I've just been violated (well.. my expectations)

[McFirewavesJr]

I get to travel a lot due to my parallel career in fitness, so I'm often visiting new gyms and I've had memberships in places ranging from cheap to very expensive monthly fees. For the record, there's usually a strong correlation with price and quality in the field of training facilities.

I'm currently back in my home town for a few months and there's this new franchise that market themselves as very cheap (3x cheaper than the average membership). I decided to give it a shot. How bad can it be anyways? I used to be a personal trainer, so I figured out I could get the job done even if the equipment was old and/or missing. So I show up there and.. what?

1) Brand new equipment
2) Modern & clean look
3) Plenty of space, machines, weights, etc.
4) Free unlimited tanning
5) Free unlimited massage bed
6) Free unlimited massage chair

Sign up took 5 minutes on computer stations and had 3 simple payment options. The whole gym was supervised by only 2 employees, who were extremely polite and helpful. Long story short, in an hour I had a tour of the facility, a workout, a tanning session, a great massage & my access card.

Talk about positively violating client's expectations. Needless to say I'm currently brainstorming on ways to do the same with my own business. So.. how do you violate YOUR client's expectations???

P.S. I thought it was very clever. They obviously cut everything that costed them without giving much value and replaced these things by cheap stuff that made clients really happy.. so simple, yet original.

 

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[devine]

This is not what word "Violate" means.

From your words, this gym is dumping. This is good for you and bad for them, as this kind of business model is unsustainable.

As for exceeding expectations, from my experience I think you shouldn't go extra mile for your customers/clients.
Yes, as clients we all love this. Yes, it makes our clients rave about us.
But it always comes with a cost and makes your business associated with this extra mile.
This kind of approach makes a business heavier in maintainability.

If you look into serious brands you'll see that all of them deliver 100%. Not 101%.
Exceed expectations by being solid, this quality is much more rare than overdelivery.

 

[McFirewavesJr]

This is not what word "Violate" means.

From your words, this gym is dumping. This is good for you and bad for them, as this kind of business model is unsustainable.

This gym is awesome. Did you read the whole thing? Maybe it wasn't clear enough. Sorry about that!

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

 

[GuestUser155]

This gym is awesome. Did you read the whole thing? Maybe it wasn't clear enough. Sorry about that!

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

He's talking about the tense you used in the title.

It sounds un-PG.

 

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[TonyStark]

 

[TonyStark]

"Exceeded my expectations," violated sounds rapey.

 

[townhaus]

Thanks for the story.

"Exceeded my expectations," violated sounds rapey.

I think it was supposed to be a little suggestive. I don't think there anything wrong with it.

I'm pretty sure MJ wrote about 'violating' the commandment of control

 

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[McFirewavesJr]

Thanks for the story.



I think it was supposed to be a little suggestive. I don't think there anything wrong with it.

I'm pretty sure MJ wrote about 'violating' the commandment of control

He did. That's was my reference lol

 

[minirich]

I think MJ also writes about violating the expectations of customers in a good way.

Yes you should go the extra mile for your customers. But not any extra mile; especially those that cost more than they will bring in benefit.

It is written in the book that over delivering on customer expectations will bring you additional publicity because these customers will become your marketing soldiers.
//Bible speak off.

If you can convince your customers that you only have the best in mind for them they will be glad to tell somebody else about you.
If you just deliver their expectations, you have just this customer and not won an amplifier.
If you ever underdeliver to their expectations, you loose out big, bad reviews travle 7 times faster/furhter than good reviews; or the other way round you need up to seven good reviews to even out the one bad one.

 

[devine]

I think MJ also writes about violating the expectations of customers in a good way.

Yes you should go the extra mile for your customers. But not any extra mile; especially those that cost more than they will bring in benefit.

It is written in the book that over delivering on customer expectations will bring you additional publicity because these customers will become your marketing soldiers.
//Bible speak off.

If you can convince your customers that you only have the best in mind for them they will be glad to tell somebody else about you.
If you just deliver their expectations, you have just this customer and not won an amplifier.
If you ever underdeliver to their expectations, you loose out big, bad reviews travle 7 times faster/furhter than good reviews; or the other way round you need up to seven good reviews to even out the one bad one.

Do you have any experience in marketing?
Have you done any actual work over years for a single project, and with what degree of success?

Everyone can give advices based off books they read or brainless marketing work done for <5 figures businesses.
If you ever deliver 100% after having a history of delivering 125% - your business will be beaten to death. If your fitness club gets a raving client due to big discounts or additional free services, he will tell his friends about your fitness club precisely this: that you have big discounts and additional free services.
Meanwhile, you get 2 clients paying numbers you should get from 1 client. Your maintanance costs increase. Your positioning suffers, as your 100% offer will be undervalued. Your ability to scale becomes non-existent.

There are thousands of businesses that start with this foot, then bleed to death over years, either with net-profit % approaching a point of inadequacy of even running this business, or with requirement of 500 employees and a board of directors to hardly achieve what could have been not required at all, if a business would use more intelligent strategy to grow.
It's easy to buy customers and clients, it's hard to actually earn them.

_
Regarding a word "Violate" - it cannot be used in this context. Violating means delivering less than agreed on, not more.

 

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[minirich]

Sorry if I pissed you off,
but violating does not mean delivering less. It does just mean you are breaking an expectation, or ignoring an expectation http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/violating?s=t.
And he meant it in an lurid way, to get your attention and your emotions upset. (I think he succeeded.)

Probably i was not clear enough in this sentence:

Yes you should go the extra mile for your customers. But not any extra mile; especially those that cost more than they will bring in benefit.

Do the extra mile but measure exactly which mile you go.

I have worked for big corporations and startups and i have seen my share of failing.
They ignored customer expectations in a bad way, and all i coud do was sooth the upset customers.
In one company it even got that far that we had to employ security personell, keeping them from storming through the whole company disrupting normal business.

 

[devine]

Sorry if I pissed you off,
but violating does not mean delivering less. It does just mean you are breaking an expectation, or ignoring an expectation http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/violating?s=t.
And he meant it in an lurid way, to get your attention and your emotions upset. (I think he succeeded.)

It means "breaking expectations" strictly in a bad manner. To violate is "to treat violently", i.e. injure.
To effectively communicate, one need to understand the meaning of words he or she uses, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/violate or http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=violation are good resources for that.

Everything is good, you haven't pissed me off.

 

[E-Sharp]

To effectively communicate, one need to understand the meaning of words he or she uses,

Yet I got the OP's point.

 

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[ddzc]

The exact same thing happened here as well, might be the same franchise, $10/mth, a couple of employess, all brand new equipment, free weights, machines, etc...looked perfect. I signed up and cancelled a week later. Because the gym was so cheap, it was ridiculously packed at all hours, I couldn't even find a single machine or bench available. Probably the worst gym experience of my life...I would rather pay more and actually get a f'n proper workout done.

 

[MitchC]

Good post, I really like your posts Ford, right from the start you made nothing but good threads. Dunno whats up with all these stupid comments but I got the reference before even opening the thread.

 

[MitchC]

The exact same thing happened here as well, might be the same franchise, $10/mth, a couple of employess, all brand new equipment, free weights, machines, etc...looked perfect. I signed up and cancelled a week later. Because the gym was so cheap, it was ridiculously packed at all hours, I couldn't even find a single machine or bench available. Probably the worst gym experience of my life...I would rather pay more and actually get a f'n proper workout done.

Sounds like a similar gym we have here, cheap, no contracts, heaps of gear and rooms to dance in or whatever, sauna, massage, tanning, went once and quit because it was so full, I signed up on a contract to a worse, more expensive gym, with less gear and love it because the owner is such a people person it creates a great atmosphere with everyone who goes, who are all regulars.

 

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