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

The iGo Figure team returned from the Curves convention in Orlando, Florida this past weekend. I will have to say it was our best event with Curves ever. We received more positive accolades about our latest version 3.6 and our excellent customer support than ever before. It is always uplifting to hear face to face feedback that supports our efforts and hard work. Users really liked the improved security, session based memberships, and we had many inquiries about expanding hours with our new door access feature. Par for the course were enthusiastic customers interested in adding electronic funds transfer (EFT), credit card processing and the email Retention Managment system which are integrated to the iGo Figure software. Thank you, Curves! We are looking forward to seeing you all again at the regional events this Spring.

Kyle Z.

The blood drive we held for John was a huge success. More than 40 units were donated!

John is still recovering from his injuries, and is currently one of the ones testing the virtual office program.

Cheers,

Matt Z.

I just received an email from one of our users in the United Kingdom, Daryl Chapman. He wrote it after having an onsite install and training of the new version by Go Figure’s very own, Angela Clinton. Angela is a technical support lead and customer advocate at Go Figure. Here’s what Daryl said:

“Angela was fantastic. She really knows her onions and gave total confidence… She is a total credit to your company. Both myself and my staff are delighted with v3.6.22 It’s a great piece of software and will undoubtedly save us time and money and also help with retention and gaining new members. Well done to all your development team. I also love the way it has been ‘Brianized’. Good to look at and logical to navigate around. The online support and training systems are also first class.”

Incidentally, Brian is our graphic artist who plays a significant role in the user interface design of the software. After he has designed something that looks great, we call it, “Brianized”!

Those were some very kind words from one of our overseas users that I just felt like sharing with everyone.

Kind regards,

I am pleased to announce technical support and sales in Russian is now available at Russia/Ukraine local times. A special thanks goes out to Vitaliy, who has done an outstanding job assisting with the translation, support and training.

Cheers,

Matt

Recently, we conducted a survey of all who contacted our technical support line. Here are the responses:

1. In response to the question “How professional was the Go Figure representative that you spoke with?” 94% responded that the representative was professional or very professional

2. In response to the question “How helpful was the Go Figure representative that you spoke with?” 93% responded that the representative was helpful or very helpful

3. In response to the question “”Overall, how satisfied are you with your recent experience with a Go Figure representative?” 89% responded that they were satisfied or very satisfied

WAY TO GO TEAM!

Matt

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

I just returned from training over 100 new users if the iGo Figure software in London last week. It was a lot of fun and the attendees were very appreciative for the event. It was also exciting to train on our newest version (3.6) which will be available in a few weeks. New and existing users alike were very happy to see features such as:

• Profile-based security
• Web-based scheduler
• Session based memberships
• Email Member Retention program

There are more new features than that coming in this version, but those were the only ones I had time to showcase. Check out our news and event tab for more on-site training events going on around the world. Also, remember to look for other training resources from the training section of our website.

Be well, Kyle Z.

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iGo Figure recently announced training and technical support is now available in French, Spanish and German. We also specialize in supporting and training Fitness clubs, Yoga Centers, Martial Arts Studios, Day Spas, Massage Centers, Chiropractic Offices, Cheer Gyms, Dance centers, Gymnastic Centers, and Child and Day care centers. For additional information about our customer support and training resources, Click Here

iGo Figure Software Home Page

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With well over 8,000 current iGo Figure users sold in 32 different countries, one might think that getting quality training or customer support would be a challenge. “Not at Go Figure!” exclaimed Batool Hassan, Go Figure’s tech support manager for over two years.

I take a lot of pride in what we do to ensure every issue or question is addressed professionally and quickly. We sometimes handle over 1000 calls in a week which can range from some viruses that infect the user’s computer, to an MS Windows reinstall, to simple ‘how to’ questions. On average, our users only hold for about a minute and we can resolve issues on average in 9 minutes.

Batool continued by saying that keeping all of our support in-house with our development staff right here in Sugar Land, Texas (outside of Houston) enables quick and accurate support of our users.

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