Customer Experience

Hey everyone, um, last week I was out. I took my kids and family to, uh, the Bahamas. We stayed at this nice resort. It was kind of our last-ditch effort, uh, to get a vacation in before their school started. Um, and actually, we, we do this weird fun thing, um, with our kids that has really helped us as their parents during summertime. We create this like summer point system where they have to earn points every week, and if they get enough points over the course of the summer, they earn a trip. Look, we're gonna go on at least one family trip a year anyways, and this way it allows us to get them to earn it. Plus, the points that they earn— points are earned by doing things that we want them to be doing instead of just wasting their summer. Anyways, they had earned a cruise, and we had a cruise booked before COVID happened. And we have since rescheduled that cruise 6 times. And then this last time, they pushed it back yet another month. And I was like, I got the week blocked off. I need a break. I wanted a break. And so we found a resort in the Bahamas. Now, I'm not going to go over the name of the resort because it doesn't serve the purpose of what I want to talk to you about today. But if someone were to ask me about this resort in the future, I would tell you, you know what, I think if you've never been there before, it is worth a one-time trip. Um, but I personally don't ever see myself going back or taking my kids to go back. And that is what I want to talk to you about, the customer experience. It— you, you have an audience, right? Um, for your gym and you know the demographics of your audience, at least you should. Um, or at least you have an idea of who your ideal client is and what their demographics are. And in this case, thinking about this resort, they have their ideal client constantly coming through. It wasn't like a super ridiculously expensive trip, but it certainly wasn't cheap. So price point was a barrier to entry, and the people that are coming in are paying a decent amount of money. Not to mention, it is like an all-inclusive resort. You never had to leave to go anywhere. Everything was available there for you. And therefore, from the convenience factor, food costs were about 10 times more than they usually are, I think, that we experience. Um, here in the States, uh, in a non-touristy area. And anyways, the point being, uh, they have a great opportunity every single time they have a guest to wow them and to want them to come back. The same goes for, uh, you as a gym owner. Every class that you have, every experience you have with the member is an opportunity to sell why they are using you. And so throughout the week that we were there, I'm noticing things at the park. And honestly, I left thinking to myself, man, I wish I had half a billion dollars to create one of these things, because I think just knowing what I like, and I feel like I'm a pretty normal person, I think a lot of people would like the type of things that I would like to have changed at this resort. But part— so as I'm going through, I'm noticing things like there are some water rides as part of— on the resort, and there were some weird leaks in spots, weird leaks that apparently— I mean, clearly hadn't been touched or cleaned or maintained in a long time, moss growing around them. The paint just on railings was very rusted. It doesn't look like it'd been touched since they had opened. Most of the signs that give you instructions were very weather faded. And I just thought about— I mean, I just kept thinking about this, like, man, based on how much we're paying, why isn't this company setting aside a percentage of their revenue so they can consistently maintain some of these things? Because from a customer experience standpoint, it led to a less desirable experience for us. Our hotel room, the mattresses were great, but there was some weird speaker in the ceiling that constantly made a noise. I don't know if you've ever had your ears plugged from like swimming deep in the water or getting water stuck in your ear. And there's kind of like that sound that just A constant rubbing, it feels like, or crackling in your ear. That's what it sounded like in our hotel room, um, up above the left for us. And we could never get someone to come, uh, you know, fix it, uh, because apparently they'd come in and they didn't know what they were looking for. And they— our cross never— our paths never crossed for them to be there at the same time we were there. Interesting. Uh, apparently the tenant who was in that space before us had bought milk and meat, and they stuck it in the fridge, which wasn't plugged in and wasn't cool and didn't work. We didn't know this. But about the 3rd day, I walked into the room where my girls were staying, which is where this fridge was. And like, why does it smell like vomit in here? And it took a day for us to find it. I almost gave myself hyperventilation because I was sniffing, like doing that. Like, I was getting really lightheaded. We eventually found the culprit of the smell because it kind of smelled like vomit, but the carpet smelled clean. Like, the sheets smelled clean. And then anyways, I eventually pinpointed it and we found it. And the meat in the fridge that wasn't working was rotting and the milk had gone very rancid. It was— I mean, once I opened that up, I mean, I almost— I, it was hard to keep myself from throwing up. Uh, we asked the hotel people to come in and clean it. They cleaned it out, uh, but the smell had been stuck in that fridge for so long. We had to call them back and say like, look, it's great, but you still have the vomit smell. Now it's mixed with cleaning chemicals. Can we just pull out the fridge? And anyways, this whole long story That I'm sharing with you is to highlight the fact, or this point, how different would our experience have been if the hotel staff had a clear and concise checklist that they followed every single time they cleaned a room from people who— like anytime there's a new guest, so they know that that guest is gone and the room is going to be used by new people. Why wouldn't there be a checklist for them to check the fridges, even if the fridges aren't working? The maid actually said, yeah, we've actually been— she had requested to management many times, can they just remove the fridges because they don't work? And her requests had consistently been denied because management, in this particular company's case, isn't experiencing things at the level that she is. And Which is another problem. You think about customer experience as the owners. Are you looking at it from their eyes? Are you looking at it from the experience and feedback from your coaches, especially if you aren't coaching classes anymore? Management was— it was above them to think about those little things or to even take the suggestion of the maid who's doing this day in and day out, because if they took her suggestion, Then they're not going to have guests sticking stuff in fridges who aren't paying attention and realizing, gosh, our food just went bad. Um, I wish I would have known the fridge didn't work, even though they could have checked. But sometimes people are oblivious. Uh, anyway, so definitely would have been a different customer experience. So what kind of checklists do you have in your gym, standard operating procedures, so that your client, uh, your member experience is consistent for them? I just— if there's anything you can take away from what I'm sharing with you is look at your gym from the eyes of your member. Walk in. What is, what is your member seeing when they walk into the space? Because to us, being in there all the time, every day, for multiple parts of the day, when there's busy classes, when there's not busy classes, A lot of the stuff becomes noise to us, and we block out the noise. But walk in again with fresh eyes to say, what is the member seeing? Maybe you'll notice something that looks like— maybe you have a corner of the gym where you're storing crap that actually doesn't look good, and you've just ignored it because it's become noise to you. Little things do add up, and If we look at the experience from our members' eyes, I think you're going to find some, a few things that will improve their overall experience. Because guess what? At the end of the day, the customer who has a better experience is going to stay with you longer. And they're going to tell people about it. I don't even want to tell you about the name of this resort, because I wasn't wowed. And we also have to understand that Look, I don't know the specific thing that people would compare your gym experience to, but in the travel industry, especially when we're going on a resort that is sold to us as some sort of kind of water park amusement area, you know, um, I'm gonna always experience any sort of amusement park, I'm gonna compare that to Disneyland. Because in my life, the best experience I've had at an amusement park was when we stayed at hotels on Disneyland's campus and we spent a few days there. So your members are comparing their experience in your gym to their best experience with fitness. Hopefully that experience is in your gym, but if not, you have to know that that's what they're comparing them— comparing you to. Um, and again, I don't know what specific experience that would be for them. But I just know that our human nature is to compare things to our best experience. Because if it's not as good as the best experience, why would we go back to something else? We would go back to what was our best experience. So anyways, profitability can be increased if you improve member retention. Wherever you're at, I believe there's Areas for improvement. Look at your experience through the eyes of your member. Remember, profit is a choice. Have the courage and wisdom to choose it.