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UK FITNESS SCENE
Audit results ‘terrifying’ – LA Fitness boss By Emma Spencer
24-hour fundraiser sees gym raise over £1,000 MEMBERS and staff from a Beverley gym spent 24 hours on treadmills and bikes to raise over a £1,000 for charity. As part of Gym for Heroes week which saw clubs doing 12 hours’ worth of events Riverview took it one step further. Staff and members took it in turns on bikes, treadmills and rowing machines for 24 hours’ fundraising for Help for Heroes. Co-owner Vicky Hart said: “My stint was 2am to 5am. One chap came in at 4am and I was desperate to see him because I couldn’t do anymore. We decided to do 24 hours so it was different to what everybody else was doing.” Vicky has worked at the gym for many years and took it over in March with husband Darren. She hopes to make the Gym for
Heroes challenge the first of many fundraising events which she says has proved a good way of interacting with members. She said: “Everybody came together. It has been the talk of the gym, we have got photos all over the gym and we have had a really good response. It has created a buzz and keeps people interested.” Plans are in the pipeline for a Beverley to Beverley Hills challenge on the treadmill and a biggest loser challenge to help with weight loss. She added: “It was the first time I have done a fundraising event and I have learned from it so next year will be bigger and better. “The main thing is people were willing to give up their time in the middle of a Saturday night to sit on a rowing machine.”
THE key to motivating members is motivating your staff first according to the man in charge of the LA Fitness brand. Arthur McColl, business and brand director, told delegates at the recent Flame Conference gym staff and managers are getting bogged down with paperwork and administration. He carried out an audit of how LA Fitness staff spent their time at work and admits the results were “terrifying”. Every member of staff from corporate and sales to front of house to instructors were monitored on work load and intensity for 50 minutes. For example, in club A filling the vending machine took 20 minutes. In club B it took 45 minutes to carry out the same process because that was the time allowed to do it. After reviewing rostas in the chain’s 81 clubs he discovered just 13 per cent of staff time was spent on customer service such as making appointments or holding classes and only ten per cent on membership sales and signing people up. Fifty-seven per cent of staff time
was spent behind the scenes on the phone and on administration tasks like banking and 20 per cent was dead time. At quiet times there were too many staff and at peak times not enough. 36,000 members were asked what they looked for in joining a gym. Twenty per cent said a personal trainer, 57 per cent wanted group fitness and 74 per cent a pool. The reality of those services being used was personal trainer (six per cent), group fitness (18 per cent), pool (20 per cent). Arthur said: “The results were terrifying. For the sector it is not about putting more time in but making the time more efficient. The challenge is fairly obvious. We need to attract members, retain them and staff. Let’s not apologise we are here to make a profit whether we sit in the budget sector, whether we are LA Fitness or the private sector.” Since the audit LA Fitness have been ruthless with paperwork, speak to 80 per cent of members on a regular basis and memberships have risen 10 per cent. Arthur added: “It has a massive impact on members to see a club manager in a locker room picking up towels or behind reception.”