Flexibility

Although a trainer's day is usually dictated by a preset schedule, if you paint yourself into a corner with your calendar, you will quickly find that some of your clients can't stick with their program because their schedule is just not that black and white. In today's world of ever-changing landscape of professional as well as personal lifestyle factors, many people have trouble doing same thing day after day, and week after week. In order to keep your clients happy and on track with their programs, you must "roll with punches" and exhibit some flexibility when it comes to scheduling and training issues.

It is a very good idea to have a running cancellation policy for your business, and it is an equally good idea to educate your clients on need for regularity in their training program. However, being so inflexible that you charge a client $50 every time they get a flat tire, have to work late, or have a family emergency will quickly eliminate any professional bonding that your clients may have previously felt was a part of your working relationship. Enforce your policies, but be realistic about fact that life is just not as black and white as it may have been 20 years ago.

Forward Thinking

This is as much of a sales technique as it is a great customer service tool. In a nutshell, it means that you should always be planning for future when it comes to your clients. Talk to them about how you are going to start running with them once they get their weight down enough for their knees to handle stress. Explain to them how much fun it will be when you can start taking them through new training protocol that you put together. Get them excited about how good they are going to look on beach this summer after several more months of working out with you, or about how their cousin Sally is going to be so envious at Christmas time this year when she sees how much weight your client has lost.

All of these things plant seed for your clients that you are thinking about their future, and not just taking them through a workout. Let them know that you have great plans for them in future, and that you can't wait to see their results when they get to a certain point in program that you have them on. Again, your clients are people, and they want to be made to feel important, needed, and respected.

Over-delivering

Over-delivering value to your clients is probably most important technique out of any that have been listed so far. It is last in our list of customer service secrets so that it is one that you remember most!

Over-delivering is just what it sounds like - giving your clients more value for their money than they originally expected to get. In fact, all of items listed above are great examples of over-delivery. Do you think that when your clients hired you they expected to be getting gifts on their birthday, expected you to be excited about graduation of their children, or that they could vent to you about their mother-in-law during training sessions? These are all examples of infinite number of ways that you can over-deliver value to your clients.

In addition to what has already been listed, you can get much more specific with your over-delivery efforts. Each of your clients has a very well defined fitness goal that they are diligently working towards. As a fitness professional, you should be regularly keeping up with latest news stories about health and fitness, as well as getting Continuing Education Credits.

Put that information directly to use for your clients! How impressed do you think your client would be if their fitness goal is to be a competitive swimmer, and you take a course on training competitive swimmers? What about if you have picked up some clients who are over age of 55 and you start reading books and clipping articles on Senior Fitness? How about a bonus training session that you give your client when they reach a goal? What about if you have a client who is on high school wrestling team, and after working with him for 2 months, you offer to do a free class for his entire team? The teenager becomes a hero because his personal trainer gave up some winning tips before big meet, and you get a boat load of free publicity!

Conclusion

The pattern developing here is clear, and above examples are only sketches of things that you might consider. Remember that every successful personal trainer runs a business, he or she doesn't just workout with their clients. Get under hood of your business, tinker around with wiring, and find ways to "WOW" your clients everyday!

If your main skills are manual, base your plans on this. If you are more suited to a technical analytical job, go in this direction. If your aptitudes lie towards managing people and getting best from a team, steer yourself that way. Play to your strengths.

3.Identify sources

The easiest way to find jobs these days is on internet. Just enter ‘job site’ or ‘employment agency’ or ‘job search’ into your search engine and see what you get. Your problem will be restricting results to a manageable size. Limit your research by country or city or industry as appropriate in order to cut it down.

If you have a particular company in mind look on its web site if it has one. Companies often advertise vacancies there.

Look too at principal newspapers of geographic region in which you are looking. Again this could be country or it could be city. They can be a good source.

Finally there are your local agencies at which you can enrol.

4.Take Action.

This is when it all comes together.

Put your CV onto as many online jobsites as you can. It will be found by potential employers who will then come to you. This puts your name and qualifications up before a large number of employers quickly and easily.

Search sites and newspapers and apply to as many job offers as meet your criteria. Adapt your CV to suit each application emphasising particular skills and experience requested. Play numbers game. If it looks suitable – apply. (But don’t waste your time on jobs that don’t fit your qualities).

Don’t be afraid to send out speculative letters to companies you like. You can often strike lucky, and your application is more likely to be seen when writing in this way.

Above all, keep going. Don’t give up. By knowing exactly what you are looking for and targeting your applications you stand a good chance of success.

In conclusion.

If you have not yet been forced to look for a new job it would not do you any harm to carry out exercise of examining your skills. You will at least be forearmed should need arise.

If you have lost your previous job, try to look on your situation as an opportunity rather than a disaster. This could be your chance to set out again in direction you really want to go instead of carrying on indefinitely stuck in rut into which you previously fell more by accident than design.