Does personal training help members get results and boost retention, or does this sort of upselling put people off?
mike hills the retention people • retention director
“I
am pleasantly surprised by the news from Planet Fitness: it’s
refreshing to hear the views expressed. We’ve known for many years that
a huge part of improving retention is personal contact with staff, but all too often this contact is undermined by the desire to sell personal training. Our consumers are not naïve and will see
through us if they receive personal contact only when we want something. I would not consider PT to be a retention strategy; as a paid for service, it will only help the few members who can justify the expense – often already the most committed members. Clubs need to realise that using staff to communicate
effectively with members brings massive financial rewards in terms of improved retention, without having to muddy the waters trying to sell PT. If more clubs recognised this, they might concentrate more on getting the most from their staff teams rather than focusing so heavily on PT. If managed properly, there’s room for both: PT can operate alongside this model and provide a useful income stream. However, too often it’s introduced at the cost of in-club service and has a negative effect, distracting management and staff and alienating members.
” march 2011 © cybertrek 2011
david stalker fitness industry association • executive director
“I
n my opinion, most people who have used personal trainers would
agree that they support, or supported, them to achieve their goals through an effective workout based on sound technique and motivation. Personal training can do two things
for a club: increase revenue and, if sold properly, have a huge effect on retention,
because we know members stay if they achieve their goals. I can’t think of any clubs where PT is pushed so hard that people are leaving, but I know of endless clubs that have had great success with it, turning around their members’ fitness levels and, in turn, the club’s bottom line. In fact, many operators in our industry have structured their operations with PT at the heart of things. Each operator plays to its own strengths and USPs, so it’s
the right of Planet Fitness to make a decision that’s best for its individual business. The small group training sessions sound an exciting aspect of its business model – it appears to be bridging the gap between personal training and exercise classes by making a more intimate, hands-on approach accessible to all members. It’s certainly an interesting concept for our industry. We will watch this space to see how they take this forward.
” Read Health Club Management online
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 25
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