Brittany Baldwin shares how to offer more than just a workout by creating a comprehensive fitness experience.
With the ever-increasing cost of living essentials, consumers no longer have time or money to waste on things that do not provide them with a meaningful or memorable experience. This goes for fitness services as well.
To maximize the value proposition of fitness, we must move beyond simply providing participants with a workout, and transition into providing them with a meaningful and memorable fitness experience.
Here are a few recommendations for how to create a comprehensive fitness experience to help retain your clientele during these challenging times.
1. Stimulate the Senses
In our fast-paced world, something is always competing for our time and attention. Keep your customers focused and present during their workout by creating an immersive environment that stimulates all five senses.
By utilizing sense-provoking elements such as mood lighting, scent-releasing devices, surround sound stereos, and both visual and tactical coaching cues, you can facilitate an environment so immersive that your attendees cannot help but to be present and fully engaged.
2. Incorporate Education
I am a firm believer that if you educate a client on how to become an independent exerciser, you will have a client for life. To increase the value of your fitness service and enhance the overall experience, I recommend including educational information into each session that your customers can apply to their daily lives.
Providing this information will not only stand to validate your expertise; it will also keep your customers thinking of you even when away from your facility. One way I recommend to increase engagement through education is to relate each movement performed in the session to needs and priorities for clientele.
For example, if a trainer is working with a population mostly consisting of mothers with young children, the trainer can explain during the workout how the amount of abdominal pressure needed to perform a plank during the session can also be applied when carrying their children for back safety. The trainer can take this education a step further by challenging participants to practice engaging their cores in this way throughout other daily activities.
3. Prioritize Customer Service
Arrival at your facility should mark the one time within a client’s day when they can turn off their minds and do something beneficial for their well-being. A major part of creating a comprehensive fitness experience is ensuring customers receive top-notch service from the time they walk into the door to them time they leave.
This entails having a clean and fully functioning facility, well-trained and knowledgeable staff, and going the extra mile to make your customers feel valued. One simple way you can enhance the overall fitness experience through customer service is by greeting customers by name as they enter your facility and gently reminding them in advance when they’re approaching the time to purchase additional classes or sessions.
Your operation should be so seamless and well organized that your patrons feel nothing but comfort and positive anticipation as they walk through the door. Challenge yourself to deliver a customer service experience so positive your customers feel as though you’re not just doing your job, it’s your pleasure.
