Stellar Client Service in 10 Simple Steps For Your Pilates Business
If you’re like me, you’ve had plenty of experience with BAD client service. Just think about the last time you had a bad experience with a product or a service. Perhaps the product or service did not live up to the sales pitch. Maybe the company was unresponsive to your calls or emails. Maybe they did not do what they said they were going to do.
A lack of client service usually stems from a lack of client focus. Over the last number of months, I’ve been watching real closely (don’t tell them!) my personal Pilates business owner clients who are crushing it right now and identified a number of trends in their client service approach.
In addition to the 10 points below I’ve noticed one common theme – all of them fundamentally GET the expression “Our job is to serve you”
The good news is, it’s not hard to give great client service in your Pilates business. You simply have to be aware and make it a priority. The following 10 tips will help you offer stellar client service:
- Be Accessible
Your Pilates clients should be able to get a hold of you if they have a question. Provide multiple ways for your clients to get in contact with you.
2. Respond in a Timely Manner
Make it your policy to return all phone calls or emails within 24 hours or less. And, if you cannot commit to that, then determine what timeframe you can manage and let your clients know upfront they can expect to hear back from you within that amount of time.
3. Listen to Your Clients
Often when a client calls or expresses a complaint they just want to be heard. In fact, sometimes, just listening is all you need to do. Take the time to listen to what your clients have to say before you start responding or defending your service. They may just have a point. This simple rule has won so much business for these clients – I can’t count how often these business owners have told me they have turned what appeared at first to be a complaint into a sale by listening.
4. Treat Your Clients with Respect
It goes without saying, right?, however as your Pilates business grows and you get more personalities coming into your business it does get tougher at times. Even if the client on the other end of the phone is acting irrationally, or being rude, don’t lower yourself to their level by reciprocating. Treat everyone with respect and you will be respected in return. Plus, you never know when someone’s just having a bad day, and they happen to be taking it out on you (we’ve all done it).
5. Don’t Argue With Your Clients
You can never win an argument with a client. Because if you do win, you’ve more than likely alienated the client and you’ve lost their business. We all know the client isn’t really always right, but instead of focusing on what went wrong and defending yourself, focus on how you can solve the problem or fix the situation.
6. Honour Your Commitments
If you say you will answer emails, then answer them. If you offer a guarantee, then honour it. Nothing spoils a client relationship faster than being promised something and not getting it.
7. Do What You Say
If you say you’re going to call someone on Tuesday, call them on Tuesday. It’s as simple as that. If you want your clients to trust and believe you, you have to follow through and do what you say. Goes to another point that these Pilates clients of mine are all highly organised. Little things matter to your clients and once you get that it makes all the difference.
8. Focus on Making Client Relationships, Not Sales
The long-term success of your Pilates business rests on your ability to make long-term client relationships. If you sacrifice relationships to make short-term sales, your business will be short-lived.
9. Be honest
Don’t exaggerate the results your Pilates will provide just be honest and direct about what you can deliver and the role they have in making their experience a success.
10. Admit When You Make a Mistake
No one’s perfect. We all make mistakes; it’s part of learning. So, when you do make a mistake, don’t try to cover it up or deny it. Just admit it and if necessary, do something to make the situation right. Your clients will appreciate it and they’ll be more likely to stay clients.
So how does your client service measure up in your Pilates business? Are you practicing these 10 steps and offering stellar client service? If not, I challenge you to take your service up a notch. Approach it like Ken Blanchard and instead of just being satisfied with happy clients, create “Raving Fans” (a great little book if you haven’t read it).
Commit to putting these 10 tips into practice. Get to know your clients more. Continue to make them the focus and feel extra special. It’s one of the keys to business success and best of all, it doesn’t cost very much!
To Your Success
Brendan
3 Ways Brendan can help your Pilates Business to grow right now;
- Join the Free FB group dedicated to Pilates Business Owners only to get free resources, information, support, training and much more.
2. Run your business through his Profit Acceleration Simulator and see all of the potential growth areas – many you won’t even have thought of!. Download your personalised 12 month roadmap – all absolutely FREE.
3. Book a no obligation Pilates Profit Acceleration Jumpstart call with Brendan and see for yourself the proven steps he’s taking with other Pilates business owners to transform their businesses and lives. In this session Brendan guarantees to uncover anywhere between €25k – €75k of hidden profits within your business.
Book an inquiry session today and change the direction of your business and your life forever.
10 Tips to Effectively Self-Manage as a Pilates Business Owner.
Have you ever thought to yourself that there aren’t enough hours in the day, or felt overwhelmed at the number of tasks facing you? You’re not alone and every Pilates Business Owner I have ever worked with has felt like this from time to time. But first let me just say there is no such thing as time management, time will manage itself. We all have 24 hours in a day, every day. The reason some people are more successful than others is their ability to Self-Manage, to know, prioritise and work on the things that bring them maximum success. Here’s 10 tips to help you out!
1. Clarify your business goals and strategy – Be very clear about your aims and ambitions, both short and long term. Write them down. Once you know what you really want to achieve (and why) with your Pilates business it’s easier to make decisions about what needs doing, and to plan accordingly.
2. Focus on your top priorities – You’ll be more productive and profitable if you identify and.focus on the areas most important to your Pilates business. Work on the fundamentals first. The Latin word ‘fundamentum’ means foundation – so take action, build strong foundations and the rest should follow. Some of the top priorities for your business should be to generate leads on a continuing basis, have a proven system in place to convert these leads, defining ways to increase the longevity and buying pattern of your clients and building processes that require less input from you.
3. Schedule time– Literally write an appointment in your work planner (you do have one of those, don’t you?) to set aside a realistic block of time for your priority actions. If you’re not setting time aside to run the business, then who is?? Working towards a plan, having a strategy reduces anxiety and keeps you focused on doing the right things.
4. Say no! Always check your schedule before committing to anything new. Don’t allow others to divert you from your objectives. Self-Management is about Traction towards your goals – all of the other stuff that you are getting pulled into is distraction and preventing you from being the success you can be.
5. Create supportive systems – This includes systems for filing, management information and communication. Every successful Pilates business I’ve ever worked with has something in common – there are a key list of indicators that they are reviewing and working towards improving. Over time these show the progress you are making and where you need to get to. What is your occupancy level?, How many new leads came in this month? How many bought something? What happened after their first purchase?, just to name a few. You need to know how you are doing, period.
6. Take a reality check – Will your current activity have a positive outcome, or are you doing it to avoid something else? Exactly how long have you been saying that the business needs to improve. Success can often be created by removing some misguided habits that have become rooted in the business in favour of a few positive actions repeated daily – the key of course is discovering what needs replacing.
7. Delegate – It’s tempting to do something yourself when you think you can do it faster and better. But consider the long term – delegation, outsourcing now will save time in the future, and if done appropriately can motivate you, boost your confidence and help develop your skills. Key question here is, if I had this activity covered by someone else what additional high-value activity could I be doing to push the business forward?
8. Repeat your success – Remember the last time you went away on holiday, and how you got so much done in those few days before you left? What strategies and techniques did you employ that made you so effective and focused? Can you repeat them? Alternatively, imagine you are going away tomorrow and work through today accordingly.
9. Balance your life – Formally schedule personal activities too, so you make time for family, friends, your health and fun because having a balanced life reduces stress and increases energy levels. Self-management is really about life management!
10. End the day – At the end of the working day, tidy your desk, make notes about what needs doing tomorrow and prioritise those tasks. You’ll worry less that evening and be prepared and focused the next morning.
To Your Success
Brendan
3 Ways Brendan can help your Pilates Business to grow right now;
- Join the Free FB group dedicated to Pilates Business Owners only to get free resources, information, support, training and much more.
2. Run your business through his Profit Acceleration Simulator and see all of the potential growth areas – many you won’t even have thought of!. Download your personalised 12 month roadmap – all absolutely FREE.
3. Book a no obligation Pilates Profit Acceleration Jumpstart call with Brendan and see for yourself the proven steps he’s taking with other Pilates business owners to transform their businesses and lives. In this session Brendan guarantees to uncover anywhere between €25k – €75k of hidden profits within your business.
Book an inquiry session today and change the direction of your business and your life forever.
What it Takes to Succeed in a Pilates Business!
Business is tough in today’s world! Most small businesses go bankrupt or are closed abruptly in the first five years. Over the course of the next five years many of the remainders also “pack up” shop and lock their doors. Why do so many businesses fail?
The reasons lie in three main spheres. Those spheres of influence can be labeled personal, customer, and operations.
The Personal Sphere deals with the owner’s personal motivation to start a business. For example, if an owner wants to start their own Pilates business, but isn’t willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make it thrive, then they are at a disadvantage when compared to other motivated businesspeople. When a business starts for the first time often it doesn’t have a lot of money. Owners are required to sacrifice time, money, and happiness to succeed. If you can’t do that, it is unlikely that your Pilates business will flourish. Many times owners thought they could handle the hardship but once the novelty of “being your own boss” wears off they close the door. You see there’s a big difference between teaching Pilates and running a Pilates business.
The Customer Sphere is one of the most important components of your Pilates business. Without customers you do not have sales, without sales you do not have money and without money you do not have a business. Many factors go into generating a good customer base. In the beginning you must have a cost-effective marketing strategy that targets your intended buyers. This can be done by developing a psychological profile of your customer and then advertising in those places that they frequent. Because it is more expensive to get a new customer than it is to keep one you must make sure they are satisfied with your business and offering. Keep in touch with them by sending them a follow-up letter with a survey, check in with them from time to time, find out what’s keeping them loyal and do more of it.
The Operations Sphere is only second to the Customer Sphere. In operations you must have an appropriate method for running your business, for reducing costs, keeping track of paperwork, and maintaining improvement week after weeks and year after year. Operations can also take into effect the accounting, timetabling, scheduling of instructors, answering queries and pushing the business forward. Do you have a clear roadmap for where you want to get to in your Pilates business, has the vision been set and are you actually working towards it.
If all of these three components are well thought out and are appropriately designed you will increase your chances of survival. Failure to understand the integral details of your Pilates business and what it takes to succeed may mean failure in the long run. If you are having difficulty putting all the pieces together then consider us having a chat – the simple reality is that I can show you upfront how any investment is offset against what your business will gain and I actually 100% guarantee that statement in writing.
To Your Success
Brendan
3 Ways Brendan can help your Pilates Business to grow right now;
- Join the Free FB group dedicated to Pilates Business Owners only to get free resources, information, support, training and much more.
2. Run your business through his Profit Acceleration Simulator and see all of the potential growth areas – many you won’t even have thought of!. Download your personalised 12 month roadmap – all absolutely FREE.
3. Book a no obligation Pilates Profit Acceleration Jumpstart call with Brendan and see for yourself the proven steps he’s taking with other Pilates business owners to transform their businesses and lives. In this session Brendan guarantees to uncover anywhere between €25k – €75k of hidden profits within your business.
Book an inquiry session today and change the direction of your business and your life forever.
How Well Do You Know Your Pilates Prospects?
Take this 10-Point Quiz to Find Out
It’s crucial to know your prospects if you want to market effectively to them and win new business.
Take this quick quiz to see how well you know and understand your prospects. If you can’t answer these questions, how can you be sure you are connecting with your audience in a relevant and meaningful way? How can you be sure you are reaching them with a compelling message about your services? How can you be sure you are tapping into the conversation they are already having inside their own head with respect to Pilates?
- Who are they?
- Where do they live … work … play?
- What problem do they have that you can solve?
- How does Pilates fit into their life?
- Where do they get information regarding Pilates?
- What is most important to them?
- What are they most afraid of?
- What is their emotional connection to their health?
- How will they rationalize purchasing Pilates?
- What’s stopping them from signing up?
How’d you do? If you can’t answer these questions, odds are your messaging isn’t connecting with your prospects. And if your message is not connecting with them, you won’t be as successful in getting them to join up.
Take the time to get to know your clients and prospects. Learn all you can about them. Use this quiz as a guide. When you do you’ll be able to speak directly to their needs and concerns, they will respond. And your business will thrive.
To Your Success
Brendan
3 Ways Brendan can help your Pilates Business to grow right now;
- Join the Free FB group dedicated to Pilates Business Owners only to get free resources, information, support, training and much more.
- Run your business through his Profit Acceleration Simulator and see all of the potential growth areas – many you won’t even have thought of!. Download your personalised 12 month roadmap – all absolutely FREE.
- Book a no obligation Pilates Profit Acceleration Jumpstart call with Brendan and see for yourself the proven steps he’s taking with other Pilates business owners to transform their businesses and lives. In this session Brendan guarantees to uncover anywhere between €25k – €75k of hidden profits within your business.
Book an inquiry session today and change the direction of your business and your life forever.
Highly Effective Strategies for Overcoming Procrastination In Your Pilates Business & Life
In this day and age we are so inundated with choice and opportunity that you might even say we are spoiled for choice. There is just so much that we could do that we often end up not doing anything at all. Procrastination is one of the biggest dream killers. In a world where there is so much demand for your attention it is becoming ever more difficult to stay focused and act on the things that would truly give you an extraordinary quality of life. Time is, was and will always be your most valuable asset and the way you use it will determine what you create or fail to create with and for your life. Having an effective strategy for overcoming procrastination is critical if you truly want to push past short-term obstacles to create a life of fulfilment.
The abundance that modern life offers us tends to overwhelm us which leads to an emotional overload that will distract you and scatter your effort and concentration. There simply isn’t enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time for the most important things in your life. Success at anything in life, whether it be your finances, your relationships or your Pilates business, requires an investment of time and effort from you. You need to focus and concentrate your physical and emotional resources on creating a desired result.
The first step in overcoming procrastination is to get clear on exactly what you want from your Pilates Business and your life. This clarity will give you the power to look past distractions that may throw you off course. It gives you a direction and a target and will help to build a mental picture for your life. One of the most destructive effects of procrastination is that it makes you feel out of control; like the events of your life are controlling you. If you don’t know what you want it is all too easy to jump from one task to the next. Apart from knowing what you want you should also develop some strong reasons why you want it. This will give you a sense of purpose and motivation that is critical for staying focused long term.
The truth is that most people know what they need to do to create their life the way they want it. The challenge is not with knowing what to do, but in doing what you know. The only way you will create any result in your Pilates business and life is by taking action and procrastination is what prevents you from acting on the very things you know would give you a greater business and quality of life. The reason why people procrastinate is primarily because of fear, especially fear of failure. By not taking action and postponing important actions you avoid the potential for failing. The only reason why you procrastinate about anything is because at some level you link more pain to taking action than to not taking action. The ridiculous truth is that these “links” are mostly conjured up (by you) in your mind and they are not even real. When you make a task too big in your mind it will overwhelm you and it would seem too difficult and too big and you will end up procrastinating.
One of the most powerful strategies for overcoming procrastination is to learn how to break your tasks up into bite size pieces. Any task, no matter how big, can be broken down into small manageable tasks that are easy to do. If you focus on bringing in 50 new clients it will probably put you off immediately, but if you focus on creating a workshop, telling people about what you do, giving a talk, having an open day, providing people with useful information etc. small achievable tasks that you know you can do, the overall goal becomes more believable and achievable. The power of chunking down your “big” tasks empowers you to take back control of any overwhelming situation – you cut it down to size. Your size.
One of the quickest ways to overcome procrastination is to learn and utilize the power of immediacy. What can you do immediately? What action can you take right now that will move you closer to your goal? Doing something, no matter how small, will immediately break your mental pattern of procrastination and put you back in control. Taking the first step, even if it is small will create momentum and you will almost automatically be driven to take another step. Don’t wait for everything to be perfect before you take the first step. Just do it. Just get it going and improve as you go along. Often you will only know what to do next after taking that first step.
There are many strategies and skills you can use for overcoming procrastination. You don’t have to be stuck or spinning your wheels. Like any skill you need to learn and practise it until you get good at it. Eventually it will become an automatic response and you will develop the habit of taking action despite your fears and apparent limitations. If you focused on that first workshop, learned from it and honed your delivery could you repeat it? Of course the answer is YES and now could you repeat it monthly? And if you did that for the next 12 months how many of those 50 new clients would you have secured over that year!
If you’re still not sure email me and I will give you one task right now that you can take to improve your Pilates business and it won’t cost you but a few minutes of your time. But you may just overthink that offer and do nothing at all!!!
To Your Continued Success
Brendan
3 Ways Brendan can help your Pilates Business to grow right now;
- Join the Free FB group dedicated to Pilates Business Owners only to get free resources, information, support, training and much more.
- Run your business through his Profit Acceleration Simulator and see all of the potential growth areas – many you won’t even have thought of!. Download your personalised 12 month roadmap – all absolutely FREE.
- Book a no obligation Pilates Profit Acceleration Jumpstart call with Brendan and see for yourself the proven steps he’s taking with other Pilates business owners to transform their businesses and lives. In this session Brendan guarantees to uncover anywhere between €25k – €75k of hidden profits within your business.
Book an inquiry session today and change the direction of your business and your life forever.