Why first impressions are so important in your fitness business

The client experience. Important in all businesses, but especially important in the fitness industry. As a personal trainer, studio or an online coach your client experience should be one of your biggest focus points to ensure it’s as flawless and as valuable as possible. A good or bad client experience could be the rise or fall of a fitness business.?

This all starts with first impressions. I was on a call with a coach on Wednesday, where we really deep dived into what a good client experience looks like for their client base, which prompted me to write this article.?

Something we sometimes forget as businesses, is the importance of an excellent onboarding process and first impressions. I’m going to start with a studio here.

Think about a time where you walked into a fitness studio. You signed up via the app, but never received any instructions about what to do when you get to the studio as a first timer. You were a little bit nervous, so you went to reception to check in, then asked a few questions. You were greeted by a really busy member of staff that was struggling to manage check ins and support members' questions. Therefore, the response came across quite rude as they couldn’t make the time to show you where to go. You already feel highly intimidated, and anxious about the class. You workout where you need to go by following where other members are going. The class was good, but you are tinged by the initial impression and don’t think you will go back. Someone asks you how the class was, you then say, “The class was good, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The whole experience wasn’t amazing, the staff were very overwhelmed and quite rude”.?

What are your thoughts on the above? What could have been done to improve the situation? Let’s break it down.?

With all our fancy booking systems which we have nowadays, you will know when it’s someone's first session with you as a studio. As a coach you will also know but obviously a little more manually (unless you use a booking system). On all of these systems, you can trigger automation. Overcoming hurdle 1 of the above, the initial contact with the client. Yes, the client would have received a booking confirmation of the class. Another email should have gone out with this booking confirmation to say something along the lines of, “Congratulations and welcome to the team”. A, this makes them feel part of a community and B, it’s acknowledging that it is their first time. Secondly that email should state EVERYTHING that the client needs to know upon arriving at the studio, where they should be going, how the check in process will work, maybe a map of the studio and an insight into the class. Hurdle 1 overcome.

Let’s move onto hurdle 2, overwhelmed staff. I know, especially in this climate, staffing costs are something mostly all companies are trying to keep down. But I want you to look beyond the initial overhead. You need to keep things moving efficiently. If you have 2 members of staff minimally behind the “check in desk”, 1 can be assigned specifically for check in’s only and the other for client support. That means you can have 2 people doing the check-ins, but you can also have one person who is able to leave the desk to show any new members around or support in any client issues, for example “locking yourself out of your locker”. If you think about it long term, having a better client experience will lead to happier clients, better experiences and then more referrals. Next time you are looking to reduce, think about how you could improve the client experience instead.?

The point of this article, improving your client onboarding process, improves A LOT in your business. When people start something new, people want to know about it and how it went. Most people will talk within their first week of training with you whether an online fitness coach, studio or personal trainer and this is where your reputation can fly high or can make it harder for you to grow. Remember, people talk. You may not think about it being 1 client, but the domino effect of 1 bad review can be highly detrimental to your business.?

Here’s some key things that you can implement straight away to improve your client onboarding process:

1. The initial email flow. Really deep dive into the email flow that your clients will receive. Does it make sense? Will it make them excited? Will they know what to do upon their first session with you? If you are an online coach, do they know how to download the app and what to do when they get on there??
2. Your “induction” process. I mean, we probably haven’t heard of that phrase for years. Back in the day, every single client for gyms would have to have “inductions” before using them. But essentially we still need it, albeit potentially in video form now. What can you do to improve this element? For online coaches it’s ensuring you have a welcome video that pops up in your app to greet the client and show them around. Maybe for a gym, it’s a welcome video from the manager or for a studio, potentially making it the role of the class instructor to take all new members through how the class runs. A brand that does this really well is Barry's!?
3. The follow up post a client's first session. Probably one of the most vital things to do is following up to see how your client's first session went. What does this do? It shows the client you care about their feedback. Another plus, if they did have a bad experience, they can share and you can potentially rebuild trust in your brand and relationship from this point before they speak to someone else. Therefore if someone asks, “How was your experience?”, they may change their tune and say, “it was a rocky start but their client support has been amazing, I would recommend”.
5. You might ask, how are you going to track every new person's first session? The fancy softwares that studios have for sure will have an auto email that can be personalised. Make sure it’s activated. For coaches, you need to make it even more personalised (or invest in software). Why not send them a voice note on your coaching app when you know it’s been day one? As a personal trainer, send your client a voice note or a personal message via Whatsapp post their first session. It really is that simple.?

At The Fit Biz Coach, this is an area we are really passionate about. Building world class client experiences. If you need help in this area, let’s chat and we can start supporting you to become unrivalled in your industry: Calendly.