Why Every Club Should Offer an Online Nutritional Guidance System for Members
It’s that time of the year again – when weight loss New Year’s resolutions are on everyone’s mind. So, we decided to take an in-depth look at nutrition and interview two leading health clubs that have capitalized successfully on nutritional guidance to find out what their secrets to success are. For those of you who are not offering members nutritional guidance, you may need to reconsider just how valuable a service like this can be to your members… and to your club’s bottom line!
Those of us who are involved in the heath and fitness industry on a daily basis already understand the important role nutrition plays when it comes to seeing results from our workouts, but unfortunately many of our members are forgetting this important component of getting (and staying) fit. Not only is a poor diet to blame for many of the health problems our members face, but it is also a major factor for members who work out regularly but don’t get the desired results. Luckily, this problem (like most) also presents club owners with a great opportunity to help current members succeed with their health and fitness goals which will increase retention and at the same time allow clubs to increase membership numbers by reaching out in new ways to the deconditioned population. Here, we spent time interviewing two clubs to discover how and what they have done to be successful using an online nutritional guidance system. We learned that it has done everything from boost retention to drive new membership, and we’re going to share the success stories of Gainesville Health & Fitness and The Texas Club, who have both started using an online nutritional guidance system to bring valuable nutrition information to members, which has impacted their businesses in a big way.
John McCullough, General Manager of The Texas Club in Dallas, said he tried unsuccessfully for years to market nutrition, but due to the club’s downtown Dallas location, most of his members join because they work nearby, so he found they were unwilling to spend extra time in the club for seminars or counseling. McCullough knew that his members would benefit from nutritional counseling, as this is a crucial part to becoming and staying healthy and reaching fitness goals, but he was having a hard time finding it in a package his members would use.
At the Gainesville Health & Fitness Centers in Gainesville, Florida, Sales Director Karen Coley-Cannon and General Manager, Jan Matkozich, were also searching for a nutritional guidance system to offer members. They were looking for a product and or service that would drive more traffic to their website and could also act as a tool to help members see results, stay engaged and feel excited about working out. In searching for a solution, both clubs wanted to offer members a greater opportunity to reach their goals and improve their health through not only fitness but also nutrition. In searching for the right solution, we learned both clubs ultimately turned to a company called Vitabot – an online nutritional guidance system that offers health clubs a unique opportunity to provide vital nutrition information to members in a convenient, user friendly format.
McCullough says Vitabot appeals to his members because they can access it from any computer. “It allowed us to begin offering a nutrition component that lets our members enter their own information and gives them immediate feedback and direction. This condensed the process of nutritional guidance and made it work for our unique situation,” he says. The Texas Club is also incorporating nutritional guidance into their overall marketing plan, and has even begun to take advantage of the many promotions that are put together by Vitabot’s marketing team, which are designed to help health clubs succeed. These promotions are located online in a special media center that is dedicated to club owners and managers, and they can be customized to look like they were made just for your club. McCullough says that over 25% of his members are currently using their online nutritional guidance program, which he offers at no additional charge to members. McCullough states, “As a value-added service, the online system is not only convenient, but is available to club owners at a fraction of the cost it would take to pay a nutritionist.”
Coley-Cannon uses nutritional guidance in some slightly different ways at Gainesville Health & Fitness. One strategy involves reaching out to local corporations with information about their online nutritional guidance program through Vitabot with the goal of scheduling nutritional information seminars for employees during the workday. At the seminars, interested employees are asked to contact Coley-Cannon and schedule a time to come into the club to receive a seven-day free trial membership to the online nutritional counseling program and to the club! With the cost of healthcare on the rise, many companies are beginning to understand how important it is to get employees involved in health and fitness, and nutritional guidance programs provide a great venue for building relationships and credibility. “By reaching out to local businesses with this tool, we are demonstrating that we practice what we preach and it also happens to give us the perfect inroad to increase membership,” says Coley-Cannon. Gainesville Health & Fitness has also chosen to offer online nutritional counseling by Vitabot to members free of charge, but Coley-Cannon has devised a system that encourages participation and accountability. As long as members use the service, they can have free access to it, which is also an effective way to spot ‘at risk’ members.
We learned in our interview with Gainesville and the Texas Club that in addition to supporting retention efforts, providing unique marketing opportunities and offering a solution to the challenge of incorporating nutritional counseling into your club’s list of services, Vitabot also drives traffic to your club’s website. It will easily integrate into most systems, allowing club owners to offer it through their own website with their club’s logo. Clubs should also be made aware that when it comes to nutrition, Vitabot follows FDA guidelines, so club owners can be assured that members are receiving safe, reliable information that is comprehensive and easy to use. Just as it’s important to write down everything you spend in order to plan a realistic household budget, it’s important to write down everything you eat in order to begin planning healthy meals. Gainesville and the Texas Club noted that Vitabot makes this task easy and even allows users to search foods and create customized meal plans. The system ‘grades’ users, telling them what they need to improve and offering suggestions to get better ‘grades’. For an interactive demo and to find out more about implementing a nutritional guidance program in your club, you can visit www.vitabot.com.
When it comes to nutrition, health clubs can no longer afford to leave it up to chance or to sit back and hope that members will figure out how to eat right on their own. As a vital part of the journey to becoming physically fit, nutrition has become one of the largest roadblocks many people face. The good news is that health clubs now, with the New Year approaching, have an enormous opportunity to reach out to current members and build relationships with potential members by giving them the tools they need to succeed in health and fitness just like Gainesville Health & Fitness and The Texas Club have shown us.
For information or questions you may have regarding how to offer and implement a successful nutritional guidance program in your club, like the texas club and Gainesville health & Fitness have done, cantact Vitabot at 301.864.3886 or email jpeters@vitabot.com
