Thursday, January 6, 2011

Perpetuate the Health Momentum

It was around this date during a January past that while in the locker room at my local Gold’s Gym, I saw an unfamiliar face. Attached to an unfamiliar body. But it was the face that caught my eye. It was the countenance of trepidation. “Are you okay,” I asked.
     At that point, he smiled. “I was realizing right now that to get healthy, you have to do more than sign up. You actually have to go out there and exercise.”
     I’ve belonged to gyms for enough years to expect the New Year’s Resolution Flood which in succeeding weeks resolutely drains away. According to a Marketing Daily post, January is an especially busy time for gyms, but for each four people who sign up in January, one will drop out.
     Perpetuating the momentum of the health wish. That is the challenge for gyms, exercise equipment stores, weight loss programs, diabetes care maintenance programs, and all sorts of other providers of services and products catering to the consumer’s desire to stay in good shape.
     Here are some tips on peddling to the customer so they’ll keep pedaling away at your place:
  • Keep a personal approach. We’re asking customers to acknowledge their weaknesses. When they signed up, we may have weighed, prodded, and questioned them. So be sure to relate to them as people, calling them by name and asking them about themselves. Researchers at University of British Columbia and INSEAD Singapore set up a study in which a personal trainer offered a fitness program to prospective enrollees. Participants who believed the fitness instructor shared characteristics with them were more likely to sign up.
  • Provide companionship. Staying on a weight loss diet or diabetes care diet can get boring. Physical exercise can, too. So provide the social stimulation of support groups and group classes in your offerings. Have the enrollment procedures and any participant materials clearly refer to the customer as a “member.” Have staff regularly thank the customer for being a member. If the member has signed up for a limited time enrollment, the feeling of companionship becomes especially important as the renewal date approaches. When the member feels part of a network, they’re less likely to drop out.
  • Give a sense of progress. Toward the start, tell the member how far they’ve come. As they approach a goal, point out how little they have to go.
Click below for more:
Apply Systematic Desensitization to Fears
Announce Commonalities with Shoppers
Give Loyalty Program Members Prestige

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