Recruitment. Retention. Revenue.
Recruitment, Retention and Revenue are all dependent on our people – the ones who connect with and facilitate the communities to which our members belong.
Every interaction, engagement and touch point between our organisation / brand, people and customers create a belonging. Every word we use, every behaviour we exhibit and the actions we take genuinely matter.
This human connection is founded in trust – how much do we trust each other and how do we build trust with our customers?
Recruitment: When we recruit the right people they attract more members – quickly building trust in our offering.
Retention: When we keep our people through our positive culture, development pathways and career opportunities, they work harder still to build that trust with customers.
Revenue: When we deliver added value through our people, research shows that members not only stay longer, increasing our income, but they also attend more frequently – increasing their spend as a result.
How do we attract and retain the right people?
We can start by asking ourselves the following questions:
What makes us an employer of choice where people want to be part of our team and something more significant?
Do our existing employees feel a sense of belonging while trusting that we are helping our customers?
Do we promise an inclusive performance culture where it is okay to fail as long as we learn – focusing on ‘sharpening our saws’ (Covey) through ongoing development?
Are we offering competitive packages that enable our people to become experts in their field or to move into other roles, including leadership?
Developing your brand’s culture and embedding your values into every cornerstone of the business will undoubtedly make your offering more attractive to both potential staff and customers.
How do we create a culture of loyalty in our business?
Post-pandemic, we have learned that human connection; spending more time with friends and family in environments that make us feel a sense of belonging is what the majority of us seek – so we need to ask ourselves the following:
What if we moved our facilities beyond accessible to helpful; from exercising to experiencing, from equipment to creating connection?
What if personalised communication were adopted to create more connections and build communities?
What if our facilities encourage social gatherings – a place that offers movement, activity, exercise and recovery in the same way a coffee house sells coffee and muffins?
What would it take to achieve this?
As industry professionals we need to elicit feelings of safety, comfort and belonging. We also need to seek out products or solutions that encourage learning, communication and relationship building.
Developing your team’s emotional intelligence, communication skills and sense of belonging will improve the human connection you deliver.
How can we deliver additional products, services and solutions that encourage and facilitate secondary spending?
By knowing our audience, and clearly defining our values we can get creative when it comes to developing and delivering value:
What experience are our members seeking?
How can we better support them?
What other services do they spend their money on?
How can bring these ‘other’ services to them under one roof?
Can we create a sense of belonging and community?
Looking at trends and insights in the sector and utilising data from Leisure DB we can identify new and unique propositions that if we adopt early enough we can add value and increase the opportunity for additional revenue.
Excelsior Development Technologies has developed numerous workshops around ETHOS, EXPERIENCE and EXERCISE EFFECTIVENESS.
For more information contact andy@edt.education