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| IHRSA Report | Club Advisor


Smart Equipment Maintenance Tips


By Patricia Amend


Now is the time to take a good look at your equipment maintenance practices. If you’re fortunate, the New Year means that your club is bustling with an onslaught of new members who, like your existing ones, will expect the equipment to work whenever they want to use it. But with increased usage, maintaining your equipment and avoid- ing breakdowns can be more of a challenge. Consider these cost-effective tips.


Keep track. Few things frustrate a member more than seeing a treadmill, exercise bike, or elliptical trainer broken day after day, so it’s best to keep member inconvenience to a minimum. Brent Darden, co-owner and general manager of TELOS Fitness Center in Dallas, says his staff monitors equipment breakdowns very closely—just as they do other performance mea- sures. “We try to keep equipment downtime to one day a month, or less. I’ve made it part of our dashboard metrics so the staff reports problems quickly.” “Our goal is to get things fixed within 48 hours,”


says Ed Trainor, vice president of fitness services and product development for Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLUB), which owns and operates 157 clubs in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. “Members and staff identify machines needing service and report them to our help desk. A service ticket is then opened and the clock starts.”


Clean and inspect. “Keeping equipment clean is one important way to prevent downtime,” says Bill Domineau, vice president of Cybex International cus- tomer service. “All liquid spills should be wiped up immediately. Then, each week, cardio equipment should be wiped down using a soft cloth and a diluted solution of mild non-abrasive cleaner and water, and then dried thoroughly. You’ll also want to clean and inspect both cardio and strength equipment routinely, as specified by your user manual. If I had a wish, it would be that owners would keep these manuals on hand and follow their guidelines. I’d also like to see them keep a log of a machine’s maintenance history.”


Train a staffer. Who’s best to fix your equipment? Darden suggests training one or more people on your staff to do it, rather than relying on an outside contrac- tor. “For years, we contracted it out. The downside was that we had to go by the contractor’s schedule, and they weren’t on call. The equipment might go down on Saturday, and we’d have to wait until Wednesday for the service visit,” he recalls. “Several years ago, I took it inside and sent a staff person to Precor, FreeMotion, and Cybex for one- or two-day courses. Now, if a machine goes down today, he looks at it today. He also knows which parts we need to keep in stock.” “The new trend is clubs servicing equipment them-


selves, rather than going to a third party,” agrees Andrew Paffendorf, technical training manager at Precor, Inc. “We will come to the club and train people. Clubs are also hiring maintenance technicians who used to work for a dealer or a service company. It saves Precor money because we don’t have to send someone out, and it saves the club downtime because the problem can be fixed immediately.”


Be smart. Can’t afford to train a staffer right now? Then find a partner, Darden suggests. “Contact a non- competing club owner across town, and see if you can send one person for training and share the cost. As an alternative, look to your membership for a retired person who may want to do it part-time, and offer to trade out a membership for that person’s time. You’ll get your equipment fixed quickly, while keeping costs down.” —| – Patricia Amend, Pamend@aol.com


www. ihrsa.org | FEBRUARY 2011 | Club Business Internat ional 123


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