In our last article, we spoke about the importance of meeting customer needs based on Maslow’s Hierarchy. Today we are relating that to the fitness industry and how we traditionally meet a member’s needs.
What’s important to note is that it takes more than just excellent customer service to do this effectively, it requires an Engagement Approach.
Customer service is a passive approach to interacting with our members. It is what we do in response to our member’s needs. They have to come to us first and then we respond with a standard approach in the attempt to solve the issue they present us with.
I’m sure every operator out there strives for excellence when it comes to customer service. We want to ensure that we respond to every enquiry and complaint with the utmost professionalism and proficiency.
But is that enough?
Every person who reaches out to your organisation will have an emotive reason for doing so and by engaging with that person on an emotive level you are un-locking the power of Member Engagement.
Member Engagement requires us to read and profile our members in order to modify our approach. For example, if a member contacts your organisation to cancel their membership there shouldn’t be a one size fits all standard response. We need to use Engagement tools and techniques to find out their real reason, their emotional reason, for wanting to cancel. Once we know our member’s true reason for wanting to cancel we can tailor our response in an attempt to re-engage the member far more effectively.
If you haven’t already done so, watch this Ted Talk from Simon Sinek – Start With Why. Simon Senik emphasises the importance of starting with the reason why we do what we do. We can apply this principle with our members.
When we engage with our members to find out their Why we unlock the ability to create a valuable experience for that member and connect on an emotive level.
Creating a positive emotional experience for your members is what will set you apart from organisations who stop at excellent customer service. It makes sense that if your members are having an incredible experience with your team and within your facility, they are going to stick around.
We love a good chat about Fitness Business’ so if you’d like to find out how we can help you engage with your members and staff contact us on engage@mep.global.