Optimizing the customer experience can take your club’s performance to the next level, and MXM, the Medallia software for the fitness industry, gives the tools to create and measure success in member satisfaction.
After meeting Blair McHaney, the president and CEO of MXM, at the 2018 Club Solutions Leadership Retreat, Mark de Gorter, the chief operating officer of Workout Anytime, decided it was time to put maximum effort into managing and measuring the customer experience.
Through its partnership with MXM, Workout Anytime has tightened its focus on customer satisfaction and significantly improved its member experience as a result. Here, de Gorter shares how MXM has helped Workout Anytime optimize its member experience and why it’s important for all clubs to focus on this area:
What changes have you made to your club as a result of insights from MXM?
We’ve made member satisfaction a core strategic initiative to the entire network. It becomes part of our quarterly business review conference calls and formal presentations. In fact, it has become so important to our core DNA, we recognize our peak performers during our national franchise conference as part of our award ceremony. We report the results every month in our network newsletter, so the concept is always front and center with franchise partners.
Why is it important for club operators to survey their members in some capacity?
While it’s important to survey members, it’s actually more critical that you have the right platform to measure and manage the results. First and foremost, we all believe in the importance of the member experience, but all too often, we have certain blind spots when it comes to reality. We tend to think we’re better than we really are. Not only do we need an independent method of surveying our members, but the platform MXM provides allows us to set benchmarks not only within the club — overall satisfaction, club cleanliness or equipment issues, which can apply to different associates and how we measure their performance — but a consistent and proven platform that allows us, at the enterprise level, to level-set benchmarks and results that can be applied across our 170-club chain. This gives us a consistent set of measurements, and is the basis for annual recognition awards, as well as ongoing measurement, recognition and coaching when necessary.
How would you describe MXM’s customer service and support?
With something as important as measuring member satisfaction, you need to make sure you are working with an experienced, reputable and purpose-driven organization that understands the emotional impact of good member experiences. Also make sure they have the ability to not only problem solve, but provide strong advice and counsel in areas like setting up the surveys to begin with, as well as helping us interpret the findings to allow for more actionable results. We’ve been incredibly pleased with that aspect of MXM, from top to bottom, whether it be a large strategic issue posed to Blair McHaney, or the fundamentals of managing the platform that Jenny Hymer provides. They’ve been incredibly responsive, which is one of the reasons the program has been successful for us.
Why should other club operators consider working with MXM?
There are two key reasons as they relate to our network of franchise partners here at Workout Anytime. First, it doesn’t matter what we think in terms of the member experience. Our brand — and our success — is directly dependent on the eyes of our members. Too often, people overlook that critically important element. Next, we have seen a direct and significant correlation between those clubs that deliver high levels of member satisfaction on a variety of attributes, and the low levels of member cancellations or churn, so we speak to that very directly.
Lowering churn doesn’t require any more marketing spend or any more in the way of sales commissions. And in reality, it certainly doesn’t require any professional experience or certification in the way a trainer or coach would. All it takes to make members feel great are bright, energetic associates who bring what we call our “We Care” philosophy to the club every day and can uncover those magic moments that make our members feel special.
For more information, visit mxmetrics.com.
