In today`s market, nearly every club has state-of-the-art equipment, comprehensive training programs, and qualified staff. Standing out from the competition is no easy task. If you want to set your club apart, you need more than professional expertise; you need superior customer service.

Customer service is critical to the success of every club. Skillful marketing can bring in members for their initial purchase, but it`s your level of service that will keep them coming back year after year. Members for Life shows you how to develop a customer service standard that will keep your members coming back, no matter what happens to the economy or who comes into the neighborhood as competition.

Author Richard Gerson, an internationally recognized expert on marketing and customer service in the fitness industry, takes a very pragmatic approach. He provides a worksheet to help you quickly calculate the cost of losing a member, so you can see at a glance how important (and profitable) it is to hold on to your current members.

Gerson clearly describes the services that members need, want, and expect from your club. He identifies crucial skills that every fitness staff member needs to develop, from basic telephone and communication skills to tips for managing angry or complaining members-and even turning them into future sales.

Filled with examples from Gerson`s personal experience, Members for Life shares easy-to-implement, results-oriented strategies for retaining members. You`ll learn how to measure the quality of your service along with your members` levels of satisfaction, retention, and loyalty. And you`ll find numerous checklists that you can copy and place in prominent places to remind yourself and your staff of how to maintain optimal service:

• 7 Steps to Successful Member Retention
• 10 Barriers to Effective Member Service and Retention
• The 10 Commandments of Superior Member Service and Retention
• 10 Tips for Long-term Member Retention
• Member`s Bill of Rights
• The 10 Greatest Member Service and Retention Tips of All Time
• 50 Ways to Keep Your Members for Life

With Members for Life, you`ll learn to use customer service as a powerful marketing tool to attract and retain members. Use the book as a helpful guide for day-to-day club operations and as a training manual for your staff. The better service you provide your members, the more likely they`ll remain members for life.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Part I: Introduction to Customer Service and Member Retention
Chapter 1. The Importance of Customer Service to Health Club Success
Chapter 2. Making Customer Service Work for Your Members
Chapter 3. What Members Really Need, Want, and Expect
Chapter 4. Member Retention: The Backbone of Health Club Success

Part II: Customer Service Skills
Chapter 5. The Telephone Is Your Member Service Lifeline
Chapter 6. The Service Recovery Process: Managing Angry Members and Complaining Members
Chapter 7. Three Critical Customer Service Skills: Building Rapport, Interpersonal Communication, and Effective Listening
Chapter 8. Measuring Member Satisfaction, Retention, and Loyalty
Chapter 9. Customer Service as a Powerful Marketing and Retention Tool

Part III: Member Relationship Management (Keeping Members for Life)
Chapter 10. The Member Relationship Management Process
Chapter 11. The Benefits of Retention and Loyalty

Part IV: Techniques to Build Member Loyalty
Chapter 12. Member Retention Programs That Work

Appendix. Fifty Ways to Keep Your Members for Life

Audiences

Reference for health fitness club CEOs, membership directors, and general managers.

Richard F. Gerson is president of Gerson Goodson Performance Management. He has lectured extensively and conducted workshops and seminars across the nation on customer service, retention, and club business. He has been a featured speaker at many industry conventions, and he is one of the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association's top speakers. He has written 10 books on marketing and customer service, including Marketing Health/Fitness Services and Beyond Customer Service.

Gerson received his PhD in Sports Psychology from Florida State University in 1978. He is certified as a management consultant, professional consultant, professional marketing consultant, and American College of Sports Medicine health/fitness director. In his free time, Gerson enjoys reading, exercising, playing basketball, and spending time with his family.

"Too often the fitness industry has demanded high-level results from its professionals without providing adequate tools. In an elegant and practical manner, Richard Gerson has suggested many empirically verified methods in a how-to-do fashion. I, personally, am happy to see such a complete, yet flexible, contribution to the area of prime importance-staff support of clients' efforts."

James J. Annesi, PhD

Director, Enhanced Performance Technologies, Inc.

Adjunct Professor, Rutgers University Department of Exercise Science and Sport Studies

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