#FILEX2017 Insights from Andrew Ng A Belgravia Leisure Leader
The theme of FILEX this year was “Igniting Passion”. I found approximately 10 definitions from various sources for passion, but the two I found most aligned to myself, and I assume most others in our industry were:
- a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept; and
- intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction.
My conviction to assist in helping people achieve their health & fitness goals (both personally and professionally) coupled with my devotion to exercising my body and my mind always inspires me to continue learning new techniques, research and innovation. FILEX, the Business Summit and the Fitness Show gave me these plus more and helped me to fuel my passion!
Takeaway 1 – Differentiate yourself from the rest of the crowd
I remember 15-20 years ago, it was all about your USP or POD. We attracted members to our facilities based on what differentiated us from each other.
During the past 10 years, I have noticed a continued trend of reaction and mimicry due to the segmentation of our industry. As quickly as a new program or business model is released, all operators jump on the bandwagon to add it to their suite of services. We shouldn’t try to be everything to everyone.
I think we need to look at the core purpose of our business’ existence, define a strategic niche, become great at delivering it and market what differentiates us to the rest of the crowd. For example, The Face2Face member retention program is gaining momentum in providing Belgravia Leisure managed facilities with our unique point of difference in the marketplace, something which I am very excited and proud to be a part of.
Takeaway 2 – Consistency | Systems & Processes
Consistency was addressed by a number of presenters during FILEX and I noted a common theme that systems and processes help to achieve consistency.
I believe that in order to provide your customer an experience you want them to have, a system needs to be in place at every step of their journey; from the time they call or walk into your facility, to the minute they become a member.
I was envious learning about Luke Carlson’s Discover Strength facilities with their systemised approach and hope to implement some of these learnings into our facilities. We have started the ball rolling with the Face2Face program, providing our frontline, member services and gym staff with a ‘flight plan’ to ensure that each and every person visiting our health clubs has a similar experience. They all receive a high level of support and advice which leads to results. We have already seen hundreds of members who have graduated from their Belgravia Leisure F2F journey experience legendary customer service and become raving fans for our business, overlooking at times the common issues of a lack of cleanliness, inappropriate music choice or volume or out of order equipment.
Takeaway 3 – Came From Dinner Not FILEX2017
A group of delegates went to a Darling Harbour restaurant on the Saturday evening. The view was amazing, the company was great and the décor was trendy. We weren’t greeted when we arrived so we found our own table expecting to be approached by a staff member.
After chatting amongst ourselves for about 10 mins, we were not approached and waited to get the attention of a waiter who then provided us with menus. As we waited a further 5 minutes for him to return to take our order, he informed us that we had to go to the bar to order our drinks. At the bar, the staff member then informed us we had to order our meals there too.
The Mojitos were tasteless, our steaks were far from rare and medium, the pasta tasted like a fish market and there was the amount of chicken on one plate made a fine dining meal look like a buffet!
As we mentioned this to the staff member there was no apology and the offer to rectify was not genuine. Only after further expressing our concerns after the meal did the offer of complimentary desserts come. We decided to get another jug of Mojitos, which did taste better than the first!
This was a terrible experience which could have gone so differently should we had been greeted and seated on arrival, and informed of the ordering process, yes there’s that word, process.
As soon as we had expressed concern with our meal, there should have been a genuine willingness to help, rectify or provide some form of compensation, but alas there was not. During this time, I noticed that staff greeted only some guests on arrival and seat them giving them their menus whilst others were left on their own to seat themselves like us.
I will never go back and have told a number of people about my experience warning them not to go there either.
- Frontline consistency – greet and meet all your customers with a simple procedure by welcoming all customers with a smile, show them to their table, provide a menu and explain that when ready order at the bar.
- Kitchen consistency – prepare meals as requested with a simple procedure by reading all orders carefully and following the recipe on the time to cook a rare, medium or well steak!
Active Management Note
Andrew Ng is the State Health & Wellness Manager for Belgravia in Western Australia and a fan of the Fitness Business Podcast.
Justin is the Managing Director of Active Management, which he began January 2004. He offers coaching to businesses worldwide in everything from start up and design to marketing and sales systems. Justin also facilitates four Australian and New Zealand ‘fitness industry roundtables’ events, which allows him to see a huge cross section of business models.