The owner wants all his classes packed. He likes this because he wants to get a maximum “bang for his buck.” He also knows that when the sales people are giving tours to potential members there is an added benefit and energy to the club. It also helps to keep your members loyal. If a member is “hooked” on an instructor/class, they will think twice about leaving the club to join somewhere else.
What do you do when the owner wants you to change a class or instructor because the class is not meeting the capacity goal, but the members want to keep everything the way it is? The member has built their schedule around this class and has come to love this instructor. Do you run the risk of alienating 10 members, to please 10 other potential class-going members?
I had a situation where the class capacity goal was 20, but only 10 older members were religiously going to this 9 a.m. Sunday morning yoga class. This club has a younger client and I know that this class time is just too early for younger clients to be inclined to go. Maybe it is due to the fact that Sunday follows Saturday night or something. But I digress.
The owner wanted me to shift the time of the class from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., which would also move the Pilates class following it to 11:30 a.m. Most of the members who take the yoga class also contribute to the number of members going to the Pilates class.
The members I spoke to were irate, because this would mean that they would not be leaving the gym until 12:30 p.m. After going back and forth with members, I have decided to compromise and only move the times of the classes by 1 hour instead of 1.5 hours. Hopefully I have found the win-win solution.
I will be writing about what happens next in my follow up blog, so stay tuned!
Joseph Duffy has been in the fitness industry since 1990. He has taught group fitness classes at multiple clubs, and currently is the director of group fitness at Boom Fitness. Duffy has his own consulting business that assists owners with building group fitness programs from the ground up, as well as providing scheduling and staffing input. He can be reached at jdny1@me.com.
