Community

Time for change

Everything changed when Beth Egan, Universal’s GF Manager, was willing to put her neck on the line and stop providing freestyle classes and replace them with pre-choreographed experiences.  The owner, Rick Casselberry demanded that in exchange for his investment in equipment, training and mandatory cross - club support of GF, Beth had to prove that GF could contribute to business success, rather than being a resource hungry cost base!   Given Universal is premium priced  (USD 65 per month) compared to its large chain and independent local competitors (USD 10 – USD 35 per month), this growth story packs a punch.

Within 13 months GF had outgrown its 1,200 ft² studio and moved on to double its capacity to 2,400 ft², where it could accommodate up to 50 more people.  18 months later, (in April 2005), these two studios were superseded, so that today, GF has an empire of 4 studios to deliver extraordinary fitness experiences to members.  Universal can service up to 190 attendees in any one timeslot and enjoys circa 70% capacity usage during the week.  Today GF services 28% of total weekly club attendances from its 10,000 members to this multi-use facility.

Meeting the needs of different target markets

Beth has grown GF by focussing on delivering to the club’s vision of being a top family fitness centre.  Recognising that of their 10,000 members, circa 65% are > 18 years old, with a median age of 41, Beth crafted a timetable to meet different groups’ needs.  

For example, with many member couples having young children, Beth works closely with Kids Club and designs her peak timetable to exploit the maximum 2 hours stay for children in childcare.  Consequently, back-to-back workouts are an option for time-short parents with 5.30pm BodyPump followed by 6.30pm RPM or a 6.30pm BodyFlow.  

To service the needs of both less fit seniors and time-pressured office workers, Beth offers 45 minute format Express Classes.  Everyone is happy – office staff secure a satisfying workout within their lunch break and seniors can improved their fitness in a shorter class format.

It’s no surprise that 30% of Universal’s GF attendees are men, even though many facilities around the world enjoy less than 10% male participation within GF.  The key has been making sure that each of the 6 Les Mills programmes has 1 male instructor, each of whom invite male members to sample BodyPump, RPM and BodyCombat off the cardio floor.

Then Beth adds choice into the mix to ensure that members who can’t get into oversubscribed classes at peak times have an alternative class to join. Hence RPM and BodyCombat are in the same timeslot or BodyPump and BodyAttack!

Taking the intimidation out of GF for members

A year ago, Beth introduced another initiative to help new and existing members walk into Group Fit for the first time.  Reception or Membership Consultants encourage existing and new members to try a GF Ambassador class, if they are not already GF devotees.  These members sign up and receive a badge to identify Ambassador status.  On entering the studio, they receive a welcome, assistance with set up, and company during the work out from a Universal employee, who is also a class participant.   Universal offers 19 of its 120 weekly classes as Ambassador classes and has received resolutely positive responses from members….and so GF attendance continues to grow.

Instructor rewards build a top team

The final factor for success has been Beth’s ability to attract and develop superb Instructors.  Consequently she has managed to secure exclusivity with all 37 Instructors, even the 24 part-timers.  Instructors compete to work at Universal because they are recognised as fitness professionals and rewarded as such.  Benefits include free membership to Universal and free childcare.  Instructors are paid for regular quarterly relaunches for existing members, reimbursed for music costs and partially funded for training in addition to their class rates.  Universal highlights that whereas Personal Training can impact members 1-to-1 or 2-to-1, GF Instructors can impact at a rate of 70-to-1 and so are important and extremely valuable.

Beth’s leadership has built awe-inspiring success for GF within Universal.  It’s not always been easy for her, making decisions that are sometimes unpopular with the Instructor team.  Yet Beth’s numbers speak for themselves as we witness one of the 4 GF studios, which can fit 80 comfortably, already has 110 people booked in advance for a BodyJam launch class during May!   The question is, when will they build GF studio number 5?

Universal Athletic Club is an independently owned facility in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA and has 6 Les Mills Programmes.

*Retention has been calculated using the IHRSA formula of [1-(Aggregate dropped memberships for 12 months/12 month average beginning memberships) *100%]

Phillip says….

This is a superb example of the payback received from whole heartedly committing to goal and an unceasing passion to succeed.  Beth’s insistence on ‘doing it her way’ from day 1 of pre-choreographed GF, demonstrates the power of Key Element 7 of the Group Fitness Management System, “Plan for Success”.  Her willingness to lead both club management and members to enjoy the benefits of Group Fit, shows the vision required of a great GF Manager as outlined in Key Element 8, “Appoint or be a World Class GF Manager.”

Yet it is the ability to secure exclusivity from Universal’s Instructors that was particularly of interest to me.  Knowing that great Instructors can be hard to find, Universal’s position of enjoying Instructors competing to work at the club is a great achievement.  By recognising Instructor’s importance to both GF and overall club success through a combination of financial and non-financial rewards, GF has been able to service the expanding range of classes and retain excellence at the same time.  Universal provides a role model for Key Element 3 of the GF Management System – "Recruit world class instructors and keep them.”