Tips for maximizing your front desk productivity

This post is going to seem a bit exaggerated. Still, when it comes to maximizing your team members’ abilities working the front desk, you may be able to quickly identify a future star in the making who will move up the ranks in your gym vs. someone who is looking for an easy job that fits their schedule. 

We will skip over the interviewing and hiring process and come back to that for another blog post, but let’s begin with expectations for now. 

It’s always essential to remain on-brand with your companies methodology. Of course, you never want to negate that, but once you’ve established those core competencies, you can begin to stand out within the system by going above and beyond in your process. 

For example, most gyms will ask that their front desk: 

• Greet members with positivity
• Answering the phones 
• Completing purchases
• Where forms are located
•  Member Check-in
• Knowing policy (Gym hours, age limits, when to involve a manager)
• The cancellation process
• Reviewing member accounts
• leaving notes on accounts
• and more

It possibly can seem overwhelming, or you may feel like you are inundating them with many responsibilities. In my experience, I believe these are just the steps of how to do your job correctly to align with company standards. Will some be better than others at the beginning? Of course, but history has shown me that the ones you can challenge do progress and end up being the same team members who stick around long term. Typically if someone is finding their job easy, they will continue to favor the route that keeps that environment vs. stepping into their challenges, and sooner than later, you’ll be looking for a new team member. 

As I mentioned at the top of the post, Once we are compliant with standard front desk practices, we then set ourselves apart by providing next-level service that benefits: 

1. The Members & Guest
2. The Business
3. Themselves

All at the same time. 

The below list are some examples: 

• After each end of shift, have the team member run a check-in report and give it to the manager to check off. The manager will look for any check-in alerts that showed a person with a past due balance worked out or was denied access. Regardless, notes must be on the account & the team member should be able to address what happened during that interaction. (Result: This helps the business stay on top of past dues, If we catch the past due fast enough, this can help the member avoid paying late fees & the team member learn the importance of taking ownership of the desk during their shift)
• Shift goals – Each shift, the team member has to set up the following: Book someone for a class they’ve not tried before, recommend a beverage that someone didn’t intend on purchasing, Schedule a member on a free PT session & give out at least three guest passes. (Result: The business gains revenue in products sold, our group fitness has a new face to introduce to classes, a trainer has a new person to workout and possibly sell a package too, the membership team has 3 new leads to follow up with, the member is introduced to new avenues of the business that can impact their longevity with the company & the team member learns the valuable skill of suggestive selling. 
• Corporate Leads – Let be honest, there is an abundance of members who will hang out at your front desk daily and just stay chatting with the team member. Usually, a good team member will engage with the member for a brief time before making themselves busy and politely tell the member they have to go stock the fridge or clean their area. Because our front desk team member has established a report with the member, I have management roleplay with the front desk on how to segway into questions that uncover where they work and what they do there. They may work for a chain that has a corporate partnership established with us, or they could own their own business and have ten or more employees. The front desk team member can be organically qualifying the member, and they can say something along the lines of ‘I noticed you’re paying $ per month, and we have corporate accounts that are discounted. I’m going to give my manager your email to reach out and send some info about those rates; maybe your business qualifies. Here the business is gaining a corporate lead, the member may potentially get a discount on their dues for their employees and themselves, and lastly, the team members are learning how to qualify a corporate lead. 

I will stop there for the time being and allow you to grasp those ideas; at the end of the day, it’s super important that you maximize your staff and enhance their capabilities. Your ROI can be excellent for your business, and by challenging your team members, you’ll notice where some stand out, and these can potentially be indicators that allow you to invest more time in their development and perhaps promote them to other positions within your club. 

Like and share this article if you agree with these suggestions, or let us know the way you challenge your front desk team. Don’t forget together we’re stronger!