When do your clients quit?
Mapping the client journey means finding out where clients “wash out” and then creating processes to keep them.
In this post, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor Brian Zimmerman tells you when many clients cancel their memberships and explains what you can do about it.
Let’s set the table: Imagine you’re meeting a stranger for a blind date. You don’t know what the person looks like or what you’ll talk about. You do know that you’re going to have to exercise in front of the person—and you’re way out of shape.
Anxiety? You bet.
Here’s Brian with some actionable advice.
Drop-Off Point No. 1
If you want to keep clients for years, you can’t lose them before they even start.
Implementing these tactics and improving your onboarding process will help you keep the sales you’ve made and put clients on the path to long-term success. When they stay longer, you make people healthier and you profit more.
The period after the sale but before the first session can be a challenging time.
Signing up for something new is a huge emotional strain, and your clients’ excitement is sometimes followed by doubt. If there is doubt, your clients can begin to feel “buyer’s remorse” and call you to ask for a refund.
Reassurance is the best way to ensure buyer’s remorse doesn’t take hold. To bridge the gap between registration and on-ramp, we can simply deliver something we didn’t promise—something special the client isn’t expecting.
Client Experience: A client has just signed up for a $1,000 package. You say “welcome to CrossFit Jungle Gym!” and hand over a T-shirt. The T-shirt adds to the excitement the client already has from signing up! The next day, when the person is questioning the decision to sign up to train with you, a handwritten note from you arrives in the mail. It reassures the new client that you’re taking his or her decision seriously.
Another example: Your new client might be perfectly satisfied with the purchase and in no danger of succumbing to buyer’s remorse. But maybe the thought of meeting a coach for the first time is causing anxiety. We want to ease that anxiety as much as we can or the client might never show up.
Client Experience: At the intro consultation, you do a great job of building rapport. You pick up on one of the client’s hobbies (golf), and you know that one of your coaches is also a golfer. You match the client with that coach and tell the new client a little golf story about the coach. Then an appointment reminder gets sent out that has the coach’s picture in it. The client is put at ease and knows he or she shares at least one point of interest with the coach. This simple action starts to break down barriers, reduce anxiety and create bonds.
Take Action
Read this article: “The New Client Journey: Design and Deliver.”
Now answer these two questions:
1. What “welcome” gifts, messages or information can help reassure your new clients and remind them that they’ve made the right decision?
2. How are you currently making the client-coach introduction, and how could you improve this process?
Other Media in This Series
“Personal Training: When to Give a Freebie”
“Stop Losing Clients After the First Session”
“Customizing Your Gym’s On-Ramp for Better Retention and More Sales”
