Listening to the Client
Ever prescribed a fitness programme because you enjoy it? Start thinking about your clients needs and not what you enjoy…
I see and hear all too often, Personal Trainers struggling to maintain a good client base and struggling for income. But when chatting to these trainers I quickly find the route of the problem, I look at their client Pre-Exercise Questionaire, the usual stuff is in there, health questionaire, exercise history but rarely do I ever see questions like, what type of exercie do you enjoy, and even more important, what type of exercise do you hate?
If someone hates rowing, its a waste of time putting them on a rower and getting them to row 2000m, it maybe a great bit of equipment, and yes I love it! but if they dont, they wont put 110% effort into the exercise, like they would if doing an exercise they enjoy.
The fitness industry is based on relationships and one of the most important components to relationships is communication. Ask clients feed back at the end of each session, what they most enjoyed, anything they hated? How they felt through the session and at the end? How can you improve your service?
When I do workshops for Personal Trainers on customer service and client retention, I ask them to go back to some of their clients and see why they left, many come back to me and say its because they didnt listen to the client, remember we have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you talk.
In my early days, I admit to doing much the say, giving exercises that I enjoyed and knew that worked, or exercises and new programmes and ideas that came out of the Fitness World, my eagerness got in the way, but after over 20yrs in the fitness business and experience as a trainer in the army, private sector and the public sector, Ive turned to supporting and helping new and up and coming trainers and those who seem to have just found it hard to gain and keep clients offering workshops and seminars on the subject.
Thankfully after years of training clients, Ive learnt to develop and use my listening and observational skills, not only was my training sessions 100% effective in reaching my clients goals, but my client list was so large that I had to turn business away!
REMEMBER… Two Ears… One Mouth…
If you would like to book a workshop with Mike or would like to invite Mike to your club for a group workshop, then email: activelifeuk@hotmail.com
By Mike Buss (Award Winning Celebrity Trainer)
Category: Customer Service, For the Trainer, Marketing
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