Phil Faris: How does the member experience impact the 50+ marketplace regarding their satisfaction and retention?
Chris: I think that that market is more sensitive to a great experience. They have more life experience. It’s funny. For example, when we onboard new staff members, one of the questions we ask is, “Tell me one time you had a great customer experience?” Our older staff, they have tons of times. I went to this hotel and went to this restaurant.”
Sometimes, our younger staff has no idea because they have never experienced it, so I think just being in that older demographic, they are more aware of how valuable an experience is. People over 50 are more loyal if you create a great experience than younger. I think they are just really in tune with the customer experience. That demographic is willing to pay more for a great experience. They are willing to spend more money. They are willing to get more involved. They are willing to refer more because they appreciate it more.
Phil Faris: They also recognize it when the experience is not there.
Chris: Correct.
Phil Faris: Because if you have had a good experience and then you do not get it, it is more glaring. If you have never had it, you do not know. The bad experience is just as good as an average experience because that is all you know.
Chris: Correct.
Phil Faris: How have you adjusted your business operations to make sure that that experience continues to satisfy and retain your 50+ people?
Chris: What we do is, we use that as sort of a guideline for decision-makers. We have members that are in their 30s, and we have members in their 70s, so we have all kind of demographics. However, we know that our most significant demographic is 50+. So, if we are thinking about adding a piece of equipment or even things like the radio station or whatever, any decisions made ultimately revolve around that demographic. If you try to make everybody happy, then you make no one happy. We pick that our key demographic. That is our status and, hopefully, people that aren’t in that demographic still appreciate things and enjoy it, too.
Phil Faris: Yesterday when talked, you described how you made changes to a kickboxing class that wasn’t meeting your 50+ members’ needs. Can you explain why you did it and how it affected the members?                 Â
Chris: A couple of things. We noticed that in some of our higher impact classes, the numbers were starting to fall off. We engage with our members a lot. You would see somebody that used to take the class, and they would say, “I love it, but my knees, they really can’t take that anymore.” So, we knew it was time to add more classes like yoga, still high intensity, but low impact classes because members still want to work hard. They just can’t the pounding and the jumping.
Even in some of the high-impact classes like kickboxing, which I still teach in boot camp, I don’t jump. I do more stuff that’s on the ground. I tailor that so, from a programming standpoint, we will do that to address their issues. From an experience standpoint, it’s funny, and it is sort of ignorant, but you assume when you open a facility, that it’s OK to hire a bunch of young people to work the front desk. It is just your mentality for whatever reason. So, we hire 50+ people to work at our facility, as well.
Phil Faris: Why do you do that?
Chris: First of all because they work hard. You never worry about them showing up or being hung over or being on their phone. They know what it’s like to have a great experience. They know how to give it, and most of them are there out of choice. They’re like, “I retired early from my career. I’d love to do something that seems like a fun place,” so they’re there creating an experience.
Using the same stupid mindset, we also have hired a bunch of young trainers who have no idea what it feels like to be in that 50+ market. So, we’ve hired some trainers that are in that demographic. Our customer base loves working with these trainers that have more experience, and that share some of the same issues like they understand what it’s like to, after 50 years, your knees do hurt a little bit from the abuse you’ve done. I think staffing accordingly and then adjusting programming accordingly to make a good impact and make a great experience for that demographic.
Phil Faris: Another reason for having someone at the front desk who is a little older, more mature, is that, as people come in, that is the first person they see. An older person can be comforting to a younger person, but it gives an instant affinity for someone that is over 40 or 50, and they come in and say, “Oh, okay. There are people like me here” instead of, “Did I just make a wrong turn?”
Chris: Right.
Phil Faris: That is just another reason to improve the customer experience.
Chris: Like rapport building and relationship building. We train our front desk hard on having a conversation with our members. “How’s your day going? Where’ve you been? What are you working on today?” We engage them. For 50+, it is easy. I love our young staff, and I love training them. I feel very rewarded when you see them grow and develop and build better rapport, but it is definitely more challenging. I would say the 50+ employees that we have, their impact on the younger staff is very fulfilling. I love it.
