by Daniel Barker
The health and fitness industry has moved at a much quicker pace than anyone could have anticipated over the past 18 months with digitalised at home offerings and a new focus on health and overall wellness. This shift and increased competition now means that gyms and personal trainers will have to change the service they are delivering with a new emphasis on creativity, uniqueness, and community.
Trainers simply cannot be expected to go off on their own and just pick up clients. Instead, they need to work with their gyms and the gyms need to support their trainers and place an emphasis on the overall member experience when it comes to engaging with the member and delivering the PT service.
Educating the members on the benefits of Personal Training
If you were to survey the members, the majority would not fully understand the full value of what a great personal trainer can support them with. They may just see them as someone that creates tough exercises like a drill sergeant or someone that will be there for them when they visit the gym (almost like a rent a friend). Members will only see what they experience on the gym floor and in their mind will see that trainers just focus on the physical and maybe in some cases touch on nutrition as well.
But a great trainer or coach will offer more than this (as illustrated below). As a gym, we can support the trainers by advertising the proof of concept and educate the members in what the trainers can support them with in reaching their goals through a more holistic range of services like sleep hygiene, breath work, mental health, and mindset.
So how can gyms and personal trainers improve the member experience and expand their services? I have broken this down into 3 areas of focus;
1. Offer a more personalised experience
A PT and gym should aim to offer a unique and personalised member experience and service that will have a wide appeal across age, income groups and training preferences.
For example, now that online or remote coaching is here to stay, a pt can offer services like the hybrid model which combines online and in-person training, so the member gets the best of both worlds and at a reduced price of all in person coaching.
2. Education
The goal should be to educate the member on their overall health, performance and habits with services and advice on how they can do this.
For example, incorporating a new members journey that assesses the member on the above areas which will give the member a more personalised experience, educate them about their health, gym performance and habits as well as how they can improve this. Also, the trainers can create workshops on any of the areas above like the importance of sleep, weight management, and breath work clinics
3. Community
Creating a sense of community by keeping the members connected to help motivate, challenge, reward and celebrate success alongside them.
For example, creating member challenges, group exercise and courses like weight management or bootcamps. To foster the community the aim for the gym and personal trainer should always be on focusing on the relationship and making sure the members feel valued and heard by always communicating with them. This can be done with good follow up systems, surveys, and always welcoming feedback.
