January is just weeks away. Are you ready – really ready – to deal with all those phone inquiries?
You’ll need to set aside some time in coming weeks to think about burnishing your phone image. Why? Each new caller can be worth several hundred dollars in annual fees, dues and profit center sales. These revenues can start to flow to you this January. Or, to one of your competitors. If you want new callers to join your club, you’ll need to make a solid, professional impression when they phone you.
Here’s a plan to shape up your club’s ability to turn every caller into a new member. We’ve attached a price tag to each solution we recommend, and we’ve outlined some low-cost alternatives for clubs on a budget:
1. Training.
(Cost: Free.) Start by phoning your club. Listen. Listen for a mumbled name. A machine gun-style greeting. Insincerity. Immaturity. Boredom.
What kind of professional image does your club project on the phone? Develop and use a phone script, of course, but spend time rehearsing your staff to speak slowly, clearly and from the heart. If they sound like they’re reading the script, rehearse them until they sound genuine and spontaneous.
Each member of your staff needs to understand how much time, effort and advertising dollars you’ve invested to get your club’s phone to ring this January. And all staffers need to understand the revenue value of a new caller to the club.
Your front desk people need to appreciate that their job is not just to answer the phone, it’s to establish a personal connection with each new caller. They need to sound professional, yes, but above all, friendly, welcoming, committed, sincerely interested in helping potential new members.
2. Subscribe to a phone on-hold marketing service.
(Cost: $50-$75 a month.) The statistics aren’t encouraging. Ninety percent of callers to health clubs need to be placed on hold. Half of them hang up within 30 seconds if they’re forced to listen to silence or a lame on-hold message.
That’s a lot of time, effort and money down the drain. Or, more to the point, down the street to your competitor.
A professionally produced on-hold message, one with lively music and an interesting, upbeat presentation of your club’s amenities and programs, will:
• prevent caller hang-ups.
• impress callers with your professionalism.
• sell your club’s advantages.
• inform, educate and excite your callers.
• add value to your club or chain by reinforcing your brand.
The best on-hold marketing services change your music and message several times a year automatically. When you start or stop a membership promotion, add a group exercise class, or buy some new circuit equipment, you should be able to change your message with a simple phone call. Remote downloading technology makes it possible to change a promotional message for one club or a chain of hundreds of clubs within hours.
3. Reprogram Your Phone System.
(Cost: $125 – $250.) A person, not a machine, should answer your phone when it rings during operating hours. But what happens when your staff is handling other calls? Or helping a member on the circuit? Or handling a credit card transaction?
Large clubs can fall back on their phone systems, which will answer the phone when you can’t, route calls to the proper extension, and handle voicemail. These powerful systems will do other tricks as well, but few clubs take advantage of them.
Your phone system provider is sitting on a secret: That big phone box back in your utility closet can play informational and sales messages, in addition to routing calls. Properly programmed, your phone system can generate excitement about your club’s amenities and programs and tease callers with your latest membership promotions.
If you have a phone system in your club, talk to your phone system provider about how to put your system to better use. These systems usually cost between $3,500 and $6,000 to install and program, so they need to do more for you than route calls and record messages: They need to help you sell memberships.
4. Add a Call Handler.
(Cost: About $700.) Now even small storefront clubs with one or two phone lines can add an inexpensive call handler that does everything its $5,000 cousin does for their 40,000 square-foot competitors across town. Technology has shrunk the clunky, 30-pound phone system to a two-pound, purse-sized, affordable unit that sits on your front desk. Or, under it. (See the box, “What a Call Handler Does”) to learn what modern call handling technology can do for your club.
One of the ironies of the fitness business is that small, storefront clubs with one or two phone lines and a few phone instruments need a call handler much more than their well-heeled, big-box competitors with ten phone lines and a dozen extensions. Large clubs, which invariably invest in expensive, featurerich phone systems, usually have plenty of staff both to answer the phone live and work closely with members on the floor.
By contrast, small storefront circuit and express clubs with one or two phone lines often have small, harried staffs trying to help members, manage the floor and deal with a hundred other pressing issues. These small staffs are often forced to choose between helping current members and answering phone inquiries from prospective members promptly and professionally. Now, inexpensive technology can help short-staffed clubs do both.
A call handler can transform the way a small club fields phone inquiries from prospective members and can help you achieve your new member targets. When your staff is helping members and can’t easily answer the phone live, the call handler answers the phone with a professional message about your club. Callers are invited to choose among informational messages that talk about, for example, your club’s programs and amenities, exercise schedule, and current promotions. Callers are then invited to leave a voicemail message so someone can return the call immediately. (See the box, “What Prospective Members Hear When They Call.”)
Today, small and medium clubs can sound just as professional on the phone as their large-club competitors, and all you need is a call handler, professionally produced information and sales messages, and an on-hold marketing service. If you’re technically inclined and want to do your own installation, programming and voice work, you can buy a call handler ($700) and on-hold message unit (about $300) on the internet. Or, you can lease this equipment and services and for under $100 a month.
Whatever you decide, good luck in the membership sweepstakes this January!
Jeff Panitt is the CEO of VoiceScapes On-Hold Marketing, Inc. He can be contacted at 800.505.5573, or by email atinfo@voicescapes.com.
