In times of recession “Service Means Survival”, but keep in mind the difference between customer satisfaction and loyalty is significant:
Member Satisfaction means meeting a member’s expectations and the member does not feel valued. There is no memorable “WOW” experience. As a result the member will be more price sensitive and consider competitors’ offerings. Member Loyalty  means exceeding member expectations and he/ she does feel valued. Delivering a memorable experience that WOW’s the member. As a result the member will be a long-term customer, less concerned with price.

How do you drive a Member Loyalty-Centric Corporate Culture?

1. It must start with an unwavering commitment by club ownership and senior management.
2. Hire people who have an ingrained passion for serving people exceptionally well.
3. Develop and train all staff who interact with members on “best practices” based on members’ wants, not the club’s convenience. Everything that impacts a member experience. Ask “What would WOW me?” When did you receive exceptional customer service – How did it make you feel? How did it affect your shopping habits at that store? How many people did you share it with?
4. Don’t allow staff to use the word “policy,” as 99% of the time upon hearing that word, a member knows he/ she is about to be given an excuse as to why his/ her need will not be met. Train employees on how to innovatively problem-solve to say yes vs. giving excuses for saying no.
5. Coach staff to view angry members as an opportunity to convert them to members for life: teach them how to use “mirroring” to diffuse anger, then go the extra mile to exceed their expectations.
6. Ask for examples of “memorable experiences” and “exceeding member expectations” at every staff meeting. Hold employees accountable for achieving them, and give rewards to those who do.
7. Don’t cut expenses that negatively impact quality service delivery for short-term financial gain. That will cost the company much more in lost revenues and profits over the long term.

Reasons to implement a Member Loyalty-Centric Corporate Culture?

1. It’s far less expensive to keep a member than acquire a new one.
2. Positive word of mouth by loyal members generate far more new members than cold calling and other lead generation efforts – and it’s free.
3. A negative member experience will be told to at least 10 people (oftentimes many more), resulting in potential lost new members; and
4. The lifetime $ sales value (“LSV”) of a loyal member can be as much as 20 years and in addition the cumulative LSV of all new members he/ she refers.

You can start by writing a short “Congrats” or “Great hair cut” message to individual members. Simply utilize the Member Welcome Screen in the iGo Figure Software.
It will put a smile on your member’s face, when they see that you remembered. Never forget, member retention is key!

It’s all about the way people feel when they walk into your club – happy, comfortable, special.

Get started today!

Cheers,
Matt Z.

Source: http://cms.ihrsa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&pageID=21029

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Lock in your discount at (866) 532-9588 or sales@igofigure.com.

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Cheers,

Matt Z

Booth #125 at Club Industry East 2010 in New York, NY from May 5 – 7, 2010

Receive your FREE admission to the Club Industry East trade show by clicking here
and experience the iGo Figure Member & Business Management Software on site.

Find out why more than 8,000 facility owners like you trust the iGo Figure Software to run their facility:

• Incredibly easy-to-use software that does it all.
• Integrated, low-cost payment processing, including $.10 EFT transactions.
• Efficiently manage all of your memberships.
• Handle all your scheduling needs.
• Control facility access.
• Track employee compensation.
• Advanced POS and inventory system.
• Local install or web-based/hosted available.
• Available in multiple languages.
• World-class free support and training included.

Visit our booth #125 during the trade show!

See you there!

Kyle Z

I’m leaving this week for the Club Industry Show in Chicago.  If you are in the area, stop by and visit.  I’d be happy to show you the latest features available in iGo Figure’s Membership Management Software.   You can also register to win a free iPod!

Cheers,

Matt

We just got back from the NAPMA Extreme Success Academy.  Unfortunately, other travel conflicts prevented me from attending, but Ronnie and Alex were able to attend, and the event was great.  They had a chance to meet many martial arts facility owners and demonstrate how the iGo Figure Membership Management Software can easily run their facilities.  The response was terrific!

Working with the NAPMA team is great.

Hope to see you at the next NAPMA event.  If you have any questions about how the iGoFigure Membership Management Software can run your martial arts facility, give us a call.

Cheers,

Matt

We are very excited about the release of our web-hosted iGo Figure system. Now users can access iGo Figure from anywhere! With this system, data is more secure from hackers and data backups are stored in remote, secure data centers. Back-ups of each business’ data are made every 15 minutes!

Better customer support options and upgrades are just two of the benefits our customers will receive.  Support issues caused by viruses, corrupted MS Windows operating systems, and data corrupted by power outages will be a thing of the past.

Already we have both existing and new customers flocking to this solution. The industries we serve have waited a long time for Go Figure to come out with something they can use online and now it’s finally here. Users that have been using our installed client application will be able to easily migrate their data to the web-hosted version without any issues. Because the web-hosted version uses the same user interface as our installed version, the learning curve is minimal. There will be more to come on this topic very soon!

I recently returned from attending the Curves Franchisee Ball in Brighton, England. In all my experiences with Curves over the years, I think I was most impressed by this event over all others. It wasn’t the biggest and certainly not the most extravagant event. However, this was entirely coordinated by volunteers who received no compensation or funding from Curves Int’l. There were about 100 people in attendance at the Hilton in Brighton. The United Kingdom Franchise co-op had arranged a vendor exposition, of which Go Figure was a part of, small group break-out sessions with two facilitators per group, general sessions with great speakers with a well organized agenda, and an evening ball complete with awards, motivational speeches and recognition of members who shared their personal success stories. This entire event and the organization of it was fueled solely by the owner’s passion for Curves. I was moved by the event and honored to be a part of it. Kudos to the 2007 winner of the Curves Co-op of the year… you all continue to prove why you deserved that award.

Today I am in Dallas meeting with the board members of the franchise association of one of our largest clients, Curves. The meeting has been very productive and positive. I was able to spend one on one time with many people from Curves Int’l as well as some very successful franchisees that sit on the board. I am heading back home later today, and have some great action items to implement in the next few months from this meeting that should benefit all of our users. Nothing seems to have more of an impact and delivers results like spending time with people personally.

Kyle

More and more senior citizen centers have taken an interest in the iGo Figure software as a means to track and manage usage of their fitness center facilities. Ease-of-use, cost, great training and support have been cited as the deciding factors when evaluating possible software solutions.

Kyle Z.

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