What Ever Happened to Customer Service?

National Fitness Trade Journal

Is your health club business placing customer service as it’s last priority? Are you profit driven without regard for what makes up that profit? Are customers (members) the driving force behind your business plan?

Many health club businesses once considered customer service as the only factor creating their success. But has that changed over the years? Has your business gotten successful and have your priorities changed and maybe that change shifted your focus away from what made you successful in the first place

Business owners often tout great customer service to a potential sale or prospect, the subject is often referred to like it is easy to accomplish. It was something that was put in place years ago and never had to be touched again. What about voice mail? Is this a good way to handle a complaint or take an inquiry about your health club?

Successful businesses begin with great customer service and continue to customize their approaches as business changes always keeping personalized service as the number one priority.

Providing good strong service starts with the overall business (from the top to the bottom) operational plan. This encompasses how to handle an inquiry, sell a prospect, take a complaint and the general attitude of how you deploy this on an ongoing basis .Do your employees attitudes reflect leadership? If you are the leader does your philosophy shape the ones around you? Are the ones around you informed and do they carry that information to your customers? Or have your members become a number, a dollar for profit, and a calculation?

Providing top-notch customer service takes a lot of hard work, quality people to carry it out and a commitment from management to instill it.

Do you have the time and can you justify the expense for hiring and maintaining good quality employees and still have time to take care of the other many tasks at hand?

Have you considered outsourcing some of these tasks? Companies that specialize in collecting member payments and handling many customer service issues can provide you with a valuable service partner to help you reach and maintain your needs.

Service companies survive on how well they treat customers and maintain your cash flow. They help you nurture and enhance the sensitive relationships you worked so hard to build. By bridging the gap between complaints, nonpayment and nonattendance the outside service company can act as a buffer to communicate many club polices and terms of payment. Happy customers make their payments on-time.

Providing Health Club Services and maintaining a friendly atmosphere with your members can be complicated when payments and commitments are misunderstood and these issues have to be resolved within the clubs confines. Members often associate attendance with payment and may not realize the terms on their signed agreement i.e. 30 day written cancellation policy and other terms that may exist. An outside company can simply communicate those touchy areas in a professional and courteous manner.

Let’s not forget the business we are in, which is the service business. Customer service is the backbone of our success!

Selling products is a very minor part of our industry, what we are really selling are services and backing it up courteous and professional customer service.

John Chalk is President & CEO of eFit Financial, located in Lakewood, Colorado. His company would be happy to answer any questions regarding billing companies and the services they offer. Phone: (877) 772-3348 or contact eFit Financial online.