Are you missing this one crucial part of your Personal Training Sessions?

Every Friday night I have the same ritual....a two mile walk home [ by choice] and on the way I stop off at my favourite Wine store pick up a bottle of good quality South American red for the two of us, usually a Malbec and head home.Glass and a half then off to bed.

This week I noticed something .....It got me thinking and inspired me to write this.. Every Friday when I walk through the door of the wine store the two twenty something girls who work there look up at me AND DO NOT EVEN SAY GOOD EVENING, HELLO , or even HI.I really don't think I look scary or menacing.I tend to be a polite guy by nature.Most importantly I'm coming in to spend money.It's not like they don't know me, I was there to buy all my wine for Christmas and New Year's,gifts for my friends etc.Why did I have to acknowledge their presence first when I was coming into their establishment? I could quite have easily gone to the much cheaper Governement liquor store two blocks away... I thought about this as one of the young ladies was ringing up my order.."Oh I forgot to give you my phone number.."[ you get points for purchases and I dutifully registered my info on a previous visit-again found out by accident, no one volunteered it] without even looking directly at me she intoned

"You need to let us know that before we ring up your order".

hmmm ok.No offer to adjust , no acknowledgement of me being a loyal customer.Zip.Not even a forced smile.Much less a simple 'Thank You'.Ok maybe they think I'm a creepy lush.Or maybe they just didn't like the fact that when I walk into a place my first instinct is to say "Hi !How are you?" Nah , it's got to be the creepy lush thing.. But then again I realized that no matter where I went in this city the art of saying "Hi' when I entered a store always fell on me-the potential customer...When I was buying pants and shirts at Zara and the salesperson didn't even look up at me once,or a quick dinner the other night along the Drive was served by a twenty something waitress who I swear looked like she had a small turd just under her nose.No 'Hello','Good Evening How Are You Tonight?','Thank You', either to me or the other patrons.It's everywhere.

As I left and continued on my walk home ,bottle of Clos De Los Siete and its pleasures stuffed in my Gym bag I started thinking about my day.I had trained eight people in a row- it was my last set of sessions with three of my clients, one had a ten pack , one had five , another was doing a set of three half hours. All three of those clients went to the front desk and registered for another ten pack, another five pack, and ten more half hour sessions.I didn't even ask them to.In fact I never even brought it up with them.True story-Hey wait a minute, you've never asked anyone to renew..ever..hmmmmmmmm.Sure I'm grateful and very lucky.Just then Irealized that I never once have ever actively solicited any business, asked people to train with me,or tried to do a sales job on anyone.And I never do.When I thought some more about it out of my roster of 16 active clients at one place, nine of them are repeat-and not just once or twice.At another venue I have four clients- three of them are long term and again repeat.And at yet another venue I train at I have four more- two of them long term multiple repeat.Now I think I'm a 'good' Trainer but I will tell you unequivocally nobody can touch me when it comes to service.No one.But as I pondered this a thunderous,not even a glass of wine down my throat epiphanay bellowed right back at me ... it wasn't that I was so good at service, it was just that too many others were awful at it.Service is the gold standard that so few care about, and that those who understand ,embrace and thrive with it

About a year ago I was asked to go work part time at another gym.I do it on an on call basis ,take clients as needed, and I noticed two things-I was busy off the bat and that none of the other Trainers would speak to me at first.Yep got the 'ol stinkeye.Eventually heard through the grapevine that they were pissed off because I was getting all the business and they weren't...I just smiled and carried on doing my thing... slowly I became friends with one of the younger Trainers who kep watching what I was doing with clients-he was was always whining about not having any money,not enough clients etc.so one day after I noticed him watching me I asked him the following questions, and I quote his actual responses.

"Do you do a follow up e mail with your clients within 24 hours to see how they feel?"[ no- who has time for that?"]

Do you remember their Birthdays?["Why would I want to do that?]

'Did you ask about their kids, Grandchildren,Spouse, how is work?'[I was told to focus on the Training]

At the end of a session have you ever asked for feedback?Have you ever said "please tell me what you liked and if there is something you didn't please share it with me, I won't take it personally all of it helps me become a better Trainer"[What is this 'The Actors Studio?]

At that point I didn't even consider asking him if he gave clients his card and e mail and tell them that if they have any questions e mail and you'll do your best to answer them.Or 'Have you ever done a quick five minute demo' for someone who asked you a question?'To quote from Alec Baldwin in one of the greatest speeches of all time from 'Glengarry Glen Ross' "I'd wish you 'Good Luck' but you wouldn't know what to do with it if you had it'

Companies all over the world spend millions if not billions of dollars on ways to get people to spend more of their hard earned dollars.Canadian retailers are screaming that they are losing money to cross border shopping,yet I have NEVER seen a single one of these Canadian retailers emphasize that the one missing link in all of their endless whining and hand wringing would be to spend money on actually improving service.Not once.Is it a dirty little secret?I maintain people will spend more money if they feel valued as consumers.It inevitably comes down to service.I don't care if your selling Real Estate,Hamburgers or Personal Training ,If you worry about service, everything else will take care of itself.What drives me nuts about this whole thing is the complete and utter inability of those front line staff in almost any industry to say 'Hi''Good Evening' or 'How are you?' when someone walks into their place of business, whether it's a restaurant,Hardware store, or Gym Floor.Saying Hello and acknowledging a customer or potential client is for my money one of the most important things you can do-and its an increasing rarity today especially among the young.I notice now that when I walk through the Gym and say 'Hi' a lot of the twenty year olds stare straight ahead and ignore you.Guess what -I say 'Hi' anyway.Acknowledging someone with a simple 'Hello' goes miles.It shows the fact someone you don't know has been given the appropriate respect and appreciation for walking through your door will maybe hire you,when they could have walked through anyone else's and hired someone else.That and saying Goodbye' and Thank You whether they have purchased anything or not is so simple-and so effective.Why are so many in the service industry afraid of doing it?.

I tell my students when I teach that there would be any number of people out there who can train, this city and many others are full of them.Someone will always be better educated,know more etc.I've seen it.But there are very few who actually like dealing with the public...and that will be your greatest advantage.Of course I stress professionalism, constant learning but I owe it to them to be honest as well...'If you don't have personality or offer good service , it doesn't matter what you learn , your sunk." Someone accused me[not the only one I'm sure] of being full of myself.Goddamn right I am,I work hard learn everything I can and always keep in the forefront of my mind the value and respect I have for the people who have paid me very good money that enables me at the age of almost fifty to have a great standard of living and a job I love.. and how no matter how I feel on any given day to get out there and make everyone think that I am having the best day ever.If I don't believe that how in hell can I possibly ensure someone will reach their fitness Goals if I'm being half assed about it?Think about it. I want to see every single Canadian retailer do two things..make it mandatory for their staff to say 'Hello' or 'Good Evening' to every single person who walks through the door.That's it. It might just be a good start.