Gym Guy

This is our first installment of “Gym Guy.”

Several months ago in the CS offices we stumbled upon an audio rant from one of my favorite journalists, Jim Rome. In the rant, Rome discusses an individual we all know and love, “Gym Guy.”

I’m sure Rome spends a lot of time in a gym — probably even enough to recognize your typical “Gym Guy” — but he doesn’t see them the way we do.

In the last week, I had my first encounter with a certain type of “Gym Guy.” This is the guy that totally believes that the customer is ALWAYS right and things should go his way, regardless of whether anyone else receives a certain treatment.

This guy doesn’t really care about someone working at the gym. He sees them as someone there to wait on him and make sure all the equipment he uses is exactly where he left it yesterday — we know this guy was in there yesterday. He doesn’t miss a day.

This guy is a real work of genius. He strolls in with his shades on. If there is a line at the front desk he’ll either skip it completely, or walk straight to the front and bypass everyone in line.

This guy won’t be nice to your front desk attendants at all. He’ll give a “what’s up” to personal trainers because he believes they train as hard as he does, but he won’t even recognize the front desk.

Gym Guy is the type of person that will approach a busy front desk attendant and demand his protein shake. He won’t be able to believe that the attendant doesn’t have “his” shake on file. You mean he actually has to tell you what’s in his shake; and, he has to wait until you’re done with other customers? Geez!

This certain Gym Guy isn’t going to want to pay for his shake. He’ll probably use phrases like, “I can’t believe I spend my money here,” or “What a waste of my money, I could save more by making one at home.”

How will this guy negatively affect your club? He will cause massive turnover. There’s never just one of these guys, but there are a multitude in each gym. They will harass and agitate front desk attendants, sales staff and the occasional janitorial worker.

They expect so much for their money that they will never be happy with your club. Spinning your wheels to make this guy happy is a waste. It will take your focus away from the rest of your members and cause you to lose your focus on the big picture.

This Gym Guy isn’t a big picture guy. He is a little picture guy. A tiny picture guy. Someone that only cares about his immediate surroundings. Don’t focus on this guy, but if you see an encounter, try and defuse it so it doesn’t negatively affect the other 99 percent of your club’s population.