TALKBACK everyone’s talking about . . .
personal training P
ersonal training at Planet Fitness went out with a bang rather than a whimper in December last year, when a
memo to franchisees, making scathing comments about personal training, found its way onto the internet. In the memo, Planet Fitness CEO
Mike Grondahl said that most people used the service just to “rent friends” and that “for us to be selling personal training is a fraud and downright condescending to anyone who can breathe.” Although the comments were hyperbolical, and not meant for a worldwide audience, Planet Fitness has confi rmed that Grondahl does stand by
the general sentiment. The company has decided that PT really does not have a place in its gyms, and has now said that not offering PT will be its USP. Grondahl made further infl ammatory
remarks in the New York Times the following month, saying that he is not in the motivation business. “I can’t keep you motivated for something you don’t want to do,” he told reporters. Grondahl’s opinions and actions
fl y in the face of what the rest of the industry is currently thinking and doing, but might his maverick approach inspire other gyms to do to the same? PT does throw up some challenges – ensuring it’s sold in such a way that
michael grondahl planet fitness • ceo
decision for our company and is much more consistent with who we are. The vast majority of our customers
“S
had zero interest in paying US$60 an hour for someone to show them how to do sit-ups. Personal training has a culture in clubs of hard sell, which we
were always uncomfortable with. We sometimes heard reports from members complaining about clubs trying to upsell them, so by eliminating PT there’s one less headache. Instead, we’re strengthening the staff-led instructional
programme. This has always been in place, but we had allowed it to get stale. We’re offering more free small group training sessions, making them more interesting and more accessible by not requiring sign-up in advance. This has re-invigorated our staff trainers, who are now being asked for advice by members, which they like. By making some small tweaks, we’ve already seen a big surge in the programme’s popularity, so we believe large-scale changes will triple or quadruple the number of people using these sessions. Logic says this could help with retention: we’re offering fitness training for free.
”
crapping one-on-one personal training is absolutely the right
nic jarvis new wave training • founder
“I
think Planet Fitness is wrong – it has responded to members’
distaste of being sold to on a continual basis by dropping the service – but I can understand why PT hasn’t worked for them. I’ve seen this ‘magnet culture’ before, where a distrust builds up between PTs and customers and they repel each other. The mistake comes
in the way the service is sold: the PTs see themselves as the experts and think they have something the customers need. To sell personal training successfully, there needs to be a
culture of interaction. This can be built up by PTs chatting to members and giving them advice for free if it’s a quick fix. By getting to know members and building trust, the members themselves start to understand personal training, and whether they need to pay for the service. It’s like a pyramid: the bottom level is general interaction, next
is consultation/interaction, then comes selective programming, and PT is the top. It must be treated as a peak service, rather than a revenue stream, and sold with the right intent: many members are not achieving their goals and PT is a way of helping them do so. Taking away that service isn’t being customer-centric.
” 24 Read Health Club Management online
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital march 2011 © cybertrek 2011
kath hudson • journalist • health club management
In a controversial move last December, US franchise Planet Fitness announced that it was scrapping personal training, positioning this lack of PT as its USP. Is this move madness or inspired?
members feel they’re being offered good service, for example, rather than being badgered to spend more money, However, by removing the service
altogether, is Planet Fitness depriving its members of the choice? If you have a goal to work towards, have the money to spend on PT and – unless someone is watching over you – tend to stop before the fi nal 10 minutes on the treadmill or last set of squats, then personal training can be a valuable service. Did Planet Fitness simply fail to
strike the right balance? Or is PT a fl awed concept that could be replaced with something more effective? We ask our panel of experts.
IS PERSONAL TRAINING AN IMPORTANT SERVICE TO OFFER? EMAIL US:
HEALTHCLUB@LEISUREMEDIA.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76