We sometimes forget what it's like the join a gym or studio for the first time.

Of course, when someone new joins us for the first time we hope that they're excited - but almost everyone coming to your club will also feel at least a little unsure of themselves, and at most, absolutely terrified!

It's important that clubs initiate personalized, high quality touch points with new clients across the journey, to help them feel at ease and ready to take the next step on to getting fitter and healthier.

Today, we look at the coach connecting with the client after the class. This is a crucial step in the member experience, and could be as simple as asking "how was the session for you today?"

For bonus points, use their name as well!

Singapore's leading clubs are doing this the least at 35%, with London leading the way across our first three cities at 42%.

Are you doing this at your clubs? If not, initiating a high quality touch point and interaction after the session could make a big difference to your sales and conversion rates.

Here are three tips to improve in this area.

Build It Into Your Training

Build this into your coach or instructor training as an essential part of the member journey. Do role plays of the end of a session and brainstorm the kinds of questions to ask clients. Good examples include the simple but effective "how did you find the session today?" with a smile, or you can get specific to show you really care "how did you find the finisher today? It was a tough one!"

Educate Your Team On the WHY

When helping your team improve the member journey, don't just tell them they must do it - explain the why! The end result of connecting with the client will be they feel supported and like the instructor cares. There's more chance the instructor will have busier classes and be able to impact more people. If the instructor offers personal training, this is a great way to build up their client base.

Add In A Layer Of Accountability

If a friend joins your club for the first time, ask them if the instructor checked in with them after the class. Quietly observe instructors or join classes to see if they're connecting with clients, and offer feedback to help them improve. At The Fit Guide, we offer private evaluations to help improve the full client journey across 250 standards, which includes an instructor check in after the session.

Each week, we highlight a five-star fitness experience with one of our award-winners.

Today, we showcase Orangetheory's Manhattan Plaza-District location in New York.

Orangetheory's commitment to a great member journey from start to 

Our evaluations are conducted anonymously by highly-trained, incognito 'experience evaluators', and during our visit it was clear to see the club is committed to a great member journey from start to finish.

Here's what our evaluator had to say:

“The class experience was very slickly delivered from start to finish.”

"Everyone made an effort to bring me into their community!”

“The heart rate technology was very engaging and fun to use. The team explained how it worked very well.”