In this episode, Jacob Thomas, owner of Razor Sharp Fitness in Wisconsin, delves into the critical importance of effective onboarding for gym members. He emphasizes the necessity of cultivating a community-driven atmosphere, tailoring experiences to individuals, and leveraging data to monitor member progress and interaction. Jacob elaborates on Razor Sharp Fitness's comprehensive onboarding process, which includes personalized consultations, goal setting, and ongoing communication through various channels. By prioritizing member engagement within the crucial first 90 days, Jacob underscores the potential for long-term retention and satisfaction. He also discusses the integration of technology, such as EGYM, to enhance tracking and equipment utilization.
LINKS: https://egym.com/us
[00:00:00] Hey friends, this is your host, Eric Malzone, and I'd like to welcome you to a short series
[00:00:06] entitled All Aboard, How to Conduct the Perfect Onboarding at Your Health Club or Gym.
[00:00:12] Brought to you by our good friends at eGym.
[00:00:14] In this series, health club operators share their insights into the importance of the
[00:00:18] onboarding process for their members and their bottom lines.
[00:00:23] Short-form interviews with long-term impact.
[00:00:25] If you'll be at URSA this year, please swing by the eGym booth on the trade floor and experience connecting me with you, Jacob, because you do an excellent job of it. And we thought we could learn a lot from you and present a lot to the industry. So, you know, let's just dive right into it, Jacob. Let's start with this man. Tell us about you and your two locations in Wisconsin, and then we'll kind of go from there. Sure, yeah. So we have Razor Short Fitness. We're a locally owned mom pop club.
[00:01:40] I'm the, we're, my wife and I are the second owners
[00:01:43] of the club.
[00:01:44] Just purchased the gyms about 20 months ago.
[00:01:47] So,
[00:01:48] Awesome. with not only our staff, but also with other members. And so we really feel like we're a family-based organization, a community-based organization, and then we drive, we solely focus on fitness. We don't really dabble a whole lot outside of those lines. It's really everything we make decisions on is how is this experience affecting that member experience
[00:03:03] from their workouts to their wellness
[00:03:06] and those kinds interests are. And so I think where, you know, what's really important to us is being able to utilize the members' interests in regards to their onboarding, but then we utilize a lot of data. The interesting part about doing this interview right now is I'm presenting at ERSA next week.
[00:04:22] My presentation is truly as onboarding goes, Jacob, is that like the moment someone signs up and commits? Is that the next step is essentially onboarding? Yeah. And of course, it probably starts before that time as well and how you begin that process
[00:05:45] from the prospecting aspect of it as well. to get them into, again, the role that we want them to go down in regards to their membership. How can we have them start creating what their path is, what their plan for success is, in regards to utilizing your membership? Now, we believe that somebody is making a huge commitment to us because there are many other options in the industry that you could go to from boutiques and
[00:07:02] from for us, there's more high volume, low to spoil it for your presentation. But I'm sure you got a lot of stuff swimming in your head. So yeah, along these, when we get through these lines of questioning here, if you have any stuff, please throw it in there. Okay, so let's get granular with how you guys do it
[00:08:21] at Razor.
[00:08:23] What is the onboard, what is that onboarding process like?
[00:08:26] From the moment they sign up through that first 90 days, that is a fee-based service. And so it is included in every single new members agreement where they pay for this service. And ultimately it's that, their starting point for utilizing the club, where they currently are, and then all the things that we can utilize and make sure that they're going on the right track.
[00:09:41] And so our membership sales team
[00:09:45] not only sells a membership, over a month ago. And what we've done with that product is we've really created a tracking model off of that. So we use, of course, the health and fitness questionnaire, like most where you're kind their journey as they go through. And then we sit down with them. We talk about where do you want to go? What are you interested in? How can we help set this up for you? So
[00:12:20] if they're, we sell service fee-based services them as well. And so that really for any appointment that we create from that fitness consultation, ultimately we have somebody on the other side making sure that they're engaged and connected
[00:13:41] and that they're showing up for that. And first 90 days, we are on track for this member to be staying with us for a really long time. If we can get them all the way to 2.2 times a week, which ultimately is nine times a month, at that 90 day mark, again, even more so, this person is gonna be staying with us for a long time.
[00:15:02] And then how we really bottle this up
[00:15:05] and while you're getting this information on, So I guess number one, two questions for you. The first one is like when you talk about these, you know, the raise a result session, which is your initial consultation. And you mentioned that that is a fee on top of what they would also sign up for the membership. So is that do you make that mandatory? Is that like part of the sales process? Like you got to do this, you got to do this, this is the deal. If not, no problem. There's another gym down the road. Is it that clear?
[00:16:22] Yeah, exactly. And there are people that by those checkpoints at, you know, one month, two months, and then those 90 days, that's where they're reviewing, you know, how many check-ins have they done? Have they went to the sessions that they said they were gonna go to? Where are they in this process essentially? And that's normally a phone call.
[00:17:40] And if we don't hear from them,
[00:17:41] then we're using those email or text messages
[00:17:43] to be able to follow up with that as well.
[00:17:45] But then they're sending more manual, specific messages Um, six months from that time. So those are huge impacts in regards to, you know, just that. And then ultimately when you then tailor in the idea of how do we get number, our employees to engage with our members and essentially build relationships when they come in, they have a friendly face to talk to and so
[00:19:00] on and so forth, you're saving cancellation without the 50%.
[00:19:04] Just if your staff is talking and engaged with their members.
[00:20:04] And like I said, right, dive really, really deep into the data and the research and kind of how all these pieces work together.
[00:20:06] Outside of that, I can be reached at Razor Fitness.
[00:20:09] So my email is the letter JThomas and then at razorsharpfit.com.
[00:20:14] I'm happy to reach out, talk to anybody about what we do.
[00:20:18] And then probably a little bit more.
[00:20:19] I know, you know, part of this is with eGym.
[00:20:22] And I kind of want to go into that maybe just a little bit as well to finish is how we brought
[00:20:28] in and utilize that way. And then I can also be reached. My phone number is two six two eight nine eight one seven nine one. And by all means, happy to chat and kind of talk about anything else in regards to the fitness industry. Awesome. And given the phone number old school, I love it. Jacob, thank you so much for joining.
[00:21:40] I hope everyone checks you out at Ersin and tries to connect with you.
[00:21:44] Really, really appreciate you doing this.
[00:21:46] So, yeah, ladies and gentlemen, Jacob Thomas.