Personal Training: 6 Secrets of Award Winning Customer Service

Written by Aaron M. Potts, ISSA CFT, YFT


Would you believe that your ability to provide quality customer service to your clients is at least as important as your ability to get them results from their training program? Did you even know that customer service was going to be part of your business model? After all, what does personal training have to with customer service?

The answer: everything. Remember that your clients are people first, and their status as one of your clients comes second. Knowing how to tend torepparttar needs of your customers will literally makerepparttar 106955 difference between a long and prosperous career inrepparttar 106956 fitness industry, or a short-lived stint that leaves you wondering what career path you should try next!

In order to assist you in walking downrepparttar 106957 success path, here are six methods that you can use to "WOW" your clients on a regular basis, keeping them happy, loyal to you, and engaging in long-term prosperous business relationships. In no particular order they are: contact, date and event recognition, listening, flexibility, forward thinking, and over-delivering.

Contact

When you get a new personal training client, many people will still second-guess their decision to hire you. After all, a personal trainer can be an expensive asset, and your clients need to believe that they maderepparttar 106958 right decision. One ofrepparttar 106959 easiest ways for you to ease their mind inrepparttar 106960 beginning as well as duringrepparttar 106961 course of their training program is by simply staying in contact with them.

Most clients will see you at most 3 times each week, and some clients even less than that. With at least 4 days in each week when your clients don't see you, you are influencing them less than 50% ofrepparttar 106962 time! Many clients hire a personal trainer because they need constant guidance and support, and less than 50% could hardly be considered constant.

An easy solution to this is to send your clients a few emails a week, or mail them an actual snail mail letter once in awhile. Clip an appropriate article from a magazine and make copies of it to mail to your clients, or email themrepparttar 106963 URL of a great motivational story about weight loss that you found onrepparttar 106964 Internet. Forward them funny anecdotes about health and fitness, or drop them a postcard congratulating them on their latest progress.

For that matter, pick uprepparttar 106965 phone! Call Suzie Client on Saturday to let her know that you just got done updating her client record and had reason to again marvel at how great she is doing with her program. You just can't pay forrepparttar 106966 type of customer feedback you will get from something like that!

Stay in contact with your clients in between training sessions, andrepparttar 106967 increased attention will remind them on a regular basis that inrepparttar 106968 beginning you committed to a one on one training program for them, not just to stand there 3 times a week while they exercise.

Date and Event Recognition

Recognizing special dates in your client's lives is another great way to show them that you are thinking about them in between training sessions.

-Send your clients a birthday card, or even a small but thoughtful gift. -Congratulate them on their wedding anniversary, or even send flowers or a card to their house. -Ask them how excited they are aboutrepparttar 106969 upcoming graduation of their child from high school or college. -Have a special token of your appreciation sent to their home or office after a set amount of time that they have been training with you - maybe annually or semi-annually. -Give them a special award every time they lose 5 pounds, or drop a percentage of body fat. -Attendrepparttar 106970 race or other fitness event that you have been training them for.

As you can see,repparttar 106971 possibilities are limitless. The lesson that you want to take away from this section is that you went above and beyondrepparttar 106972 call of duty to recognize a date or an event that was important to your client. They won't forget that when it comes time to decide whether or not to keep working with you!

Listening

The fact that you should listen to your clients should go without saying. If your title is "Personal Trainer", please take a moment at this time to re-readrepparttar 106973 first word! Too many trainers fall intorepparttar 106974 familiar trap of just taking their clients through workouts. Your clients aren't paying you to workout with them. They are paying you to give them dedicated one on one service, andrepparttar 106975 actual workout is only one part of that.

In addition torepparttar 106976 exercise programming, you must again think aboutrepparttar 106977 fact that your clients are humans before they are clients. As humans, they have as many outside considerations as you do. If you are only seeing them 3 hours per week, that leaves 165 hours each week when you are not around, andrepparttar 106978 lifestyle events that happen during that time will spill over intorepparttar 106979 training sessions.

Your clients will talk about their jobs, their spouses, their relatives and in-laws, their children and their neighbors, their gardener and their mailman, etc. Any good personal trainer realizes that although we have no business actually dispensing professional advice on personal or spiritual matters, we are a 3 time per week sounding board for our clients, and that is just part ofrepparttar 106980 job. Listen to what your clients have to say, help out without leaving your professional boundaries, and let your clients know that you care about what happens to them, not just about what happens duringrepparttar 106981 training session.

Finding A New Job Quickly

Written by Arthur Cooper


Finding A New Job Quickly. by Arthur Cooper (c) Copyright 2005 http://www.arthurcooper.com

Today’s working environment is unpredictable. Economic downturns can arrive at any moment. Redundancy can swiftly follow. No-one is fully immune, and severance payoffs do not last for ever.

If you found yourself in that situation tomorrow could you cope? If you had to find yourself another job quickly in order to payrepparttar bills, could you do it?

Here arerepparttar 106954 steps to follow.

1.Identify Your Skills 2.Analyse Your List 3.Identify The Job Sources 4.Take Action

1.Identify Your Skills

Think hard about what you are good at, and about what you enjoy. Since you usually enjoy what you do well,repparttar 106955 two are oftenrepparttar 106956 same. Think back over your career to date and dig deep intorepparttar 106957 experiences you have had andrepparttar 106958 skills you have acquired.

List them all on paper. Leave nothing out. Be as objective and honest as you can. Don’t put something down just because you think it is what you need in today’s employment market place. Only put it down if it is a skill that you have here and now. Don’t forget, you are looking here at how to get a job quickly. You are not planning your long term training needs.

Think in terms of three main divisions of skill and divide up your list accordingly.

Firstly there are physical skills.

These are skills of aptitude, of working with your hands, manipulative skills, mechanical skills. These are skills required in a wide range of manual and hands-on jobs. Sometimes these skills have been acquired by way of a hobby rather than paid employment, but a hobby that can at some stage becomerepparttar 106959 grounding for a new career doing something that you really enjoy. Don’t ignore these leisure-acquired skills.

Secondly there are knowledge based skills.

These are academic skills gained by formal study. These are skills gained as a result of book learning and training courses. These are specific technical skills related to a particular function. This is specialist knowledge absorbed as a result of working in a particular industry.

Thirdly there are people skills.

These arerepparttar 106960 team skills,repparttar 106961 relational skills,repparttar 106962 ability to get on with and work with other people. These arerepparttar 106963 skills of management. The skills of leading a team,repparttar 106964 skills of winning arguments and convincing others.

2.Analyse Your List.

Now look at your list. See where you strengths lie. Think what you would like to do using those strengths. Decide onrepparttar 106965 job you would like using those strengths.

Be honest. Once again you must remember that your objective is to get another job inrepparttar 106966 shortest possible delay. Don’t base your hopes on skills you would like to have. Plan on using what you already have.

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