Keep your gym’s customer service offerings in good form.
“People don’t randomly pick cheerleading programs. They came to us based on reputation or recommendation. That stands alone as a compliment and needs to be handled in that manner.” —Jason Janke, program director, Cheerz Cheerleading Gym, Bountiful, UT
“If our clients have a clear understanding about what they should expect from us and what we expect from them, the focus will never be misunderstood. Regular communication with parents and athletes will answer most questions before they’re asked.” —Jason Janke, program director, Cheerz Cheerleading Gym, Bountiful, UT
“It’s typical for many gym owners to be so wrapped up in the day-to-day operations of running a program that they often don’t take the time to really sit back and assess that their paying customers are indeed happy with the money they’re spending.” —Jeff Watkins, owner of Cheer Industry Insights
Social Networking
Want to step your customer service up a notch? Turn on your computer. Creating an online presence for your brand practically guarantees positive results. You probably already have a website, but does your gym have an updated Facebook page? Use it to post photos from competitions and keep families updated on scheduling changes and fundraising events. Current athletes and alumni will know that this is a place to keep in touch with friends and staff, and to share memories.
Checked out Twitter yet? It’s a micro-blogging platform that lets you send short (140 characters, max) instant messages about anything you like. You could tweet about your competition travels and favorite moments, and gain lots of followers (people who want to keep in touch with your brand). Looking to find a new choreographer or get some media coverage for an event? Tweet it out, and you never know what might come back. Parents may not be as active on Twitter as their children are, but they’ll hear about it from their kids. “Using every communication resource available just increases the likelihood of reaching everyone, which translates into great customer service,” says Joe Johnson, owner and president of ALLSTAR in Johns Creek, GA. “Parents tend to favor e-mail, while the kids tend to favor Facebook and texts.” Actively engaging in social networking shows that your gym is innovative and in touch, qualities that appeal on the gym floor, as well.
Why are your gym’s customer service offerings special? Could you sum up the reasons in three words? In three minutes? This little exercise, known as an elevator pitch (so named because it should be as brief as an elevator ride) is designed to illustrate what sets a business apart and makes a brand unique. If you can’t quickly describe the customer service specialties your gym serves up, it’s time to reevaluate what’s on the menu. All gym owners should consistently ask themselves why their customer service is the best, and the answers should be woven into the fabric of the gym—visible in the way staff greets parents, how athletes treat competitors—down to the language that’s on the gym’s Facebook page. Whether you’ve been in the game for years or only a few months, considering these elements is a creative way to test your customer service mettle. Once you’ve given some thought to what is and isn’t working for you, read on for our customer service tips and tales. We’ve covered much of what could impact your customer service, from employee training to creating an online presence (see box).
Part I: Service and Staff
Defining the Term
If there were only one definition of good customer service, the multitude of distinctive all-star programs wouldn’t exist today. Quality service isn’t about following a specific formula to the letter—it’s knowing what your gym does well and consistently improving on less-impressive factors. “Plain and simple, ‘good service’ is when athletes and parents feel consistently good about their experience with your business, and when gym employees feel they’re consistently delivering what the customer wants,” say Lise D’Andrea and Holly Buckner (president/CEO and senior manager, business development, respectively) of Customer Service Experts, a service-development consulting firm that helps organizations create an improved employee and customer experience.
Angi Dunham, owner of Capitol City Cheer (CCC) in Jefferson City, MO, agrees that customer service is built over time. “Customer service is an attitude of overall appreciation for your clients and athletes,” she says. “It’s a series of acts over time that strengthen relationships and build loyalty.” Now in its eighth season with 125 competitive athletes, CCC was the first gym in central Missouri. Dunham established a following by building a year-round stream of support for athletes and staff. “We return e-mails and phone calls within 24 hours, stay in constant communication with parent reps and fundraising volunteers, keep accurate bookkeeping records and are flexible yet consistent with athlete scheduling,” she says. CCC athletes receive acknowledgment for good grades and birthdays, as well as support during rough times, such as hospitalizations. Dunham’s actions instill a level of trust that keeps families coming back.
A Quality Team
Skill and talent are two of the most important qualities a potential coach must possess. But besides the physical and technical abilities children learn, many parents are drawn to the idea of a cheer gym becoming a second home for their kids, a place that facilitates children’s growth into healthy, responsible young adults. Developing a bond with staff can keep a family going back for years, while a run-in with an employee with attitude can send families right through the doors of a competitor. Mack and Janet Hirshberg, owners of Mac’s Allstar Cheer in Holladay, UT, have a unique way of maintaining the integrity of their staff—hiring only athletes who’ve grown up within the Mac’s system. “Thus far, we’ve only hired kids who’ve grown up in our program, have been with us for many years, know what we expect and know our system,” Mack says. “Each of our newer employees teams up with an experienced coach, so they have a constant support person.” In the eyes of families, for better or worse, staff represents the core values of an organization. Think of your staff as mirrors that families look to for a positive reflection of your gym.
Good staff starts with a good attitude. One underrated trait is friendliness. “The number-one attribute that determines success in customer service is a positive attitude,” say D’Andrea and Buckner. D’Andrea knows athleticism and teamwork—she’s a former two-time Division I NCAA Champion in Women’s Lacrosse and currently coaches girls lacrosse for Maryland United Lacrosse Club. “As simple as it may sound, you can’t teach someone to be positive and friendly,” she says. “A positive attitude is something you should require of every employee from day one.”
Joe Johnson, owner and president of ALLSTAR in Johns Creek, GA, agrees. “This is something that can’t be taught,” he says. “You’re either a friendly person or you’re not, and only friendly works when delivering great customer service.” He looks for employees who understand that without the customer, there’s no business. “The customer is the reason we exist and is responsible for everything we have,” he says. “Serving them [ital: is] our job.”
D’Andrea and Buckner recommend polling families on what they’d like to see from employees. “Feedback from customers can also help to determine the qualities in your staff that are most sought-after,” they say. “Do your customers want more expertise? Do they want coaches who like to have fun? Do they want both? Once you’ve established customer expectations, then you’ll know how to hire.”
Manage Morale
Good customer service will trickle down from staff to customers, so it’s a must to keep employee spirits high. You’ve taken so much care to curate just the right staff—make sure to funnel that same energy and spirit into acknowledging and rewarding their success. “Leadership must be present and engaged, acting as a role model through effective qualities, such as listening to concerns, asking for feedback and showing interest in their work,” say D’Andrea and Buckner. “Take the pressure off by implementing employee contests, allow for occasional social time outside of work and look for ways to engage employees and recognize performance.”
Part II: Service and Customers
Great Expectations
How do you balance client needs with your business’ capability? The Hirshbergs focus on a few key components. “Two things always come up—first, [customers] want their gym to be run like a business and they want to be well informed,” says Mack. “Secondly, customers don’t like surprises. They don’t want to fundraise at the last minute to pay for a tournament that wasn’t on the list. They want to know payment and practice schedules, attendance policies, uniform fees and sizing dates, competition fees, fundraising events, choreography fees and dates—this is a big one because most gyms do choreography during the summer and families want to be able to schedule vacations.” He prefers having their parent packet with the fee and event schedule for the entire season ready for when athletes join. “This impresses parents,” he says. “I also include our 10 FAQs.” Mack also counts on a secret weapon—Janet—who he says is focused, prepared and always has a game plan.
You might not have a Janet, but what special traits can you leverage to produce great customer service results? It could be as easy as listening and paying attention to what families want, and making sure you clearly communicate what you can deliver. “If our clients have a clear understanding about what they should expect from us and what we expect from them, the focus will never be misunderstood,” says Jason Janke, program director of CHEERZ Cheerleading Gym in Bountiful, UT. “Regular communication with parents and athletes will answer most questions before they’re asked.”
Money Matters
With the economic instability of the last few years, many families find solace in gym loyalty programs. “We have a sibling discount that helps families with one or more children,” says Amanda Shaw, owner and head coach of Planet Cheer in Twin Falls, ID. “We also run a fundraiser every month, and any proceeds go to that individual’s account to use towards anything cheer—such as tuition, uniforms, hotel and travel.” Some gyms, like CHEERZ, haven’t been so lucky and have had to discontinue their loyalty programs. But Janke notes that they’ve been lucky enough to retain 100 percent of the families who were using these programs, which goes to show how an investment in families can pay future dividends.
Most gyms participate in fundraisers, but have you taken the time to select a fundraiser that will inspire active parent involvement? Brittany Gessner, owner and head coach of Cheerworks Sparks Gym in Toledo, OH, takes the importance of fundraising to heart. In 2009, Gessner was awarded the Mentoring Award for Toledoan of the Year, which gave great exposure to the gym, but the recognition was overshadowed by the community’s financial struggles. Cheerworks aims to ease this burden with both individual and gym fundraising activities. “The individual fundraisers are geared to allow the families to earn money to pay their gym and competition fees, and gym fundraisers are designed to help keep overall gym costs down and to promote good morale,” she says. “The fundraising activities are extremely beneficial for those families who are seeing significant financial challenges in the recent economy.” Mac’s also offers options for older athletes to earn money for their frequent travel expenses, letting them choreograph and instruct beginner and stunting cheer camps, as well as high school tryout clinics.
Competitive Edge
Customer service is often the only thing standing between gyms competing for athletes. “In a small town, there’s always the pressure of being the gym that succeeds,” says Shaw. “I feel that staying current, making sure my gym and coaches are USASF certified and producing great athletes is what keeps my gym on top.”
Many gym owners are cultivating positive relationships with other organizations, resulting in sportsmanship and respectful athletes. “CHEERZ is located about 25 miles north of us,” says Mack. “CHEERZ is a great program and has been around much longer than we have. Fortunately we get along with each other very well. In addition to CHEERZ, we have about five gyms located within a five-mile radius. We don’t try to compete with the other gyms in our area as far as matching what they do—our belief is that we need to get out there, attend national meetings, certify our coaches and keep our staff well educated, so our parents and kids are confident that they’ve made a good choice to come to us.”
Don’t Get Too Comfortable
Don’t assume that because your gym brings home title after title, that your customer service skills are equally winning. “It’s typical for many gym owners to be so wrapped up in the day-to-day operations of running a program that they often don’t take the time to really sit back and assess that their paying customers are indeed happy with the money they’re spending,” says Jeff Watkins, owner of Cheer Industry Insights (see sidebar). “Gym owners wear so many hats and customer satisfaction often gets unintentionally overlooked.”
Competitive success doesn’t automatically translate into good service. Actually, garnering more wins can often inadvertently pull focus from maintaining good customer relations, if coaches and staff become so focused on wins that they don’t treat athletes and families with quality care. We’ve all heard stories of top-ranking teams whose attitudes left something to be desired. “Stay humble, no matter how successful you are,” says Shaw. “Always remember, you’re an influence and a mentor to children and can make a big difference in their lives. If you remember those things, you can’t go wrong.”
How to Handle Poor Service
Can your business bounce back from bad customer service? This depends on whether the incident reflects a rare case or a known history. Like good service, bad service worsens through word of mouth. “As a cheer parent, I’ve spent a lot of my time in the gym’s viewing areas sitting and chatting with other parents,” says Watkins. “When dissatisfaction is present, it’s amazing how much negativity fills the room.” He adds that, unfortunately, many parents involve their children. Athletes, particularly the teenagers, become aware of the issues and often fuel the fire, leading to an unhealthy atmosphere in the gym. He once saw a gym go from 130 members to 50 in a matter of months as a result of poor customer service. “It’s not that the gym owners didn’t care to provide good customer service, it just took a backseat to other more pressing issues” he says. “Once one or two kids decided they were going to look elsewhere for cheer, many of their friends (or parents’ friends) followed. Many of them decided to jump to another gym, but most ended up quitting all-stars altogether. Those parents are also the ones going around telling other parents that ‘all-star cheer is a waste of money.’ ” Watkins says that many parents actually feel that way and end up giving the community a bad name.
“Recovery from this is solely dependent upon the cause,” say D’Andrea and Buckner, who advise gym owners to see negative experiences as teaching opportunities. “Don’t just focus on making it right for the customer—determine why it happened in the first place, and then use the example as a teachable, coaching moment for your employees. As for a history of poor service, what do you think is the root cause? If it’s an ineffective leader and the leader is still in place, the business may never recover. If an organization simply needs to freshen its service practices, then there’s definitely hope for a turnaround. It all comes down to the commitment that a business wants to make to change, as change is the hardest part.”
Part III: Looking Forward
Cherish Your Successes
Take time to note all the ways in which your customer service efforts are successful, and share these victories with staff and families. Look at what’s working, and find ways to expand these moments into lasting tenets of your organization. Where do you see your customer service heading in the future? “I’ve received several thank-you letters and cards over the last few years, and that’s the best part of being a coach and owning a gym,” says Shaw. “Those are the things I’ll remember forever. That’s when I take a breath and tell myself, ‘You’re headed in the right direction and making a difference in kids’ lives.”
There’s no magic formula for good customer service, but gyms that get it right listen to their clients and staff, and expand on what works. “Good customer service means handling the needs of present, past and future clients in a timely and seamless manner,” says Janke. “People don’t randomly pick cheerleading programs. They came to us based on reputation or recommendation. That stands alone as a compliment and needs to be handled in that manner.”
So go back to your elevator pitch, and reevaluate what makes your gym tick. If you can explain it to yourself, chances are you’re exhibiting those virtues to your customers. If you’ve slacked off a little, you’ll get back on track. Great service is a marathon, not a sprint. “With a great service strategy, any organization can rise to the top,” say D’Andrea and Buckner. “Improved service will increase sales, strengthen employee engagement and retention, and improve the overall customer experience.”
CBN sat down for a chat with Jeff Watkins, cheer dad and owner of Cheer Industry Insights (CII).
CBN: What’s Cheer Industry Insights and how does it work?
Jeff Watkins: Cheer Industry Insights is a marketing services and research consulting firm providing support to all interests in the cheerleading industry. The focus is to help clients gain a solid understanding of the markets in which they’re trying to grow their brand, organization and profit.
CBN: How did you get started?
JW: I’m a cheer dad of seven years who’s been a marketing and research consultant in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries for the past 12 years. I see many parallels to the cheer industry and the need for solid business decision innovation. I hope to help cheer-centric businesses grow and succeed as they navigate in this emergent industry, by applying the same principles used by Fortune 500 companies, at a fraction of the cost.
CBN: How does your company serve the customer service needs of businesses?
JW: Cheer Industry Insights offers a customer satisfaction monitoring service known as Gym-Sat Monitoring Program. Designed specifically for the all-star cheer industry, Gym-Sat is a survey-based customer satisfaction and experience-tracking system that monitors the performance of a cheer program on multiple key satisfaction measures. There are four primary categories that have multiple performance scores within each: professionalism of staff and quality of instruction; communication effectiveness; facility condition, capacity, comfort; and performance and progression of teams/individuals.
Gym-Sat immediately allows gym owners to identify areas of weakness that need improvement; identify areas of strength that can be leveraged; determine, with confidence, their program’s performance level according to customers and any apparent changes that need to be addressed; determine the degree to which customers are proponents of the program and are committed to helping it grow; and determine the degree to which the program consists of “at risk” customers compared to those who are “loyal” customers.
Our Gym-Sat monitoring program provides owners of gyms large and small with a continuous pulse on their customers. Think of it as an early alert system that will allow you to identify areas of discontent so you can address them, well before it’s too late.
A satisfied customer leads to a loyal customer, resulting in your growth. The key is to understand how to get them there.
CBN: How can businesses determine what good customer service means?
JW: Look at membership numbers year-to-year. If they’re increasing, then the customer service you’re providing is good; if they stay the same, service isn’t good enough; if it’s declining, there’s a good chance you’re not providing the level of service necessary to grow your program. A satisfied customer leads to a loyal customer. If gym owners can get their customers emotionally invested in the program, they’re definitely headed in the right direction. A parent who’s emotionally invested is much less likely to shop around for another program or activity for their child. I’ve always said that a gym with 100 kids should ultimately have a sales force of 300 individuals—cheer mom, cheer dad and cheerleader. If they’re truly satisfied with the program, they’re telling everyone they know outside the gym to bring their kids to check it out.
CBN: What are your tips for training staff on customer service etiquette, and monitoring service?
JW: Again, monitoring performance in key areas is critical. I mentioned earlier that professionalism is a key component of the performance measures included in Gym-Sat. Specifically, it measures the following regarding the staff: perceived coaching knowledge and ability, effectiveness in teaching and communicating with the child, professionalism, attention to safety and a positive, encouraging and upbeat attitude. I wouldn’t recommend using this to monitor individual staff members, but I’d monitor as a whole, and if there seems to be a problem, investigate it and fix issues immediately.
CBN: How can employers keep staff focused on good customer service during challenging times, such as competition season, periods of low enrollment, etc.?
JW: Constantly reminding staff that customer service is a priority will keep it fresh in their minds. Remind them that their livelihood is based on their customer’s happiness. If a monitoring program is in place, it would be easy to offer results-based incentives to keep them actively looking for ways to focus on the customer. Focus on the parents of the younger athletes. Their kids are the foundation for growth and are the ones who have friends looking for new activities for their kids. They’re also more volatile and are more likely to leave to try something new.
Here are a few statistics that gym owners should be made aware of if they think providing poor customer service won’t impact their membership. (From the National Customer Satisfaction Study that CII conducted among 100 internet-active cheer parents or guardians of cheerleaders.)
- Two-thirds of respondents were previously members at other all-star gyms. That means that two-thirds had already left an all-star gym to go elsewhere.
- 44 percent are currently considering or have previously considered leaving their current gyms for another program or extracurricular activity.
- These are the best customers—cheer internet-actives—for the sport.
- Of the people considering/who have considered leaving the program, 62 percent are youth age or under.
For more, visit cheerindustryinsights.com.
BY: Lee Erica Elder
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