On April 15, REX Roundtables and Club Solutions Magazine presented the second installment of a weekly virtual roundtable series aimed at helping clubs navigate through the COVID-19 crisis, sponsored by The Abs Company:
Panelists included Lisa Gorsline, the president and general manager of Corpus Christi Athletic Club; Aaron Moore, the director of operations at VIDA Fitness; Bill McBride, the president and CEO of Active Wellness; and Blair McHaney, the CEO of MXM and owner of WORX health clubs. The discussion was led and moderated by Brent Darden, the founder of Brent Darden Consulting and chair of REX Roundtables.
Following is a summary of top takeaways from the discussion, including staffing tips, the importance of hyper-localized marketing, insights on virtual offerings, and more.
Staffing Tips
- Check out Darden’s guide to re-hiring and retaining employees. Includes a helpful Excel sheet for grading top talent. Read here.
- Gyms have employees who are passionate. Don’t take advantage of furloughed employees by having them work without pay, even if they want to. There may be legal implications to consider.
- VIDA Fitness has conducted one-on-one conversations with employees to discuss if they should go on unemployment — vast majority who did go on unemployment want to return to the business as soon as possible. If you have employees who don’t want to come back from unemployment, then you most likely had someone who wasn’t a good culture fit for your organization. However, most of the panelists felt this was a non-issue.
Marketing
- According to McHaney, when it comes to marketing, the more hyper-localized your message, the better. Market right now. Message should be, “This is what we’re doing.” Check out this sample TV spot by WORX:
- Think of unique ways you can continue to connect with your members during this time. Corpus Christi Athletic Club did a Facebook Live video with their director of childcare, who read a children’s book, and it had over 2,000 views.
- Are you communicating best practices through voice and action?
- Don’t bash competition. Don’t say “We’re the best at cleaning.” Say “We’re committed to cleaning.”
Virtual Offerings
- Virtual fitness is a brand expander.
- VIDA Fitness is using this time to develop a digital offering that can be utilized post-pandemic. This will be a high-end product, and they are asking Peloton users they know to review their virtual offering and tear it apart.
- Zoom and FB Live are low-cost ways to get started with virtual offerings.
Additional Tips
- According to Moore, some in the industry haven’t fully grasped how long this may go on for — social distancing may be seasonal, intermittent, etc. There will be long-term, lasting effects, even after gyms can re-open.
- Sweat the details. Use this time to change lightbulbs, fix scuffs on floor, etc. McBride’s teams are going through every single member touchpoint in all facilities.
- Get supply orders in now — especially for cleaning and sanitizing.
- According to Gorsline, it’s important for operators to reframe their brains and start thinking differently. Re-evaluate everything you’re doing. Why do we do it? If we want to keep doing it, how can we make it better? What should we stop doing?
- If designing a club today, think about what will stick from the pandemic. The value of personal space is going up.
- It’s all about relationships, and no virus can detract from that.
- People won’t forget how your business responded during the crisis. Your employees and members are watching.
- Gorsline said the free MXM Shutdown Survey has been beneficial to understanding where their members are at and what they’re thinking, so the gym knows what to plan for.
UPCOMING: Don’t miss the third installment of our virtual roundtable series, “Successful Strategies for Shaping Your Future: Reviving” on April 22 at 2 p.m. EST, in partnership with REX Roundtables and Club Solutions Magazine and sponsored by The Abs Company. Limited seats are available. Click here to reserve your spot.
