IHRSA 2017 New Board Member Carrie Kepple Shares What She’s Taking Back to Les MIlls
Each year after attending IHRSA I always find some quiet time to reflect on all of the great content and information I absorbed from seminars, keynotes and conversations with industry leaders. And each year I am astounded with the quality of the knowledge I have access to because of IHRSA and their amazing convention.
IHRSA 2017 definitely delivered once again.
This year I came home with a laundry list of amazing insights, but if I had to pick a top 3 they would be:
1. We are quickly becoming an analogue business in a digitally charged world.
Consumer service based technology as well as fitness technology is growing equally as fast as club owner/operator’s confusion, fear and uncertainty of what to choose and how to use it. This gap between technology options to support club business and the owner/operator’s understanding of it is widening at a dangerously rapid rate. We need to create clarity from confusion and work together to find a way forward so that we can collectively capture the minds and hearts of more sedentary people and change their behaviours to make regular exercise a part of their lifestyle.
2. Luckily though we have age on our side…The Millennial generation is the largest in US history and they are now coming of age.
Though they are the first generation of digital natives and their affinity for technology shapes their buying behaviours and lifestyle, the good news is they are addicted to wellness! For them wellness is a lifestyle. In fact 84% of millennials currently exercise at least once per week. They are also eating smarter and smoking less than previous generations. Even though they are earning less than older generations they are willing to spend more on health and fitness. They are using apps to track training data and looking online for health and wellness information and options. So our challenge with how we service them with fitness is to stop interrupting what they are interested in and become what they are interested in.
3. Like many industries around the world it appears we may be becoming less and less relevant for our customers because we have become blind to the small data that tells us what drives their behaviours, and instead we have been solely focused on building our operations around big data trends.
We need to start considering how we can use small data insights to change people’s habits if we want to succeed in getting more people around the globe active. One of the keynotes, Martin Lindstrom, challenged us to look at the consumer from the eyes of the consumer. I think that is really relevant in mapping the member journey in our clubs as well as our websites and other online platforms. He talked about thinking through your member journey in 2 manuscripts – the blue script, which is the practical steps they take, and the green script, which is about how they will feel. Or as he called it, ‘the theatre of the mind’. He said, people will always remember how you make them feel. That’s a phrase I’ve honestly used a lot throughout my career in business and group fitness. And I believe he is right, we can change habits and behaviours if we pay more attention to our customers and then create environments and experiences that play more to the green script.
Active Management Note
Thanks to Carrie for this awesome summary. At IHRSA 2017, Carrie was announced as new Board Member and an IHRSA Rising Star. She is currently the Club Manager of Les Mills Newmarket and juggles all of this with being a loving mum.
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.