I’m a bad member. There, I said it! And why’s that exactly? One, I don’t participate in personal training, rarely participate in Group X and pretty much just go to the club to dredge away on an elliptical. My interaction with my club is minimal, at best. I don’t even buy a smoothie after my workout.
As a result, the past couple of months I’ve found myself to be extremely unmotivated when it comes to going to the gym. After all, what’s there to look forward to? In fact, before this past Sunday morning, I hadn’t checked into my club in a whole two months.
What struck me about this was in that two months, I received no communication from my gym as to why my attendance had suffered. No e-mails, texts or phone calls of any sort. And when I checked in again, there was no communication to me from the front desk staff other than a standard “hello.”
Like I said, I’m a bad member. However, I’m still a member. To me, this sounds like the perfect opportunity for a club manager to reach out to a member to find out why their attendance had dropped, and to suggest they become more involved in the club. Instead, I was treated as if I’d never been gone, and as if my absence had gone unnoticed.
To me, this sends a bad message — that the club doesn’t care how involved I am, or whether or not I even use the club at all. To be fair, maybe they would have contacted me at the three-month mark of no attendance. Or, maybe they would have just keep billing me with no inquiries as to where I’d been. If that’s the case — we have a problem.
As fitness professionals, we need to care about our customer’s satisfaction. If a member is unhappy or uninterested in their membership, wouldn’t you want to remedy that?
What do you think — would you rather have an engaged, happy member? Or, are you okay with a member who pays their monthly fee, but shows no interest in that membership at all?
Rachel Zabonick is the assistant editor for Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@clubsolutionsmagazine.com. Reach out to her about exciting events or programs your club has implemented, or to share the amazing accomplishments of a member.
