Group class instructor – only a trainer or already an account manager?

I often have to argue with an opinion that a good group class instructor is the one with huge theoretical knowledge, having many courses and workshops diplomas and being just an expert in what he/she is training. Many assume that those are key elements to say that this person is the right one on this position and fulfills his responsibilities in the best way possible and, of course, will have always classes full of people. The reality might be completely different.

Take time and check statistics from PerfectGym management software reports. Compare the number of attendees for each group instructor and try to answer 2 simple questions: are they professionals? Well, they have to be – otherwise they would not  come up to expectations and challenges of  group classes. Do they have the same character? No, this seem pretty obvious. They have their own way of behaving in the club and during classes, general attitude towards customers andsense of humor etc. If you cannot compare your group class instructors occupational experienceeasily, I  would focus more  on specific traitsof character that bring more and more members.

Trainer’s goals

A group class instructor has a serious role in creating  overall health club experience which easily translates into total number of customers, their level of satisfaction, their loyalty and frequency of purchases.  As an gym owner or manager you should definitely take care of proper understating of the role  such instructors play in a club. Their behavior towards members is a part of general customers service. It also says a lot about them as employees and if they know clearlywhat is expected from them within the club’s internal strategy framework. Our task here is to answer the question what is anticipated from our group class trainers first and later to communicate it clearly to them and check if they work towards that expectations and share the same values. Such an observation will help you with the future employment strategy which should focus not on hiring excellent professionals who just jump in and out from the club for classes, but professionals who give something extra, pass our gym goals and are skilled psychologists by the end of the day.

The best ones

Our members often cannot truly judge how skilled and advanced, from the training perspective, our trainersare. They will talk about a bad or good instructor depending on their overall experience which consists of: the way they felt during the classes, if the instructor took care of them, gave an extra tip or advice, if he/she cared enough, praised them or corrected them, found time before, during and after classes etc. Best trainers, who have full group classes schedules, have great psychological abilities and use them to influence the customers. They understand how gym members perceive reality, how they think  and what makes them feel good. What seems at first a bit exaggerated makes perfect sense later on: our group class trainer should carry classes and during the whole gym presence fulfill our customers physical, psychological and social needsaccordingly. We can experience a situation where a true specialist will be perceived as a bad trainer due to the lack of social skills and a real interest in our customers. Building strong relation, communicating and simply showing how important our members are is crucial and cannot to be underestimated. Our group class trainer works just as a key account manager taking care of the most important business partners  - our customers.