What to watch for: Specifically designed and evaluated programming and services offered in response to the targeted spiritual and life needs of members.
How it is happening already: It is not happening much. Leadership in organizations often inherit a tradition of “we know how to do this” or “we’ve been doing this for a long time”. Further, leadership at non-faith facilities are often horrified to ask questions relating to spiritual needs and lifestyles for fear of alienating or offending members. Some churches are effectively tying their counseling and educational services with their sports and recreational programming.
What needs to happen: Leadership must simply become aware and responsive to the needs of their members. To do that they need to do surveys and in many cases do nothing more than consistently give their members opportunities to talk with them honestly. Then programming and services under the leadership of appropriately trained and skilled people needs to be offered.
How it will grow the faith and fitness culture: Members will begin to be given opportunities to truly address their spiritual needs in practical settings on a regular basis. Faith becomes a daily solution rather than a weekend fix. People embrace faith and choose to use it much like they choose to use exercise equipment.
What you can do: Ask to talk with your fitness center director or other leadership or the pastor of the hosting church. Tell them the specific spiritual needs that you have and ask them to consider how they can help you address those needs. Give them some time and then reconnect with them. If they are making progress then keep it going. If not, leave and go someplace where they take a genuine interest in you.
What do members want in a gym? Well, the facility I manage is a gym but we are much more than that. The facility I manage is the Christian Activities Center of First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
WE LISTEN AND RESPOND
When we talk to the members of the Christian Activities Center about what they want in a gym the answers vary from wanting a place to walk that is climate controlled, to wanting a place that has something for their entire family, to wanting a place where they can meet friends. Part of our mission statement says we exist … “to build a caring fellowship”. That is our goal. We listen to what our members needs are and respond to those needs in words or in action in a timely manner. This says something about the Christian Activities Center.
When we were asked if we could change our hours of operation to opening up at 5:00 a.m. instead of 6:00 a.m. for a group of guys to play basketball, discuss life’s tough situations and pray we responded by changing the hours to 5:00 a.m., three of the six days we are open. This says something about the Christian Activities Center. When we are told that a father has been laid off from work and that he isn’t able to afford to have his children play basketball this season or renew his membership fees, we tell that father not to worry about the league fees or renewal fees this year. We are taking care of it. That says something about the Christian Activities Center. When a desperate mother is looking for help with her teen age son because he’s been given community service hours by the courts to atone for his actions, we step up and say he can serve those hours here and someone works side by side with him. That says something about the Christian Activities Center. Just like the paper towel Bounty commercial says… “Life is messy.”
IT’S ABOUT WHAT’S PERSONALLY GOING ON WITH OUR MEMBERS
Our facilities are not just for the physically fit people whose lives are well organized and in tact and balanced. We exist for the exact opposite. We exist for all the other reasons and as an end result when people do become physically fit and more balanced then we are reaching goals that we opened our facilities up for in the first place.
At the Christian Activities Center we have something for 5 year olds to 95 year olds, low level activities to the challenging high level activities, sports, leagues, group fitness, and tournaments. We go from chess and billiards to boot camp, basketball, soccer, flag football, group fitness, and more. When you come to the Christian Activities Center you will exercise some part of your body, be it your mind, your body, or soul.
Why? Because we know that exercise makes the difference between a tired, worn out 20 year old and an active alert productive 70 year old. According to the President’s Council of Physical Fitness and Sports, physically fit means “…a state of well-being with low risk of premature health problems and energy to participate in a variety of physical activities.” Being physically fit expands your capacity for life, longevity, productivity, happiness, and results in a more effective and convincing life. For people who want to realize their full potential, physical exercise is an important ingredient. You don’t have to be an athlete, but you do have to train your body to function at all the callings and demands in your life. It is said that a disciplined body supports a disciplined spirit. So, just as an athlete must go into strict training to compete in games we can take that example and apply it to the non-athlete. Instead of the prize of the competition we can go into strict training for the prize of a better quality of life.
With America being in the fast lane of obesity and out of shape our fitness facilities are needed more today than ever before. It’s not just about the physical body it’s also about what’s personally going on with our member’s and the problems that life deals them and how they handle those problems. For many the results of mismanaging those problems are affecting every aspect of their life and they are desperately seeking a way to change. By coming to our facilities we get an opportunity to help them make those changes.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND LASTING IMPRESSIONS
Identifying with members or customers starts from the moment they enter your facility. They have entered your world to see what you are about and to see if you can help them. Yes, a tour of your facility and telling them what you have to offer is important but more importantly is what actually made them drive to your facility, get out of their car, and enter your doors. Did they come because someone told them about your facility or are they looking for that change in their life and wanting to hear that you are excited about helping them? This is where we need to spend time, getting to know them when they first walk through the door. Get to know with whom you are talking, what their needs are and who actually would be joining your facility… is it just for themselves, their whole family, etc. Also, this is the time where you can hear what people are looking for and whether or not it is something you already have in your facility, or a specialized programming, or is it something you are going to be adding or could add, is it something you want to put in your goals for the future. We had a family join with a special needs child and as a result of that conversation we started a new fitness class that now meets twice a week for special needs children in our county.
Once those customers become members you don’t stop the lines of communication. At the Christian Activities Center we post our employees throughout the facility to interact and talk with our members. We know that our members test us here. They want to know if they can depend on us, if they can trust us, if we will attend to things that they see, smell, hear, taste or touch. They want to know if we really care or how long it will take to do things for them. They are testing us to see if they really do matter to us.
For a potential member or long standing member it all boils down to customer service, first impressions, and lasting impressions. We must strive for quality performance in order to succeed in the eyes of our members in any fitness facility. I always tell our members that I have an open door for any reason and I am always put to the test. Will I stop a meeting to handle a members question or request? You bet. If my meeting is that important I will hold it away from my office where I can’t be disturbed. Otherwise our members needs come first.
Customer service means to make the service more rewarding for the customers. It means that whatever service the customer gets is worth more than his/her cost to be a member and that gives value to being a member at our facility. How about your facility?
