Community

A growth phenomenon

In this backdrop, Mica Mitchell has grown average capacity usage across all timeslots on her timetables from 52% in July 05 to 66% in July 06.  As the youngest Instructor on the team at 22 years old, Mica took over the role of GF Manager 2 years ago and due to her passion and commitment has inspired her Instructor team to huge success. 

Packed with energy and certified to teach 5 Les Mills programmes, Mica struggled to find enough Instructors to teach the club’s 51 weekly classes when she began as GF Manager in July 2004.  Today, she enjoys the privilege of ‘having too many Instructors wanting to teach” her 59 classes.  The unifying factor for this improvement is her vision and joy in “seeing how we truly change peoples’ lives for the better.”  Quite simply – she and her team love what they do and Mica is adamant that the members are attracted to GF, as it offers a hotspot of positive energy and fun, while attendees get results working out!

Keeping a close watch on attendance trends

FAC monitors attendances every two weeks in its 2 studios and the RPM Zone. Mica measures all actual attendances against class targets and has a ‘red lighting’ strategy for less successful classes.  If a class is performing at less than 30% of its target, the Instructor has 4 weeks to turn it around before it is deleted and replaced by a more successful class.  On the flip side, classes that are achieving 75% or more of target are candidate classes to expand the timetable, or replace struggling classes.

Looking after Instructors

Mica has fostered a culture of pride and passion in her 35-strong Instructor team, who are all part time teachers.  The team is not in it for the money, yet Mica is planning to review current pay rates, which range from USD 15 – USD 19 per class. She recognizes the impact her Instructors have on attendances and member experience and so wants to reward Instructors for their achievements.  She is currently considering various strategies to put this in place, including a possible model of a flat rate per class plus a fee per attendee. 

Instructor contribution is also recognized by FAC providing them with free membership.  If Instructors teach 3 times per week or more, they have family membership, free access to kids club, tennis and are also charged cost for Personal Training, massage and beauty treatments etc which are offered in this multi use facility.  Instructors pay for Module training and quarterly releases and Mica finds this ongoing investment by teachers encourages commitment to their continued excellence in class.  By exception, Mica may opt to pay for quarterly releases for Instructors with the proviso that FAC has exclusivity from them!

In-club activities to promote GF

Mica and her team currently focus on growing attendance from within the club.  To keep current GF devotees coming back and also aiming to recruit new attendees, quarterly relaunches are a must.  The members really look forward to each event and checking out what themes the Instructors will chose.  To make the relaunches bigger, individual classes are held in the basketball court.  So at a recent relaunch, 130 people maxed out doing BODYATTACK® with the added bonus that lots of members could watch the class from the viewing balcony.  Mica knows that being a spectator is a no-risk way to witness the GF experience, and this has been an effective tool to recruit more members into classes.

Instructors create promotional ideas

Instructors have also generated some other great initiatives such as “the Les Mills Challenge.”  Here, Instructors award points to attendees by signing their card in each class they take.  Attendees get one point for attending alone, 2 points for bringing a female friend and 3 points for bringing a male friend. A card has 20 points and members can enter as many cards as they want.  Typically, FAC runs this type of promotion a month before relaunch, to boost awareness of GF and that a GF party is coming up which everyone should attend.

Despite a relatively modest prize of a free massage or unlimited guest passes, members have adopted this promotion with a vengeance.  Mica attributes it to the added connection members get with Instructors, where every attendee can talk to the Instructor after each class.  With a least 40 people in a class, this can take a bit of time – but the Instructors back it all the way.

Networking to drive word-of-mouth

It also helps enormously that Mica is a born networker!  She has worked at FAC for 6 years so she know loads of members and is well connected with staff across the club.  Lots of employees take GF classes, Mica does employee bulletins on what’s happening in GF and has signs wherever she can get them to highlight GF is amping!  Add to that, Mica’s special personality has caused her to have a weekly TV slot on general fitness, where for a few of minutes she advises on exercise such as, how to keep moving, properly executed push-ups, weight loss, training in the heat etc.  And if there is a relaunch coming up – Mica always invites everyone to come along!

The ‘piece de resistance’ is that Mica has a created a database of email addresses of every member who attends GF, so she can let them know what’s coming up for their extertainment on a regular basis.

Outreach activities help build awareness of GF

External GF awareness tends to occur due to outreach activities e.g. Mica had recently done a seminar in local schools on child obesity. Another forum where Mica and the team have created profile is by doing mini-demonstrations of classes at a select number of health fairs and a Nurse Convention for 150 school nurses!

Yet all this success isn’t enough for Mica.  She wants to take GF to the next level and create revenue directly from GF events.  With more success, her budgets will increase and she and her team can deliver more life changing experiences to more and more people every week. 

No doubt Mica and the team will make this happen, using their passion to deliver the full potential of GF to both members and club management.

Fayetteville Athletic Club is a privately owned club with 5 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….

Group Fitness is well recognized as a ‘retention engine’ and Mica, Travis and their team overcome some significant challenges to deliver excellent retention of 67%.  Further the team has consistently achieved retention of over 60% in the last 3 years.  With month-to-month membership and no pricing advantage over local competitors, their ability to keep members coming back is inspiring.

I was particularly interested in FAC choosing the youngest Instructor to be the GF Manager back in 2004.  While Mica had already been a FAC for 4 years as an Instructor, identifying Mica for her leadership and vision was a superb piece of management insight.  Mica demonstrates the commitment and clarity needed in a top  GF Manager, as explored in Key Element 8 of the Group Fitness Management System “Hire or Be a Great GF Manager”.  Her commitment to build growth and retention by keeping a very close watch on attendance numbers is a role model for GF Managers everywhere and brings to life the tools suggested in Key Element 1 and 2 of the Group Fitness Management System, “Create A Scorecard” and “Maximise your Timetable.”  It’s going to be fascinating to hear about FAC’s successes in creating revenue from GF events.  Congratulations Mica, on your mastery of GF Management.

If you want to check out how to create GF events for profit, check out http://groupfitprofit.lesmills.com/archive/category/1019.aspx