Phil Faris: How have you adjusted your training, and how do you keep points of emphasis that you have discovered over time that ensures that 50+ members have that optimal experience?
Chris: As I said, it is all in staffing. First of all, bringing on some more experienced trainers that are in that demographic has been super helpful because, again, the theory is one thing and research and reading and books but, when you have actually been there, it is really helpful. With some of our younger trainers, and we have some younger trainers that do a great job with the 50+ market, but it is emphasizing, again, that remember, it is always about the customer, their goals, their needs, their abilities. Something, younger trainers tend to say, “All right, let’s go. Burpees and sandbag tosses”.
First of all, does that even fit the goal? Secondly, is it healthy for somebody who’s got a little more mileage and just needs to adapt the program emphasizing that they are doing more recovery work whereas, training a younger person, you might not spend ten minutes at the end foam rolling and stretching out and doing things like that. With the 50+ market, you are going to spend more time in recovery type exercises. I think that’s one thing, too.
I did some executive wellness events with that demographic, and I told them, “You don’t have to stop what you are doing, but maybe just don’t run quite as far, lift quite as heavy and, most importantly, put more time into warming up properly and cooling down properly. We make sure that all of our staff that works with the 50+ market is warming up properly, taking their time doing it right, cooling down properly, and then highly, highly, highly monitoring form, which is crucial for any demographic.
Phil Faris: When someone came into your facility, what would they experience on a consistent level that they may not get somewhere else, like the average gym?
Chris: Most gyms and I happily say this; you are a number. At our place, you are not. I think the differentiator is we … For example, our first core value as a company is building real relationships. I truly believe that, in life, building a relationship is the most important thing. We train our staff, and we hold them accountable to building real relationships. We hold them accountable to exceeding people’s expectations.
Things like coming in and knowing that Phil always wants two towels because, man, he sweats and, without him having to go back and ask for anything. I put in the memory banks, take a note, “Here are your two towels. I know you like two,” or Sally comes in, and she likes to read when she is on the elliptical, so we make sure that we have a book holder waiting for her so she can clip it on and read. It is exceeding expectations, really getting to know people, and sincerely. You cannot fake that. By the way, what’s better than building a great relationship with somebody. It’s fun.
That 50+ employee is excellent at it, but we, literally with our younger staff, we have an acronym called FORD. It is families, occupation, recreation, and dreams. We will say, “Go build a real relationship with that person.” They are like, “What do you mean?” If you can tell me two of those letters, what’s their family like? What’s their occupation? When I say dreams, nothing creepy, but like, “Oh, I would like to hike this mountain or ski this slope.” We try to quantify that stuff.
We use a technique called FACE to remember names: Focus, Ask, Connect, and Execute when teaching our staff, pay attention to somebody. Actively listen, focus, then say, “And what was your name? My name is Chris, but what was your name?” and then mentally connect that to something to create that memory trigger and then execute again so at the very end, you are like, “It was so nice meeting you, Fred” and renew that. We try to do as much as we can to help tangibly train how to build relationships, get to know people, build rapport, and then when you have that rapport and you really know somebody, you know how to exceed their expectations.
Phil Faris: What happens when your staff drops the ball, which happens.
Chris: Of course.
Phil Faris: Can you give an example of that and how you responded?
Chris: When we hire, we hire for culture fit, and we train technical stuff so. By the way, we are not 100%. We are good with hiring but, once in a while, you have a stinker, right? You don’t hire the right person. For the most part, we try to nip it in the bud by hiring the right people but, that said, you have still got to train them, coach them all the time. What we do is, we always tell our staff this, too. There are three reasons somebody drops the ball and falls short. A, they don’t care and, if that is the type of person, you hired poorly, they have got to go. B, they don’t agree and, as an open-minded owner, I am happy to sit down and say, “Hey, is there a reason this is not happening?” Here’s a weird example, but our childcare department wasn’t wearing their name tags. I was like, “Hey, team. You got to wear those name tags, especially in childcare. Parents need to know your name when they come in.” They said, “We hold babies all the time …”
