Community

Highly qualified staff

Consequently, they sourced a team of highly educated fitness professionals to staff the club and included the Les Mills System in their business mix. They wanted to exploit the benefits of rigorously trained Instructors who would be able attract people to their classes with consistently world-class experiences.  Rachael Walker is Peak’s GF Manager and during her 10 hours per week in this role, she has been able to build a lean, mean attendance machine, working closely with her Instructors.

Rachael leads her team from the front.  As an Instructor herself, she understands their motivations and also values their input on how to make GF even more successful.  Andy and Charissa will often contribute ideas and provide formal approval only where money is to be spent on a specific promotion.  They allow the GF team the autonomy to build a great future for GF within Peak.

A wide range of innovative GF promotional activities

Rachael and Peak’s Instructors continually look at how to increase attendance in GF.  As you would expect, every quarter they relaunch their 5 Les Mills programmes with Instructors encouraging members to bring a friend using guest passes they hand out.  Some stand-out relaunch events include a red carpet evening, where attendees dressed up to work out and a rock concert where there was a smoke machine, special lighting and crazy outfits.    Members and guests loved it and look forward to every quarterly party.

Internal promotions 

Within the club membership, Peak tries to innovate regularly.  So for summer 2006, they are planning 4 outdoor events including two BodyBalance classes on the beach.  The benefit to Peak is that members who do not attend GF try it out in a very relaxing and beautiful environment.  Members sign up and pay a fee and then Peak will take them on a mini bus to a gorgeous beach for the session. After the class everyone will have a BBQ, wine and enjoy the sunset. 

Recognising that there is a “BodyStep and BodyPump addiction” at Peak, the club designed a promotional strategy which the members have embraced with a vengeance.  The 30-day challenge requires you to do 30 GF classes in maximum of 30 days and must include every GF programme offered by Peak.  Members who compete in the 30-day challenge are entered into a prize draw and the winner gets a month’s membership for free, a massage and some free time on the sun capsule!

The 30-day challenge is very popular with Instructors, because they love the buzz of the extra faces in class.  Members really go for it – they compete against each other as to whom can finish the challenge first and Peak benefits because more people try GF across the full range of programmes offered.

The club also offers sporadic promotions over a weekend or during a specific week where non-members can come to Peak and try any GF class for $2.  Using word of mouth as their most effective marketing tool, this helps get new people into the club.

External profile raised

Peak management also looks at how to get GF and the club noticed more widely, with outreach strategies. Peak holds GF classes for BodyCombat and BodyAttack at local High Schools.  It pays to get people ‘hooked’ on fitness early!  It also holds BodyJam classes for 8-10 year olds at the club.  As Rachael explains, “the kids go crazy”. 

Making the most of Andy’s top rugby contacts, the regional rugby team, the Hawkes Bay Magpies, now does BodyBalance as a core part of their training regime.  Apparently, the Coach is delighted with the effect the class is having. 

Taking advantage of the theatrical impact GF can deliver, Peak perfomed half time routines from the Les Mills programmes at 3 recent basketball matches for the regional team, the Hawkes Bay Hawks.  Rachael summed it up by saying “it was a great way to show that GF offers excitement, a tough work out (with no leotards and tights) to a very large audience of sport enthusiasts”.

Instructors as the X factor

In addition to a wide range of promotional strategies, Peak knows that their Instructors are a critical X factor in their success.  Rachael makes sure that Instructors are very involved in tracking performance and offering ideas for fixing occasional classes that are struggling.  All counts are in the “Attendance Book” and everyone checks out what’s happening across the timetable.  Instructors even ring each other spontaneously, providing ideas to help out with class numbers. 

At the same time, if a class is struggling and the ideas to fix it are not working within 2 – 4 weeks, Rachael will look at removing or replacing the class.  The Instructors have an opportunity to contribute to this process, which helps motivate them to increase class numbers.  And if required, Rachael will make the tough call to remove classes in order to maximize the timetable.

Peak’s Instructors are hugely passionate about their programmes. For example, one Instructor has created an early bird newsletter for her 6 am devotees.  She includes diet tips, fitness advice and fun gossip for her followers. Another Instructor has “try something new Thursday” so she always brings in a plate of unusual food for everyone to taste and attendees have started to contribute too!

Instructors are rewarded for contribution

Understandably, Peak looks after its Instructors.  Pay rates vary depending on whether an Instructor is fully certified, how many programmes they can teach and level of experience.  They also receive free membership once they are ready to teach, enjoy a great social club, which is heavily subsidized by Peak and are rewarded with prizes for the recently introduced - Instructor of the Quarter.  The most recent winner received their new programme releases for free, were handed a special certificate and a big bunch of flowers.

To make sure that certified Instructors stay inspired, Rachael drops into classes and provides regular constructive criticism on areas for improvement. She also encourages Instructors to go to quarterly workshops to immerse themselves in being the best that they can be among their peers.

What next for Peak GF?  Well, Rachael is planning a vision session with her team to inspire them to greater achievements by generating a specific Vision for GF as well as personal visions for each of the Instructors.  She expects the outputs of the vision session to support reaching a critical benchmark. Peak aims to fill their studio capacity of 50 people regularly across their timetable of 24 classes each week.  It’s clear Peak GF is on a mission and based on their track record, they will find the right strategies to succeed. Go hard!

Peak Health & Fitness Centre is a privately owned club in the Havelock North, New Zealand and has 5 Les Mills programmes

Phillip says……….

This is a great illustration of management backing their GF Manager and Instructors to build success.  Rachael balances a consultative approach to GF planning with a readiness to make the tough decisions.  She monitors attendances and budgets closely and hence is able bridge the two worlds of Instructors and club management with great skill.  Add to that, I know that she also has another part-time role as GF Manager of another club in the area – her efficiency and passion are a lesson to us all.

Rachael shows us what it takes to be an outstanding GF Manager, as outlined in Key Element 8 of the GF Management System “Hire or Be a Great GF Manager”.  The promotional activity both inside and outside the club highlights the benefits from consistent efforts to keep GF fresh, exciting and challenging.  I was particularly impressed with their external profile initiatives – being the show in the interval of a regional sports event is superb, as is bringing BodyBalance to the regional rugby team.  Peak lives and breathes Key Element 6 “Create a GF Marketing Plan”.  Well done guys – keep it going.