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Serving your Wellness Center Members

Getting Back to Basics by Gail Fast

At a recent meeting attended by senior level managers, we participated in an exercise that required us to rank in order of importance the services and products we deliver our customers, our fitness and wellness center members. We decided to put ourselves in their sneakers and try and determine what they valued the most. We asked ourselves, “If given a choice, would our clients choose a clean facility over experienced staff? Did they feel that affordable memberships were more important than quality group exercise classes? Would they rather have the whirlpools or treadmills in working order?”

What we learned is that customer satisfaction is at its greatest when basic and fundamental operational practices are in place. Sure, dynamite and informative bulletin boards add to any fitness and wellness program, but it’s having your staff opening the facility on time that will keep members happy and coming back.

The top five valued services, we determined, our clients expect are:

The staff will be in uniform, friendly and accessible to all members.
The facility and locker rooms will be clean and amenities, such as shower soap, shampoo, etc will always be stocked.
The equipment in the fitness and wellness centers will be clean and in working order.
The facility will open on time, every time.
There will be quality group exercise classes and instructors.

Providing Friendly, Accessible Staff
Having a highly trained professional staff is an essential component of any fitness and wellness center. But, education and certifications are not enough. Make sure to devote time during staff trainings to work on customer service techniques. Some of these include:

Greeting all fitness center members by name.
Communicating openly, cordially and professionally with all members.
Working pro-actively with members to promote safe and effective exercise habits.
Learning to anticipate member needs.
Limiting the time spent with one individual member; remembering other members need your attention as well.

Keeping the Facility Clean
While an unkempt facility sends a message of disregard for the most basic needs of the members, a clean facility says “Welcome, we’ve been expecting you, and we’re glad you’re here!” If you are not directly responsible for cleaning the facility, make sure that whomever is measures up to yours and the memberships’ expectations.

Preventive Equipment Maintenance
Members look for equipment to be reliable and, when repairs are necessary, repaired in a timely manner. By incorporating a daily, weekly and monthly maintenance and cleaning schedule for staff to perform, you will be able to extend the life of the equipment, resulting in fewer major repairs. Some suggestions for your maintenance checklist include:

lubricate moving parts, shafts and chains, as needed
remove excess grease from moving parts
clean weight stacks
tighten bolts and nuts, as needed
check upholstery for rips and cracks

Opening on Time
The “golden rule” in fitness and wellness center management is to open and close on time every day. To ensure compliance, have staff arrive within a sufficient amount of time to make sure the doors open as scheduled. Include emergency and backup procedures in your operations manual, in case staff fail to make it in on time.

Group Exercise

Group exercise has been, and continues to be, a major component of any fitness/wellness program. In designing your group exercise program, keep the following factors in mind:

Hire qualified, certified instructors
Offer a variety of classes
Keep up with industry trends
Provide staff training, so they can teach class if an instructor is absent or has an emergency

Take the time to solicit feedback from your customers. Some commonly used tools include surveys, focus groups and even suggestion boxes. Whatever avenue you choose, make sure to incorporate the results into the management of your fitness/wellness program.

Published with permission from:
Fitness Onsite Magazine Feb 2004