Three Ways to Save a Missed Guest

No one likes to lose a sale. You do everything right. You greet them, you pre-qualify them, your tour is flawless, you overcome objections, and they ultimately decide to think about it. Here are three ways to make sure that missed guest isn’t lost forever.

Guest Register

The more information you collect, the more sales you will make from previously missed guests. Do not overlook this powerful tool. By collecting information from your prospects that come in for a tour, each and every time without exception, your chance of signing them up after their first visit increases dramatically.

If your front desk staff is slacking by having guests fill this out every time, that’s where you need to spend your attention immediately. Every person, without exception, needs to be asked to completely fill out a guest register. If someone objects, just let them know that it’s the law. Signing that protects your business if they hurt themselves somehow on their tour before they have been shown how to be safe in the gym.

From a marketing perspective, collecting a prospect’s contact information allows you the ability to follow up with them in a variety of ways.

Trial Membership

If someone doesn’t make a buying decision on their first visit, be sure to provide them a trial membership. The length of the trial membership is up to you, but I recommend 14 days. That gives you plenty of time to follow up with them, and it allows you the ability to present a tiered incentive offer.

At the point of sale, I always like to offer a list of incentives that they can get for joining that day. But if they don’t join on their first visit, when you give them their trial membership pass, let them know that if they decide to join within the next three days, they can still get half of the things on that list. If they join within the week, they get two of the incentives, and if they wait until the end of the trial term, they’ll still get the pricing you offered them, but they won’t receive any bonuses.

Many times when presented this way, they’ll see that you are serious about the first-visit incentive only being offered today. That makes you look honest and credible. It also might even prompt them to decide to join on the spot so they can get all of the incentives.

Follow Up

Too many gyms feel that if someone doesn’t sign up the first day they visit, they’ll never sign up. This couldn’t be further from the truth. If you don’t follow up with them, of course they’ll never sign up. But if you have a strong follow up system, you can easily close half of your missed guests.

Since you did such a good job collecting all of their contact information with the guest register, you now have the ability to invite them back and let them know you’re thinking of them in a variety of ways. I recommend the moment they leave your facility that you fill out a thank you card and put it in the mail same day. Thank them for taking the time to visit your facility. You might even throw in a gift card they can use if they decide to join before the end of the week.

In addition to a thank you letter, the next day you need to call them to invite them in for a workout. If they don’t answer their phone, send a personalized text asking them if they’d like to come in for a workout today and that you’ll have a bottle of water waiting for them. Be sure to add them to your e-mail auto responder program. I recommend sending them a short “fitness tip of the day” for the next 21 days. This can all be pre-loaded and automated in your e-mail newsletter software.

If they haven’t taken advantage of their trial membership, you can always contact them and offer to extend it. Do whatever it takes to get them to come back and experience your services.

By implementing these three strategies every time without exception, you’ll soon find that a missed guest is not lost forever. Rather, it provides you an opportunity to contact them in a variety of ways for a variety of reasons, encouraging them to make a buying decision.

Curtis Mock is the host of www.FitnessBusinessTelevision.com the TV show for fitness entrepreneurs. He is also the executive director of gymsuccess.com. Curtis can be reached at curtis@clubsolutionsmagazine.com.