Insights from the 2018 Club Solutions Leadership Summit

Last week, 25 of the top minds in the industry gathered with six sponsors for the 2018 Club Solutions Leadership Summit. Over the span of three days, attendees participated in roundtable discussions on topics such as technology and customer service, networked and attended one of the biggest sporting events of the year: The Kentucky Derby.

The following is a recap of some of the insights gleaned during the four roundtables tackled over the course of the first-class event.

Roundtable 1: Member Success from Onboarding to Loyal Fan

Topic: The member’s perception of their results (how successful they have been) has a massive impact on loyalty. My “feelings” about success come from how success is framed, what feedback I receive about progress, and ultimately hitting some self-described objective. The sooner I feel successful, the greater the chances I will remain engaged.

Discussion: For this roundtable, attendees defined specific actions that could be added to new member onboarding in order to facilitate very early feelings of success.

Key Insight: In order to help members feel successful, it’s important to identify their expectations and sources of motivation. As a result, motivational interviewing would be an important piece to add to the process of onboarding. Clubs should ask a series of questions not related to a member’s fitness or weight loss goals, but rather why they’re joining the gym — the intrinsic motivator.

Roundtable 2: Tackling Technology Disruption

Topic: Technology is one of the most challenging areas for many health clubs when it comes to both deciding what technology to invest in and how to properly implement it. When it comes to technology, there are two strategies businesses may take: The Greenfield Strategy and The Adaptive Strategy.

Discussion: For this roundtable, attendees defined all technologies they would need in order to effectively manage their business in an optimal manner.

Key Insight: Attendees identified a number of “wish list” technologies they see potential value in, including:

• Facial recognition technology, which would allow clubs to do member “heat mapping” and target members with specific information.
• Agnostic technology that allows people to connect via bluetooth and view their results on a screen, whether it’s Polar, Myzone or Fitbit, for example.

Roundtable 3: Five-Star Member Experience

Topic: A big part of delivering Five-Star Member Experience is ensuring there are no unpleasant surprises and plenty of pleasant surprises. Getting your touch points right and designing for the right kind of surprises can go a long way toward your Five-Star Member Experience, especially when you shift focus from just avoiding unpleasant surprises to delivering pleasant surprises.  

Discussion: For this roundtable, attendees created a list of the most important touch points in the member journey, and ways to build pleasant surprises into that journey.

Key Insight: Clubs may forget that the member experience begins before a member even walks through the door (in the parking lot). Clubs can build pleasant surprises into a member’s entrance to the club by boasting appealing landscaping, playing music outside the facility, having a door greeter, or sending an automatic text message that welcomes people to the club.

Roundtable 4: Leading for Innovation and Differentiation

Topic: According to IGNITE Innovation, innovation is not invention. Innovation is anything you implement that adds value. Innovation can be as small as rearranging the equipment to accommodate more people, or as large as redesigning your entire facility. Leaders must create the environment in which improvements happen organically and consistently.

Discussion: For this roundtable, attendees highlighted ways they’ve weaved purchased technologies, programs and services together into proprietary processes and “products” that add value.

Key Insight: The point of innovation should be to simplify, not complicate. For example at Midtown Athletic Clubs, they asked the question: How do you maintain a consistent level of audio in your studio, as every instructor wants it to be different? Their solution was to redesign the userface to make them very simple. Instructors have two knobs — one for microphone volume and one for sound volume.