Enforcing Your Rules

At this stage of the game, you've converted your club to 24/7, done your marketing to spread the word, and have actually started to see an increase in new member sales as well as a usage increase among existing members. You've also begun cutting back your staffing to save money on payroll. But you're not done yet ...

With all the extra member traffic at your club, and with less staff to service the members, you'll find that it's time to start getting stricter on your rules. This means not only putting more signs throughout the club instructing members as to what your expectations are, but also making sure that new members are educated by your staff at the point of sale. In our clubs, we have a two pages "Rules and Regulations" document that we make sure every new member receives. We also highlight some of the more important points such as not letting anyone in the club behind them, putting their empty water bottles and trash into garbage cans, and bringing a change of shoes (especially in the winter). (Club owners who convert to 24/7 using our access system receive a free copy of our rules and regs which they can modify and use for themselves)

Rules and regulations, instructional signage, and educating members on club usage is only the first step. Ultimately, you have to ENFORCE those rules. When you are faced with enforcement issues, I recommend speaking to the offending member quickly, otherwise, he and his friends will start to feel like "anything goes" at your club, and this is not something you want! In most cases, you can speak to the member, and let them know that due to the fact that the club is unstaffed so often, abiding by the rules that have been laid out is EXTREMELY important! I suggest letting the member know that you are going to make a note in their file that you spoke with them about whatever rule it is that they broke, and (depending on the severity of the problem), if the action occurs again, their membership will be cancelled immediately (with no refund).

In most cases, members respond favorably because they do not want to be kicked out of the club that all of their friends go to. Occasionally, you may have to actually cancel a membership and in effect, kick a member out of your club. I can tell you from experience, that word spreads when this action is taken, and you will find the other members acting on their best behavior if this occurs.

Moving on to Operations

Now that you've converted your club, and you've figured out how you're going to get the word out to your members and prospects, there are a few operational items you will need to address. The first thing to consider is your waiver.

You will need to develop a new waiver for prospective members to sign when they join your club. It should address the basic waiver items, as well as additional things related to 24/7 access, such as:

1. The fact that the club will not be staffed at all times, and the member understands this and chooses to use the club during unstaffed hours at their own risk
2. The fact that panic buttons are located throughout the club, and panic necklaces are available as well. Members are advised to use them.
3. It is suggested that members never work out by themselves, they should always have a workout partner during unstaffed hours.

In addition to creating a waiver for new members, you should also have a waiver addendum for your existing members to sign. The addendum would simply discuss many of the same points listed above, but it would be in addition to the waiver that the member has already signed when they first joined.

As always, you should check with both your insurance agent and your attorney to make sure that the waiver and waiver addendum meet their requirements.

Next post, I will discuss rules and regulations, and more importantly, enforcing them.

Communicating with members and prospects

Communicating with your members and prospects is an important task that must be performed on an ongoing and regular basis. One of the best ways that I've found to do this is to use a web service, such as Constant Contact. I signed up for this service on a free 60 day trial, and I liked how it worked.

Constant Contact allows you to create email campaigns that not only look very professional, but automatically populates various information into the email, for example first name. This helps to connect with your members and leads by substituting their name into the email rather than the generic To Whom It May Concern. Constant Contact also helps you to comply with anti-spam laws by always allowing your contacts to unsubscribe as easily as clicking a single link. This automatically managed feature helps you because you don't want to send emails to contacts that do not want to receive them. Once someone unsubscribes, Constant Contact automatically prevents you from sending them future emails.

Another great feature of this service is that it allows you to review reports on all of the emails you've sent. For example, if you send 100 contacts an email, you can see exactly what percentage of your contacts actually opened the email, and you can even see a list of the specific contacts that did so. This helps you manage the effectiveness of your email campaign.

Some of the ways I would suggest using this type of service are as follows:

• Sending a welcome email to every new member within 3 days after they sign up


• Sending a follow-up email to those same new members within 14 days with details of your referral program


• Sending a third email 30 days after they join with a coupon for $X off a personal training package


• Sending any prospects you've collected emails from regular "Benefits of Exercise" email newsletters, again with a coupon to join your club


• Sending all members an announcement of any new offerings at your club

The list of possibilities is truly only limited by your creativity. The beauty of Constant Contact is that you only pay a monthly fee based on the number of contacts you have. This means that you can send as many emails as you feel is appropriate at no additional cost. There is also the ability to email your contacts surveys. I think this would be very valuable, although I will admit that I have not tried this service as of yet.

If you'd like to try Constant Contact for a free 60 day trial, click here. In fact, if you sign up using this link, you'll not only get the 60 day trial, but if you end up signing up, you'll get $30 off the service. By the way, if you have any other ideas you'd like to share about how you stay in contact with your members, make sure to post a comment.