Customer Service as the Foundation of Marketing – are you prepared to combat your competition?
A guest blog by Travis Barnes (USA).
If you are ready to combat the competition and fight for your place in the market space, then this blog is for you. Most of us got into this business because we share a common purpose which is that we are meant to change lives through fitness. And what we learn early on is that when we do it well, there is increasing demand for our services.
The problem begins when we start to take on all the other things that are involved with being in the fitness business. First there is marketing, then sales, then the day to day operational stuff such as billing questions, inventory, software to navigate, supplements to sell, apparel, collecting payments, paying rent, paying utilities, facility maintenance, reports to run, other bills to pay and all sorts of let’s call it what it is…. distractions from doing what we do best which is serving our purpose of changing lives through fitness.
There is something that makes your business grow and I’m here to tell you that it is not your next Facebook ad nor is it your next 21-day challenge. “The foundation of marketing is customer service” – a quote from Jay Bear in the book Zombie Loyalist. This customer service book teaches businesses to use BRAINS which is to Bring Random Amazement Into Normal Situations. My point and also the point of that book is that without amazing customer service, you won’t be able to retain the customers that you attract making client acquisition a pointless process but with amazing customer service you will attract new customers without even marketing.
Here is how you know when something has gone wrong. Take this quick test:
Have you ever had a customer walk into your business early for their session and you felt resentful because you had other things to do such as some sort of marketing or membership management task? If your answer is “yes”, then again, this blog is for you.
Just imagine sharing your feelings with your customer saying something like “Hey glad you are early, but I have to finish this administrative task.” What message does that send to the customer? First it suggests that they are not important, and it also suggest that their trainer also works as a part time secretary. It might even make them question how good of a trainer that you are because you have to do this. Yet, the truth is it is not a matter of being bad or good at what you do. It is a matter of thinking that you need to do everything because you can’t afford to pay for help.
Allow me to demonstrate that you can afford help. Remember our purpose of changing lives through fitness. Let’s say that instead of doing those other tasks that we did more of our purpose. And let’s say you get paid $50 an hour for training a client. If you paid someone $20 an hour to do those other tasks you still profit $30.
I’m sure you get the math, but you might be saying “where will I get the additional clients?” And the answer is the same as it has it has been from the beginning and also the theme of this blog. We’ve known since we started in this business that if we did a good job with one client then we would have two which means the answer to growing your business is returning your focus to customer service and learning to deliver extraordinary customer service.
The answer to our business struggles is so simple that it eludes us. The answer to beating the competition is being better than the competition. Most gyms and trainers give an ordinary workout and don’t do anything extra for their clients. If you want to learn how to put the extra in extraordinary from the time that they enter your business, to the workout, to the cooldown, to the way the customer is tracked and celebrated then I invite you to attend my FILEX Online Masterclass on October 22 where I will give you over 20 customer service ideas to help you combat the competition.
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Travis Barnes is presenting the FILEX Online Masterclass: Competition Combat: Extraordinary Customer Care Systems That Differentiate You From The Competition on Thursday 22 October. To register head to the Masterclass tab in the Members Portal or if you can’t attend the date catch up with the masterclass recording available after the event! Not a FILEX Premium Member? Learn more about the great inclusions including twice-monthly CEC approved masterclasses, access to virtual summit recordings and more at members.filex.com.au.
