The Client Experience - Written by Keith Smith

In a recent article written for FitPro - Keith Smith explores how personal trainers can influence the client experience and positively drive client behaviour, leading to increased client adherence, retention and success.  

We can’t listen to a podcast, read an article, attend a workshop or view online learning without the term ‘experience’ being mentioned. However, what does ‘the  experience’ actually mean and how is it  different from a ‘service’? If we have a  reasonable understanding of ‘the experience’,  how can we apply our understanding to what  we do? And ultimately, and most importantly,  how does the client benefit positively from an  ’experience’ that is layered precisely on top of  a service?  

Let’s begin with the elephant in the room:  the fact that fitness and exercise to our members, customers and clients is basically free! With this in mind, in the context of a successful PT business, what we offer as PTs cannot just be fitness and exercise. Yes, an individualised pathway that supports a client to achieve their goals is massively important;

– it is the service; the act of help that PTs offer  

– however, in a competitive environment, there has to be more when aiming to captivate, charm, dazzle, woo, attract and  retain clients.  

As a trainer, only offering fitness and  exercise and the ability to create an  individualised pathway does not differentiate  me from the other trainers. If all I have to  offer a client is fitness and exercise, then  success – and we all perceive success  differently – is going to be very difficult when  I am competing for clients with other PTs who  offer the same, or competing against  something that is fundamentally free on social media and the internet in general. In  fact, the only way I could differentiate myself  is by reducing my price, which no one who  runs a business really wants to do. 

So, how do we differentiate ourselves? The PT ‘experience’ could be defined as  ‘occupying a space in the client’s mind,  beyond the primacy of the product’1 (the  product being fitness and exercise). If the experience is in the client’s mind, then the experience is defined by the client; the  experience is unique to the client. It is  pointless me telling a friend to go to a restaurant because it’s a great experience,  because every experience we have as  individuals is unique to us.  

Experience experts – and there are  many – reference an individual’s feelings, both in the moment and post experience, to help cement an  understanding of the experience. This  makes sense, as feelings are one way  we as humans interpret the world around us. The experience is how an  individual feels in a certain situation  in a particular moment, as well as how  they remember the moment; the experience is hyper-personal and, if  we get it right, it makes the client happier and increases the client’s   sense of wellbeing, which in turn drives behaviour that brings about increases in client adherence and retention.  

Feelings can be physical, such as “I am cold” or “this chair is uncomfortable” or psychological, such as “I feel uncomfortable  here; this is making me feel awkward” or “I  don’t belong here”. Within the context of PT,  both physical and psychological feelings are  continually influencing the client experience.  

The experience is NOT just the exercise, the  piece of equipment, the training approach;  although all of these things are hugely  important to success, as they do influence the  experience, there are feelings both positive  and negative related to exercise, choice, order  and intensity and the client’s current FLOW  state which, if a PT gets it right, will make  hours seem like minutes, assist in reducing  the client’s worries of the day and will increase  the client’s sense of self; however, fundamentally, the experience is the client’s  and the client’s alone. It’s the client’s  interpretation of what is happening, the  client’s perception, and all a PT can do is  continually attempt to try and influence the  experience via the creation of positive  moments and memories.  

For the client to see the value in personal  training – and price is only an issue in the  absence of value – there are multiple  considerations. One of the major considerations is based on what we do (fitness  and exercise) and creating an individualised  pathway that supports a client in achieving  their goal, ensuring what we do is safe,  effective, realistic and achievable; another is  based on how the client’s emotions/feelings  are elicited or evoked, both in the short term  via moments and in the long term via  memories.  

A ‘service’ or ‘service excellence’ is defined  as an act of help, as well as the ability to  consistently meet the client’s/customer’s  expectations, expectations being defined as a strong belief that something will or should  happen. In the context of personal training, a client’s expectations will likely be that the PT  has an excellent understanding of exercise, fitness, programming and the products on the  gym floor, and that the PT has good listening and empathy skills, responds quickly to the  client’s communications, is always on time, is prepared for every session and demonstrates  total focus during every session.  

There are positive feelings connected to  meeting the client’s expectations and they are  important; however, these feelings are  baseline, foundational or functional feelings. Meeting a client’s expectations are basically  feelings of satisfaction and quite possibly not  that memorable. 

As PTs we need to ask ourselves, are feelings of satisfaction enough to continually drive a client back? Are  feelings of satisfaction enough to add value  and to occupy a space in the client’s mind,  beyond the primacy of the product1 (fitness  and exercise)? 

PTs must continually strive towards  improving service excellence, reflecting on  their client offering, learning, developing and  improving the client journey from the first  touchpoint – which could be a website or  social posts – through the use of interactions,  via acknowledgement and small talk that  goes a long way in the creation of trust  (another important feeling in both the  building and maintenance of client  relationships) to the consultation and the  continual client reviews, to the use of  technology and digital, as well as session  delivery.  

Along with service excellence, PTs must bring value. Value is defined as not only what  the product or service does and its function,  which has worth, but as the individual’s  perceived emotion/feelings about what the  product or service says about them in a social  situation – the kudos, the prestige, the status. 

Valued brands not only do the job they are asked to do, but they also help define and  reinforce an individual’s self-image, their  personal values and beliefs, their tastes, and  also send a message to others about how  they want to be identified by those around  them and in their community. 

The clothes, shoes, trainers, accessories, cars, watches, bags and phones we purchase  all have feelings associated with them that  assist in telling or reinforcing our story – our  own unique narrative that we want to  communicate to the world – and personal  training is no different. 

A potential client will  get to a point where they recognise that they  need personal training; the pain of remaining  in their current situation may be too much,  they may need to change and they recognise  they require assistance. However, when  choosing and fundamentally remaining with  a PT, clients don’t buy the personal training  per se. Actually, they buy the feelings they  associate with a particular PT.  

Jean Baudrillard, a French sociologist,  suggested that individuals are driven by sign  value – what a product, service or object says  about an individual in a social context; an  individual’s perceived status, a feeling – and  that sign value also influences the exchange  value, which is how much someone is willing  to pay for that specific product, service or  object. 

As PTs, we must not only attempt to  deliver service excellence but we must also  ensure that what we offer is of sign value to  our audience; sign value could be seen as an influencer in the experience.  

To trigger feelings of sign value and the experience within the client that increases happiness, that sense of wellbeing and the reinforcement of an individual’s self-image  (which drives behaviour and increases adherence and retention, as well as creates those positive memories) PTs need to do the  following: 

1. Know their audience. The PT needs to  completely understand whom they are  targeting, as well as understand and feel  comfortable in the fact that not everyone is a  PT’s audience. I fully appreciate that, at times,  there is a requirement to generalise, when  perhaps entering the industry for the first  time to gain experience, to pay the bills, to  get established within a club; however, when  it comes to providing experiences, delivering  sign value and eliciting feelings that drive  behaviour, knowing one’s audience is  fundamental. Airlines, hotels and restaurants  all know their audience and they create, plan  and deliver products and services with the  specific aim to awaken particular positive  feelings within their audience that increase  happiness and wellbeing, which drives  individual’s behaviour. 

2. Understand their identity, story or brand.  
The PT also needs to have an identity or story  that is attractive to their audience and will  elicit the positive feelings within the client.  People buy into an identity, a label, and they  are willing to pay more for the privilege: “I  buy therefore I am”. As discussed previously,  what we wear, what we own, where we eat,  who we mix with reinforces in our own mind  who we are, and also sends a message to  others about who we believe we are and how  we want to be perceived. Identity is not our  qualifications, although qualifications are important. Identity is built around our  mission, vision, personal values, how we act  and our behaviour around others, the role we  play in-club and our performance. Some of  you may be uncomfortable with playing a  role, or performing, but we do it all the time;  when mixing socially, we are continually  acting, playing a role to get the most out of a  situation for others and ourselves.  

To be successful, PTs are required to set a  context (the circumstances that form the  setting for an event) and an identity is part of  the context; without a context, there are  limited emotions; without emotions, there are  limited feelings; and without feelings, there is  a limited experience, which will have an effect  on both adherence and retention, due to a  lack of drive that stems from the happiness  and wellbeing that comes from the feelings  created within the context of the event.  

The ‘experience’ is the client’s and the  client’s alone. It is the client’s current reality  and all a PT can do is continually attempt to try and influence the experience via the  creation of positive moments and memories,  ensuring that ‘service excellence’ is maintained in the context of delivering an  event, or series of events, that reinforce an  individual’s self-image, their personal values  and beliefs, their tastes, and that also sends a  message to others about how they want to be  identified by those around them and in their community.