Financial Costs in Personal Training

There are many hidden financial costs when you are operating your own personal training business. One of the best ways to understand and manoeuvre around some of the larger money losses is by understanding customer dissatisfaction and attrition. By finding ways to retain your best customers, you will succeed in the personal training business, and bring in a much higher level of profit.

If you think about the amount of marketing, the time spent on the floor, and the starting process that it takes to get a new client on board, it’s easy to see how much more costly it is to get new clients than it is to go the extra mile to retain your current clients. Attrition, or losing clients, is often deadly because trainers don’t usually have the resources available to discover why their clients are leaving. It is much easier to focus on the positive and discover the reason why a client chooses to stay. Once you begin to do this you will see a difference in how you conduct the customer service aspects of training.

Customer retention can be tackled in a variety of ways. One of the best ways to do this is to work with your client, and not for them. Many clients will terminate the relationship if they feel that they cannot meet the expectations that the trainer sets for them, or if they feel as though the trainer is not listening to their concerns. It’s important to address any concerns with your clients, and touch base with them frequently to make sure you are both on the same page. As well, go the extra mile for your clients. Simply acknowledging birthdays, holidays and fitness milestone with a card or small gift can greatly benefit the entire relationship.

Interestingly, if you make your sessions easier to attain, and easier to terminate, the more people will stay in their contracts. Allow people to purchase recurring sessions, meaning that they won’t have to purchase blocks of sessions at a time. As well, make the contract easier to get out of. The less hassle it appears to be, the less likely the client is to try to get out of it. They know you have nothing to hide!

By spending time working on understanding why customer retention is so vital to your financial well being as a trainer, you will find that you are able to deepen the relationships that you have with your customers, and allow you to become a better all around trainer.