Ever stood in front of a shelf full of toothpastes and couldn’t make a decision? Do you choose: paste or gel, whitening or brightening, strawberry or mint, white, striped or aqua, natural or regular? This “I can’t make a decision” phenomenon is called repetition blindness.
Too much, too identical, can’t differentiate, no novelty results in our subconscious mind checking out and “fight or flight” setting in. We are programmed to seek out things that enable us to make sense of our surroundings and stay safe and productive on our journey.
When repetition blindness happens inside our gyms, the brain no longer “sees” a great place to become fit and instead “sees” it this way:• Alert from all the sensory overload: bright colors, motivational quotes, loud music
• Scanning for potential threats: lurking sales people, scary grunting members and the dreaded “way to much energy” trainer coming to welcome you
• Skeptical of what’s lurking behind all the clutter: endless rows of treadmills, mirrors, machines just like every other gym and dust bunnies the size of Texas underneath the dumbbell rack!
It’s a jungle inside most training facilities.
Literally, from the brain’s point of view, when clients walk into a facility, their mind reacts the same way they did when cavemen made treacherous journey’s across foreign land.
In the era of internet-based personal trainers, on-demand workouts and fitness tracking devices aiming to lure clients away, it’s important for fit pros to simplify - to declutter - their business model and facility layout.
Evolution is inevitable
Just as we strive hard to continuously update our training skills to deliver an anything but average training session, we need to look to upgrade our facility’s ‘experience’ as well.
Here is a “Experience Check List” to walk your team through to redefine your facility and make sure that you’re not falling into repetition blindness from the standpoint of a new or current client:
1. When you look around your gym, what comes to mind?
2. What concerns you?
3. What do you wish you knew?
4. What do you hope doesn’t happen?
5. What would make you more comfortable right now?
6. What information would you like to be taught?
As our clients demand better experiences from our training to keep their interest, loyalty and referrals, asking these questions every 3-6 months is key to understanding these basics measures:
• Where do clients fall away from the initial experience journey?
• What changes could we make to turn prospects into loyal raving fans?
• How can we make the initial client journey faster, more personalized ad more successful?
Clients are willing to pay up to 30% more for a better experience, according to a recent Accenture study. As fitness entrepreneurs, we have to remember that training is shifting from a rep-counting, talk to me a bit about how bad you ate yesterday, to an engaging, unique experience complete with the right music, lighting and supporting community.
The future of fitness is about the experience. Are you cashing in?
