Fitness Incentive – Using NPS® to Maintain a Premium Service Offering in the Face of Increased Competition

About the Client

Fitness Incentive is a single location full-service club based in a village environment on Long Island, New York. Established in 1984 the club has been voted ‘Best of Long Island’ an impressive 19 times; priding themselves on the premium level of service which allows them to set themselves apart from the competition. Members pay a substantial $65 per month compared to the local average of $9 to $19, meaning expectations are high. With over 50% of the club’s revenue coming from additional spend outside of membership dues, every touch point counts in ensuring regular visits and ongoing success.

The Challenge

Even with the vast number of awards Fitness Incentive has won, they are constantly looking to improve, aware that the environment in which they operate, the level and type of competition and the wants and needs of their members are continuously changing.

Over the last 10 years in particular, competition in the immediate area has increased, with more low-cost offerings arising coupled with a downturn in the global economy. This has put extra pressure on the operator to continue to deliver a consistently exceptional club experience for their customers.

“If we want to maintain ourselves as a premier club where we can charge more and provide better services, we have to be able to differentiate ourselves. And so to differentiate ourselves we have to ensure we are serving our members the best we can. We believe the best way to do that is by talking to them, to find out what they want from their club.” (Ken Brown, Owner)

The Solution

After discovering the Net Promoter Score® concept in reading, Fitness Incentive owner Ken Brown started to look for a system that would enable him to structure the collection, management, analysis and follow-up of customer feedback so that Fitness Incentive could really take control of their member experience. In 2014 the operator approached TRP about implementing Insight.

A Seat at the Discussion Table

“Every member of the Fitness Incentive team is incredibly passionate about delivering exceptional customer service to our members. We believe the best way of doing this is by inviting them to the discussion table so that we can listen to how they feel about the club. Insight allows us to do this in a controlled, structured manner, on a mass scale with a steady stream of feedback generated from survey emails which the system automatically sends out. Our customers love being so involved in the running of their club – they told us themselves!” (Ken Brown, Owner)

Staying Ahead of the Curve

“One of our favourite things about Insight is how it allows us to always stay ahead of the game in terms of seeing new issues coming up on the horizon. As soon as a whisper of unhappiness comes through the system we can act to resolve it before it spreads and grows out of control. We can’t always fix an issue, but we can often make it better and even just acknowledging it to the customer has a real positive effect.” (Ken Brown, Owner)

Automation

“Insight has added another important touch point to our member journey, keeping the conversation ongoing with our customers. The automated functionality of the system, which periodically sends a steady stream of surveys, is critical because it allows consistency, brings back a broad range of feedback, enables you to see trends in what matters to your members and reduces the human failure element which can often lead to dropped plates.” (Ken Brown, Owner)

The Results

Since implementing the Insight system, Fitness Incentive have seen a year on year improvement in their Net Promoter Score, which currently stands at 86 – almost three times the US average according to TRP benchmark data published by IHRSA in 2016.

The system has become an integral part of the day to day running of the club, and Ken and his passionate team have really got behind the Net Promoter® philosophy.

Cycle Studio Upgrade

“Our group cycling classes are a hugely important aspect of our offering, so we were quite surprised when Insight showed us that they weren’t meeting the expectations of our members. Diving into the comments themselves we were able to identify the specific areas of the programme that needed changing, investing in a range of new bikes and giving the studio space a full revamp, keeping our members involved in each decision along the way to ensure our money was being well spent.” (Ken Brown, Owner)

Car Parking Map

“Comments from Detractors, Passives and Promoters highlighted problems finding parking spaces when visiting us to workout. Unable to increase the size of our parking lot, due to our location, we decided to help lessen the problem by creating a map of all the parking areas in the village, listing costs and stay limitations (if any). Members really valued the fact that their concerns had been taken seriously and although we were unable to ‘solve’ the issue for them the way we managed it, following up directly with each individual who reported the problem, went a long way to improving their perceptions.” (Ken Brown, Owner)

Word-of-Mouth

“Sometimes we just get some incredibly great comments – the kind of thing you would pay for! We know the power of word-of-mouth marketing so reach out to these members to ask if we can put their feedback up on the homepage of our website for all to see.” (Ken Brown, Owner)