How and Why to Apply Immediacy to Your PT Business by Chris Burgess
Impatience – The ultimate 21st century, 1st world problem.
Whether it’s the rainbow wheel of your Mac or iPad taking more than 3 seconds to load a file. The white loading bar of your internet Browser not loading your webpage quickly. Or simply that you have GPRS instead of 4G when you’re out and about (horror!).
It’s fair to say that our society is getting more and more impatient when it comes to receiving service.
People no longer want things quickly, they want them immediately.
Think about the last time you had a buying experience that cost you a significant sum of money. Did you get notified about what comes next straight away? This is an area where I find Personal Trainers (and the fitness industry at large) to be really lagging behind in the world buyer experience.
Make no mistake – the early days with a client are all about buyer experience.
Among the best companies in the world when it comes to buying experience and immediately letting you know what happens next are: Amazon, Alibaba, Apple, and booking.com. If you break down their systems you will see there is a huge amount you can take from their way of business and plug straight into your service.
Enquiring
If someone makes the effort to ask you a question they are expressing interest in what you do. The longer they have to wait for an answer the higher the chance they will look elsewhere. Whilst it isn’t always possible to respond immediately, people should always be acknowledged and answered on a timely basis.
Making Payment (Shopping Basket)
As soon as the client pays they should immediately receive a welcome email with a link to your welcome pack, and a very accurate description of how they book, cancel or move sessions. (Our example is in the Facebook group).
Your Order is Confirmed
The welcome pack should be a mix of what happens next, testimonials and a closer look at your principles.
What you are doing here is creating a sense of confidence that:
A) Their payment went through ok, and
B) That they made a great choice in choosing your service.
If the payment is made in person, ensure they go home with a printed version of the welcome pack too.
Getting The Best From Your Purchase: Day 2-7
We know that in many cases there may well be a few days between them paying and them having their first session.
In order to ensure they still experience great service from you in that slightly awkward time between payment and session one, you can add them to your email welcome sequence (Ours is now 30 emails long that get delivered over 90 days). This will ensure that they are getting value for money in the respect that they are being given helpful content that gives them a chance to get started on the road to results.
Being an Outrageous Show-Off and Beating Amazon
Here is where selling a service instead of a product can show you to be incredibly professional and get your clients singing your praises very very quickly.
We know that in week 1 they will very likely have DOMS – so your early emails should explain what this is. Also, handing them a short recovery article with a protein sachet and perhaps a shaker will go down a storm. In the shaker place a referral card for them to refer a friend.
Something else we are really big on at LTB is welcome cards through the post. These are not content-based cards, they are simply cards that say it’s great to have them as a client.
From Personal Training to The Provider of a Buying Experience
To sum up, here is how you can start to apply the concept of immediacy to your personal training business:
Immediately – Thank you email, link to welcome pack (hand them the pack if they pay in person).
Immediately – Add them to your email sequence that takes them through the first few weeks, add them to the Facebook group and introduce them there.
Within the first week – Recovery pack, welcome card in the post and referral card.
If you would like to find out more about immediacy, members can learn more by watching the business foundations practicalities course part 2 here and through this webinar by Chris. If you’re not a member of LTB and would like to sign up you can do so by clicking here.