Alliance has worked to grow BCC’s leisure site income by 130 per cent in three years
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Helen Morris, Alliance Leisure account manager, Birmingham City Council (BCC) “When I joined the Birmingham City
Council team two years ago, there was lots of negative feedback on their own ability in increasing membership sales and income. I’ve worked for Alliance Leisure for 12 years, and the 20 sites across the
city of Birmingham are the most diverse I’ve ever experienced. When I started there were very large sites with lots of casual usage traffi c, as well as very small sites with relatively few members. Initial responsibilities involved coaching managers on the
commercial opportunities that were unique to Birmingham – citywide members, caring staff, creative classes, etc. I created an ‘inspiring change’ training module which looked at the role of a GM to inspire and change culture among staff.
the leisure sites across those constituencies were operating quite independently, and the branding also needed refreshing across all their leisure offers. The council decided that it needed to change that culture, as well as boost its income. Three years after Alliance fi rst became involved, we’ve now grown that income by 130 per cent.
How did you achieve this? We used a variety of methods, which of course included drawing on our whole portfolio of resources.
June 2014 © Cybertrek 2014 I visit Birmingham weekly. At the start of each
year, I create an annual support plan with the senior managers to tackle priorities such as marketing, promotions, foundation sales training, customer retention, culture change and customer service. Tasks and activities vary from week to week. For
instance, last week I went out with a small team of very apprehensive staff on an outreach appointment to promote their own leisure centre, and it was rewarding to see the team gradually grow in confi dence. My favourite sessions are still basic foundation sales
training as this gives new, inexperienced staff in health and fi tness a clear understanding that we’re here to help our customers achieve their goals – that staff are responsible for changing lives. Who wouldn’t want to do that as a job!”
Our starting point was to go in
and thoroughly train all 800 members of staff over a four-month period. We also gave them an impact sales team consisting of four people, not just to assist with sales in the early stages but also to facilitate ongoing sales training where it was needed across the organisation. To boost marketing, we ran fi ve big
city-wide campaigns over a year, using local radio and press, banner advertising and social media. These types of large campaign may typically cost around
£10,000 a time to run, but they were all included in the contract. Alliance Leisure’s in-house designers also worked with Birmingham City Council’s central team to come up with refreshed branding. The whole contract has been a great
success, and the client is delighted with the sustained rise in income. ●
Find out more:
www.allianceleisure.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)1278 444944
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 75
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