Some Brisbane Guy

Today should be the last time Fitness First ever take money from my credit card. Amen. Never did I think this day would arrive.

I know that it’s today because it’s written on my Fitness First “Departure Application” form. Yes it is called an “Application” because the process of leaving applying to leave Fitness First is more grueling than their RPM classes.

The first thing to do when you want to quit Fitness First is make an appointment to see your “Customer Care Manager” — I feel so loved and cared for. Making this appointment is not the easiest thing to do if you have a life of your own; there’s only a few appointments per day and they were well booked at both Mt Gravatt and the Brisbane City Fitness First gyms I checked.

So my appointment was booked and the man behind the desk said that he would put a note in his computer to say that I’d asked to quit that day (a Wednesday, my Departure Application appointment was the next Tuesday) so that I wouldn’t be billed an extra two weeks. Nice.

I turned up at my appointment on the Tuesday at lunchtime. My caring Customer Care manager was about 15 minutes late — I’m not the most punctual person ever so that didn’t really bother me but he did blame his receptionist in the first sentence he said to me. Good one.

After that, my Departure Application Interview went something like this:

CCM (Customer Care Manager):

So what did you think of Fitness First?

Me:

Well I felt pressured into joining in the first place, I was never shown an exercise program or given any assistance except by a paid personal trainer, and if I didn’t visit for a while nobody called to check how I was doing or encourage me to come back. Other gyms I’ve been to did both of those things.

CCM:

Well, Fitness First is really aimed at the more savvy gym user…

Me:

Well I just thought for the amount you are charging — I mean I’ve paid $960 in membership over the last year and I would think that should include some assistance…

CCM:

Well obviously we aren’t setup to do that, we can’t provide that [blah blah blah x amount of members etc etc excuses as weak as the receptionist one]

Me:

Well obviously you guys have your reasons but I just think for the amount I was paying I want more for the money.

CCM:

OK so what are you doing now; are you quitting because you haven’t been using your membership or because you have somewhere else to go like a gym at work or something?

Me:

Well I am moving and I will have a gym at home, yeah, and there is one at work as well.

CCM:

Because if you feel as though it is too expensive, we do have cheaper options like one for ~$17/fortnight which gives you a single visit per week…

Me:

No.

CCM:

…or there are other options like you can sell your membership to somebody else if you have friends or family who might want to take it over…

Me:

[thinking...as if I am going to inflict this on a friend or family member] But if I sign this form I’m out, right?

CCM:

Yep that’s it.

Me:

*signs form* OK, thanks.

So that was that. I guess we will see whether I am billed by Fitness First on 3rd May; won’t the fun and games begin if I am!

So that’s it — I’m a Fitness First member until 2nd May, 2007 and then no more! Woohoo!

Two things though.

Firstly, Fitness First is so not a gym just for “gym savvy” people, it’s marketed and branded to attract beginner gym-goers with its friendly, slick, non-threatening image with shiny machines and no dirty old weights being slung around by huge sweating blokes. That statement from the CCM was just rubbish.

Secondly, how hard would it be to provide the extra service? A person to sit and call people who haven’t been in to the gym for a while wouldn’t be an expensive exercise; you don’t need qualified personal trainers for that, just somebody who sounds nice on the phone. I would guess that to cost maybe $40,000 a year including all extra crap like recruitment and whatever else goes along with having a person employed.

But, of course, you couldn’t oversell your membership as much because your members would be in the gym, using the equipment, instead of at home on their couches!

Having a personal trainer just floating around the gym all the time helping random people with their workouts wouldn’t cost that much more than the phone person. Let’s say they cost $60,000 a year including all the extras.

That’s $100,000 a year for both staff, or about 100 members’ membership costs. If you believe the Fitness First website, there are 330,000 FF members and 79 gym locations according to the gym search. That means there’s an average of 4,177 members per gym, and that each gym should average $4 million in revenue per annum.

Spending $100K to provide good service doesn’t seem like much of a chunk out of $4m+ a year per gym, does it?

Goodnight…