So I Joined A Gym Center

So I finally had the courage to walk into a gym center today and I am now going to write about my experience. I am hoping that not only that my blog on my experiences will help others find the right gym for them, but all if there are any gym owners out there reading this that they will learn a little something about how we feel about going to gyms and maybe help to improve the overall customer experience. I personally have 12 years worth of experience in customer service and I have worked directly with the a Director of Customer Experience so I like to think that I know little about what customers need, but regardless, anyone can take this info for what it's worth and hopefully we can all learn something from it.

So, on to the topic at hand. My choices of gyms were these: Good Life, Extreme Fitness, and LA Fitness.

Good Life, because they had many very convenient locations including some very near to my work, however it was not very near to my home.

Extreme because many, many moons ago I was once a member there and I still have some friends there and they still said that they had liked it. However, they had very inconvenient locations. They didn't have any near to my work nor my home. Although they were promising to expand.

Lastly, LA Fitness who were the new kids in town and were recently starting to expand across Ontario after having much success in the U.S. However, because they were only now starting to set up throughout the Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton area they had very few gyms now, but once again they too promised they were expanding rapidly. A big plus for them was that they had set a brand new one up 5 minutes away from home, but none anywhere near my work.

I decided to go with LA Fitness. It was just too convenient to pass up. The only real drawback for me is that I would have preferred to go with friends so we can motivate each other but most of them live closer to other gym centers.

My first thought when entering their lobby was that gyms have surely become more high tech then it used to be. People had wireless headsets on, webcams were at the stations( to take your picture for ID) and all the workers were in a slick black outfits.

Was it intimidating? Yes, it was slightly. I didn't exactly think they came off us very warm and inviting and I don't think the black outfits does much to remedy that.

But I still got up the courage to ask if I could speak to someone about the memberships and get a tour. They called someone, who I will refer to simply as "Bob", fairly quickly to the front.

All I can say about Bob was that he was fairly typical. He went through the same spiel that one would expect. Generally the breakdown on what are the "usual" rates are this:

$149 for a Registration Fee (still not really clear for what) and $39 per month thereafter with no contract(yeah!).

Well, then he asked when I was looking to join and I told him within the next few weeks. He then came up with some special that would be running around then that would drop the registration fee to $100 and the rate to $29.

That's when I asked for a tour and there really wasn't a lot to see as it is one big open space and you can really see everything pretty well. The Cardio machines were on a top level and didn't seem to busy and all the weight machines were on the ground floor which also didn't seem like there were any line ups. Good so far.

From there I asked about their babysitting service which I had heard about. That's right, I'm a modern Daddy whose kids are always in the back of my mind. So sue me. He showed me the babysitting area which would cost about $5 per kid. To be truthful, it looked pretty dull and lifeless in there. I can't see my kids finding that place too exciting for much longer than 20 or 30 minutes. But then again, I'm not a 4 or 6 year old so what do I know.

I also saw the swimming pool which was a big plus for me and it looked nice and quiet but was a little on the small side if you're going to do laps.

OK, so I decided that I was going to join, but when? I posed the question to him that if I sign up today is there any special deal he can give me? His response was an enthusiastic "Yes", apparently today there was a "student" special that if I sign up he can drop the Registration fee to $49 and $29 per month thereafter with no contract but I have to pay the first and last month amount at sign up too. I found this all interesting that it went all the way down from a $149 reg fee to a $49 reg fee and from a $39 per month fee to a $29 fee all in one conversation. Also, of course, I am not a student so what's that all about? Why don't they just cut to the chase and say all that at the beginning. Well, I'm sure that it all has to do with the psychological affect it has on customers and getting them to think that they are now getting a "great deal" and a limited time offer. Oh the games we play.

The next step after paying was then introducing me to a fitness rep who would be doing my initial "Fitness Analysis". This would have to be scheduled and from that they then try to help you realize what my goals are I guess, but I'm not sure if they do anything to actually help me reach those goals. My reaction to meeting this woman who I'll call "Cindy" was a little embarrassing. She was quite attractive and of course very fit and charming to boot and she would be the one doing my fitness assessment? Wonderful. Now she'll see exactly how out of shape I am and know my age, my weight, and all my bad eating habits, not that she couldn't have really just guessed all that just by looking at me but still, what a great way to impress a pretty woman. Oh well. That's life I guess.

We scheduled my assessment for next Tuesday. Hopefully I won't be too embarrassed by it all to not feel motivated enough to blog about how it all went down. Until then have fun, get fit, and you'll look fine!