In last month’s article on leadership, one of the terms I touched upon was continuous improvement, an area that I think needs to be expanded upon.
As every club owner and manager will attest, it is very easy to fall into a routine of doing the same thing you did yesterday. Putting out daily “fires” within the club and closing out your month-end in the same frenetic way you did the previous month has a sense of comfort associated with it. It is, after all, the way you’ve always done it.
But, the end result of this pattern is always the same: failure. It’s either failure of your facility or failure of your own mental well-being. Even if your club continues doing things the same way, you can’t expect that from your competition.
Perhaps a club with fresh new ideas will open in your backyard. Maybe your prospective clients are getting tired of the same old flyers and promotions that you keep popping into their mailboxes. And, even though it’s happening slowly over many weeks and months, that end-ofmonth push to reach quota is becoming increasingly difficult over time. If this sounds familiar, then I would suggest a few simple steps to break the cycle.
Continuous Improvement at Staff Meetings
At the end of every staff meeting, the last item on the agenda should be “continuous improvement,” when every member of your staff comes up with an idea or “system and process” that makes his or her department a little better than it was before. This is a very effective way to encourage your staff to embrace the concept of continuous improvement.
Continuous Improvement for Leaders
I’ve always believed it’s the companies providing the products and services to any industry that drives innovation within that industry, and the fitness business is no exception. For this reason I feel it’s imperative that as an owner or manager you do two things:
• Attend at least one industry trade show every calendar year.
This is where the movers and shakers of your industry are, and if you want to be included among them, you had better be there with them.• Take at least one call per day from industry suppliers, and listen to what they have to say.
Fitness industry suppliers are out in the field talking to your competition; your competitors are learning what’s hot, and what’s not. Even if you’re not in the market for their particular product or service at the moment, it’s imperative that you build a relationship with them in order to follow industry trends. And, there’s a good chance that their particular product or service will make your job a lot easier. If you want to be a leader and not a follower, apply these steps.
Continuous Improvement for Members
Focus on member education and member services. As we all know, it’s much easier to keep an existing member than it is to go out and get a new one. But, as often as I hear club owners and managers repeat this line, it is truly few and far between when I actually witness club management taking the necessary steps to achieve this desired outcome.
There are many ways to keep your members happy, but the first step in keeping them happy is to listen to them. Give them a voice. A suggestion box on your website is a simple, effective way to do this. Then make sure you follow up by reading them aloud at a staff meeting at least once a month. This ties in nicely with the “continuous improvement” part of your meeting agenda.
After giving your members a voice, you must become a club known for educating your members (and the community at large) on the benefits of health and wellness. Newsletters, either hardcopy or Web-based, are a good start. A more effective method, in my opinion, both in terms of quality and cost, is to utilize one of the new Web-based content services. A good one will provide many thousands of dollars worth of first-run content every month for what it would cost to have a staff member write it. Plus, the better ones will provide many other useful fitness and wellness tools as well. The very best will also surround their content with marketing tools that will help your club generate leads and close sales in addition to educating your members.
Delegation, Innovation, Continuous Improvement
Finally, as a club owner or manager, learn to delegate! Personally, this has been the hardest lesson for me to learn. I still have trouble with it at times, but I’m learning that with good systems in place (an article yet to come), delegation allows club leaders to innovate. And in the end, innovation is at the very heart of continuous improvement.
In last month’s article on leadership, one of the terms I touched upon was continuous improvement, an area that I think needs to be expanded upon.
As every club owner and manager will attest, it is very easy to fall into a routine of doing the same thing you did yesterday. Putting out daily “fires” within the club and closing out your month-end in the same frenetic way you did the previous month has a sense of comfort associated with it. It is, after all, the way you’ve always done it.
But, the end result of this pattern is always the same: failure. It’s either failure of your facility or failure of your own mental well-being. Even if your club continues doing things the same way, you can’t expect that from your competition.
Perhaps a club with fresh new ideas will open in your backyard. Maybe your prospective clients are getting tired of the same old flyers and promotions that you keep popping into their mailboxes. And, even though it’s happening slowly over many weeks and months, that end-ofmonth push to reach quota is becoming increasingly difficult over time. If this sounds familiar, then I would suggest a few simple steps to break the cycle.
Continuous Improvement at Staff Meetings
At the end of every staff meeting, the last item on the agenda should be “continuous improvement,” when every member of your staff comes up with an idea or “system and process” that makes his or her department a little better than it was before. This is a very effective way to encourage your staff to embrace the concept of continuous improvement.
Continuous Improvement for Leaders
I’ve always believed it’s the companies providing the products and services to any industry that drives innovation within that industry, and the fitness business is no exception. For this reason I feel it’s imperative that as an owner or manager you do two things:
• Attend at least one industry trade show every calendar year.
This is where the movers and shakers of your industry are, and if you want to be included among them, you had better be there with them.• Take at least one call per day from industry suppliers, and listen to what they have to say.
Fitness industry suppliers are out in the field talking to your competition; your competitors are learning what’s hot, and what’s not. Even if you’re not in the market for their particular product or service at the moment, it’s imperative that you build a relationship with them in order to follow industry trends. And, there’s a good chance that their particular product or service will make your job a lot easier. If you want to be a leader and not a follower, apply these steps.
Continuous Improvement for Members
Focus on member education and member services. As we all know, it’s much easier to keep an existing member than it is to go out and get a new one. But, as often as I hear club owners and managers repeat this line, it is truly few and far between when I actually witness club management taking the necessary steps to achieve this desired outcome.
There are many ways to keep your members happy, but the first step in keeping them happy is to listen to them. Give them a voice. A suggestion box on your website is a simple, effective way to do this. Then make sure you follow up by reading them aloud at a staff meeting at least once a month. This ties in nicely with the “continuous improvement” part of your meeting agenda.
After giving your members a voice, you must become a club known for educating your members (and the community at large) on the benefits of health and wellness. Newsletters, either hardcopy or Web-based, are a good start. A more effective method, in my opinion, both in terms of quality and cost, is to utilize one of the new Web-based content services. A good one will provide many thousands of dollars worth of first-run content every month for what it would cost to have a staff member write it. Plus, the better ones will provide many other useful fitness and wellness tools as well. The very best will also surround their content with marketing tools that will help your club generate leads and close sales in addition to educating your members.
Delegation, Innovation, Continuous Improvement
Finally, as a club owner or manager, learn to delegate! Personally, this has been the hardest lesson for me to learn. I still have trouble with it at times, but I’m learning that with good systems in place (an article yet to come), delegation allows club leaders to innovate. And in the end, innovation is at the very heart of continuous improvement.
Shawn Vint is the President of FitDV. He can be contacted at 888.355.1055, or by email at marketing@fitdv.com, or visit www.fitdv.com.
