Services... Time for a Change?
There is a new push in our industry to move away from the old standard package style of service offerings with the result, for many, being increases in income and client retention.
To many this may not be ground breaking news but I am still receiving many emails and phone calls with questions about this style of setting up services. So this felt like a good time to get some information out there for those that are considering the change and for those who are always interested in new ideas.
So what exactly am I talking about? This is a recurring service logic similar to a gym membership but still based on a number of sessions per week/month. A simple example of this would be a client that is training three times a week, (12 times a month), at $50 per session meaning they are paying $600.00 per month for whatever the term is.
I have experienced a variety of ways of setting up the term or commitment structure but there is one I have seen provide the most success. The commitment is for three months with the recurring contract running for 1 year. The client may cancel with 30 days notice at any time after those three months. It is also a good idea to collect the last month up front to avoid having to chase down clients that don't give proper notice. This 3 month commitment removes the fear of any long term financial agreements and the 12 month recurring structure can still be used to accentuate the need for a habit and lifestyle change that can only be developed through a longer time commitment period.
A common question in dealing with these month-to-month contracts is the fact that there will be extra sessions on some months since we are dealing with a 4 week cycle of sessions. These extra sessions are dealt with in a variety of ways. In some cases they are considered and averaged out in the per session fee and then remarketed to the clients as "free sessions". I see several problems with this. Some clients will have more "free" sessions than others, although they are training with the same frequency, depending on the days they train on. A concern is also that giving our services as "free" devalues our services and makes us appear as unprofessional. I prefer the method of giving the client the choice of staying within their budget and sticking with their number of sessions per month or they can choose to purchase these extra sessions up front at the same per session rate.
This next issue in the recurring service structure is dealing with those annoying sessions that continue to get pushed back with the use of the standard 24hr cancellation policy. Not only are they an annoyance, they equate to lost income for your company and lost results for your client. The easiest and most effective way to deal with these cancellations is a simple "use it or lose it" policy. In other words, if you have 12 sessions per month, those sessions must be used during that month or they are expired. You will find your clients miraculously miss much fewer appointments and if cancellation is unavoidable they will find the time to reschedule them since they are now more motivated to do so. This also, again, puts more emphasis on the need to be consistent in order to have success with this lifestyle change.
This should give you a great start if you are looking for a change. Many companies have used this service format with a few other small changes and have experienced incredible growth in personal training revenues.
If you have any questions or need further clarification please don't hesitate to email me at icampbell@ictraining.com. We have also added some great new services and features in our software to make the service style a breeze to operate and manage.