By Ed Shanaphy, CMAA
At one of the clubs we help manage we had long been having issues with access and a passcode to gain entry into the gym. The gym is an amenity and the front desk is through on outside door and without a trainer in the gym and it being unmanned, members were often forced to come to the front desk and admit they had forgotten the entry code.
The code had been in existence for a long time, and had been handed out to non-members, family members and distant acquaintances. These non-members, who were funnily enough remembering the code better than the members, were returning to use the club’s facility and a change had to be made.
In order to keep the fitness facility for just members and their paying guests, we changed to a key fob. A simple way we hoped to track member use and also keep the gym for membership. What happened next was astounding.
Member Embarrassment At Asking Staff For Code
The gym was packed. We kept checking usage now that we had the fobs. Members, having been emailed about having to attain a fob to gain entry, descended on the front desk asking for their fob. The fobs were given out, and the door to the gym had never been so busy.
From 6am to the later hours in the evening, the gym was hosting more members than ever. Cleaning schedules had to be revised and doubled and machines were updated and additional medicine balls and hand weights were ordered to alleviate the newly-created shortage.
But, while we stepped back and looked at the higher gym use, a use that has been maintained over a nine-week period, we were left wondering why the fob changed the usage. Was it that suddenly everyone wanted to lose weight? We changed over to the fob in late October, not January, so it couldn’t be related to New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps it was that members didn’t want to bother the front desk and ask for a door code?
Many Members Avoid Contact And Communication
The code had long been forgotten by the majority of members and, rather than coming in to ask repeatedly or store the four-digit number in their phone, members would simply avoid the fitness center. We now believe they were embarrassed to come into the front desk area. One could argue that it was because the members were in gym clothes, but the club in question is a tennis only club and everyone is in sports clothes.
No. Literally, the members just didn’t want to bother the front desk for the code. The desire to use the fitness center was there, but it was blocked by the worry about bothering a member of staff to gain entry.
This lack of communication because of a desire not to impose can go both ways. Just as members didn’t want to impose on the staff, also does the club staff often worry about putting members on the spot – asking them a question that might put a stakeholder or customer on the back foot.
It occurs quite often, especially in retail at the shop. Trying to guess a woman’s size, or ordering merchandise for that special event and you just don’t know if Lauren is a medium or a large… or could she actually be, God forbid, an XL! And we get the order or the estimate incorrect. We find that usually the best policy is to offer a question to which you already know the answer, just like a good lawyer. But that’s not always possible.
So, just as the member didn’t want to ask for a code, staff doesn’t ask an important question. The way around it? Build trust with your membership, so when that rare occurrence of asking a tough question might put a member on the spot, they already have had a good sense of communication with you. Although it may put a member in an uncomfortable position, the trusted line of communication remains strong and the member realizes this is just a one-off, tough and difficult communiqué.
Whether it’s a member not wanting to have to ask for a code, a different size of tank top, or simply for a replacement can of tennis balls when the top doesn’t fully come off, members communicating with staff can be full of awkward moments. And, vice versa, staff must tread lightly and realize just when what might think is a trivial statement might put a member on the spot and in an uncomfortable situation. Slow and steady and thoughtful communication wins the day.
Ed Shanaphy is President of BeyondTheBaselines.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of management consultancy SBW Associates, Inc. Specializing in both full and interim management, BeyondTheBaselines.com has been a part of the management team at The Boulevard Tennis Club in Vero Beach, Florida since 2019.
