the evening. I typically exercised on my lunch break because I’m not a morning person by any means, and I am typically busy in the evening.

With websites developing videos for HIIT, I feel like if I wanted, I could grab a quick workout in the backyard or in the living room on days I can’t reach my trainers. I know that the workout won’t be as good, nor will I be able to push myself as hard, but in my mind, a light workout is better than no workout.

Have you ever thought about video taping your trainers performing exercise routines? Maybe you don’t provide a full HIIT video, but only a few simple exercises to help members with their form and variations. Even the smallest bits of advice would help your members.

Additionally, you could use the videos as marketing materials. It would help brand your trainers with the club and make their face more recognizable to members. If a member stumbles upon a workout routine from a trainer, they might be more inclined to walk up to that trainer in the club to ask for a deeper explanation on a workout. If the trainer has been educated properly about landing clients, this would provide a great time for him or her to execute a soft sale.

Tyler Montgomery is the editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com.

So, should it be free?

Well, traditionally, we club owners have collectively set up our fitness businesses where group fitness is included in the membership cost. Personal training is extra and any other amenities, such as massages, childcare, smoothies, tanning, etc. have an extra cost associated with them — but, not group fitness. Great group fitness makes for happy members, and happy members don’t leave. I like retention – who doesn’t? – and retention has value. Retention increases with great group fitness — it’s a proven fact.

I can’t change the traditional aspects of what our fitness population expects to receive with their membership. After all, how hard would it be to change that expectation? We have ruined our industry by devaluing our product with $10.00-per-month clubs opening on every corner. And, now we’re going to change tradition by charging for protocol group fitness? I don’t think so.

Instead, find your key differentiators — the things that separate you from your competition. Only charge for memberships, the value of which should be based on what you feel it is worth, and include the cost of group fitness in that rate. Case closed. Continue to charge for personal training, and try to incorporate some small group training as well. Drive your members to purchase items that they need to enhance their fitness experience, generating extra revenue through these venues. If you have classes that are in great demand, you may also want to consider charging a fee to secure a space in that class; otherwise it should be on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Creative measures, like those mentioned above, can be implemented to generate a little extra revenue through group fitness, but we should instead be focusing on giving our members a fantastic experience, by charging what we feel is fair and making our members happy. If we all come together as an industry and raise our rates by $10.00 per month, we could increase our revenue and all live happily ever after! Group fitness should be included in the membership rate, but, should not be free. Because we all know, “free” is an ugly four-letter word.

Lori Lowell is the president of Group Fitness Solutions, LLC, and owns 8 Fitness Facilities in Virginia and Wisconsin. Contact her at lori@groupfitnesssolutions.com.

We all know that guests don’t enjoy being aggressively sold, and most consumers want to feel in control of their visit. Social and traditional media platforms are educating consumers more than ever about health and fitness. As we attempt to adapt, some of us have over-corrected, while others haven’t evolved enough.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Have you stopped paying your sales team on commission, in an attempt to change poor sales behaviors and not see a return?
2. In fear of over-selling your club and simplifying your tour, does your sales team avoid tying in your guests’ fitness goals to your concept and training department?
3. Have you forgone “sales training” and instead, taught your team members to tour guests around the club, highlighting the amenities, using scripts and/or posters as explanations?
4. Is your marketing campaign aligned with your tour?

If, in an attempt to make the guest feel in control, or that they are not being aggressively sold, you’ve implemented any of the above changes, you’re still giving a sales tour and might consider changing your approach.

Tour Guide vs. Sales Guide

If you are looking for new ways to increase your guest conversions and member retention, consider adding the entertainment factor to your tours.

1. In addition to amenities, educate your guests on what makes your club unique and different from the competition.
2. Explain how your fitness team will train your guests to reach their goals.
3. Share your members’ success stories. If done right, your company Facebook page is a great place to share them.
4. Encourage your sales team to “be members” and train in your club. This will allow them to share their own stories.
5. Teach your sales team how to make the tour fun and interesting, while they create relationships and gain trust. Feel free to make it fun. We tend to laugh when we feel comfortable.

Think about the last time you’ve taken a museum tour. I know what you’re thinking… you don’t buy anything on a museum tour.

Let’s examine that… You heard one way or another about this museum, which you planned to visit, and you probably invited someone to attend with you… or let’s be honest, it’s probably the other way around. Either way, you visited the attraction, and enjoyed the stories and new information the guide presented during your tour. You probably even looked for opportunities to share your new knowledge with friends and coworkers when the opportunity presented itself. If the tour guide was exceptional, then you may have returned with a friend to share your experience.

Now, I’m not suggesting to take a field trip with your sales team to the nearest museum, or to change your entire tour. In addition to the basics (Feature, Benefit, Advantage or Question, Statement, Tie Down…etc.), storytelling illuminates your concept, and inspires people. Inspired, motivated people take action!

Implementing a few of these changes will make it that much easier to get the guest excited about joining, and easier to present membership options and enrollment information. Not only will guest conversions improve, but, POS referrals and guest volume will as well.

Observe your next guest tour and ask yourself… are the tours at my club entertaining and engaging?

This is always an interesting subject for me, and I can go into detail and elaborate on future blogs if there is an interest. By being high-level, I’m sure this will create a healthy debate, so feel free to comment or send me a note.

Ryan Junk is the director of sales for UFC Gym. He can be reached at ryan@ufcgym.com.

Crunch Fitness’ old site.

In December of 2012, Crunch Fitness decided to make a change to the website it had designed three years previously. “A lot of things had changed in our business model and in technology in that time,” explained Christina DeGuardi, the SVP of marketing, branding and communications for Crunch Fitness. Looking to add new features and capabilities, Crunch Fitness revamped its website’s design and functionality.

One result was an increase in site traffic. “Our website traffic has increased significantly,” said DeGuardi. “From the launch in mid December to today, our overall visits are up 138 percent and our unique visits are up 65 percent.”

Additionally, Crunch Fitness saw an increase in member-site interaction. “We also have an increase in the number of members using our member management system, iCrunch, of about 150 percent,” continued DeGuardi.

DeGuardi explained that your website is an important part of your club’s brand, and something you should consider keeping optimized. “It’s very important that your site reflects its brand properly,” she said.

Based on Crunch Fitness’ website redesign, DeGuardi shared strategies behind the redesign process. According to DeGuardi, before making any definitive decisions, Crunch Fitness first worked with Ideawork Studios, a full-service branding, advertising and graphic design firm, to get down to the nuts and bolts of exactly what the business was looking for in a website. “We wanted to add a few features our previous site didn’t have,” she explained. Those added features included class reservation capabilities, a member portal and more.

Crunch Fitness’ new site.

An important feature the Crunch Fitness team decided was a necessity, was the ability to give members and prospects a different web experience. Now, when you visit Crunch.com, you’re asked to either log in as a member, or are directed to a specific club location as a prospect. “We wanted our current members to have a different experience than our prospects’ experience,” said DeGuardi. “We wanted to be able to market to prospects, and then communicate with members information that is relevant to them.”

About half of Crunch.com’s visitors are members, and the other half are prospects. Members can now manage their member profiles, class reservations, favorite classes and more. In addition, prospects have the opportunity to purchase a membership directly from Crunch.com. “We streamlined the membership purchase process,” said. DeGuardi. “Now, a membership can be purchased on one page. Online membership purchases make up about 12-15 percent of our business.” According to DeGuardi, Crunch Fitness has sold 103 percent more online memberships than it did last year.

Before a redesign is launched, DeGuardi advised on the importance of communicating changes to your members. “We put fliers up in our clubs about a week before the website changed, informing them about what was to come,” she explained. “We then further communicated with our members via Facebook and e-blasts.”

Once the transition was made, communication with members continued. “We made sure to listen to our members’ feedback,” said DeGuardi. “There were a few things we ended up changing based off of what our members said. Of course, there is an adjustment period.”

However, DeGuardi said the website changes were well worth the time and effort. “It took some time for people to get used to the new site, but now that they’re using it, I think it’s been much better,” she said.

Based on Crunch Fitness’ redesign success, consider what redesigning your website could do for your club and your members. Here are some additional tips from DeGuardi on web redesign:

• “Use high-quality photos and video content to bring the brand experience to life. Media should be informative and entertaining.”
• “Ensure you have enough dedicated content so that members and prospects are driven to visit and use your site.”
• “Make sure your audience feels they are being understood and spoken to directly.”
• “E-commerce can definitely have a positive impact on your overall business. People are more comfortable with online purchases than ever before.”
• “Create an experience that is device specific (people use their phones or tablets differently than they do their computers).”
• “Ensure that you are tracking your website’s performance and set goals for improvement.”

By Rachel Zabonick

The Diva Dash, a club-bonding event.

According to Ann L’Orange, the co-owner of Windsor Health Club in Windsor, Colo., every single person who joins their facility is considered family. In a town of 19,000 people, 800 of which are members of the club, this feeling extends outside the club’s walls.

“Every time my husband and I go into the grocery store, we jokingly make a bet as to how many members we’ll see inside,” said Ann. “We visit sick members and go to see their bands. It’s a small community, which enables us to do that.”

Ann and her husband, Eric L’Orange, opened Windsor Health Club five years ago. Ann said there are multiple things she and her husband do to create a tight-knit atmosphere, which starts the second a prospect walks in the door. “We recognized that each person has a different need,” said Ann. “We take the time to listen and ask, ‘what’s your goal?’”

In addition to personalized attention, Windsor Health Club hosts multiple events that Ann said facilitate the club’s community, including a member-appreciation breakfast, which is held the first Monday of every month. “At first, we only got 10 people to attend,” said Ann. “Now we get 60 almost every month.”

In addition to she and Eric being in the club almost every day, Ann explained that being flexible with members contributes to the “Cheers-like” atmosphere. “We’ve had members come in and explain they lost their job, so they’d like to quit their membership,” explained Ann. “We tell them not to do that, because they need exercise to alleviate stress. Instead, we allow them to freeze their membership and work out at the club for free. We tell them to resume paying once they’ve found another job.”

Lastly, Ann said making people comfortable is the club’s number-one goal. “We want people of all ages, shapes and sizes to feel like they belong here,” said Ann. “At the end of the day, we’re the ones that are being blessed by our members, not the other way around.”

By Rachel Zabonick