We’ve all been there…
A client stops respecting your time, starts conflicts with other members, doesn’t comply with your policies, etc.
Sometimes you have no choice but to fire a client.
However, there are reasons you might want to fire a client that doesn’t fit into the typical “problem client” category.
In this episode, we cover:
- Why you may have to fire clients to get to where you want to be (complete with examples).
- A step-by-step framework you can use to make breaking up with clients seamless and easy.
- How to know when you need to terminate a client’s membership.
Plus much more!
If you think your current client roster is holding you back, this might just be the episode for you!
We know your business is also full of amazing clients that you love and appreciate. Once you have the right clientele, you’ll want to take great care of them and no tools helps you do that easier than Naamly! With Naamly, you can seamlessly connect with your clients and monitor important conversations between your clients and team. Start your FREE trial and take control of your business today!
Watch The Full Episode
Welcome to another episode of just one thing. We’re training gym owners get actionable insights to build a dream business. So I’m again with the legendary Tom Tom. Welcome. Welcome. Thank
Thomas Plummer: you. Good to be back.
Yeah. So what’s our subject today. Bring it on, man. Let’s go. Let’s go.
Sumit: Let’s go. So, Tom, uh, last time we spoke about. The concept of reinventing ourselves. And that got me thinking I had, like, I listed out three additional questions I had. So I’m going to ask you one at a time for this particular episode. I know you spoke about how, when you reinvent yourself, you’ve got to let go.
You have to be comfortable in letting go of your existing, some of your existing clients to embrace and make room and space for bringing in new client. The question is those clients have been with you, uh, they supported you in your journey so far. How do you break up with them? What do you say? And what do you not say?
Because you want, you, you built this gym for the community, and now suddenly you’re saying you don’t want to service them like that. From a, from an internal, it causes conflict internally. How do I, how do I grapple with that? I mean, I want to do right by my business, but I also want to do right by my clients.
Thomas Plummer: Uh, you’re being too subtle. You have to fire them. Sometimes you just have to fire the clients. If, if you think about it, it’s, it’s a very volatile mix in a gym. The most training gyms, if the right, all training gyms, you’re, you’re really dealing with the top 40% and your community by education and a full.
You know, we, we don’t get that typical, you know, uh, I always laugh, you know, Bubba has hats on backwards. He drives a beat up pickup truck lives in a trailer and he paid his $9 a month to belong to a change him, you know, he’s, he’s not our guy in the training gym. We usually get, you know, physicians, uh, school teachers, educators, doctors, uh, lawyers, attorneys, uh, we get people.
No money. They come to these gyms. The other side of that is that people with money sometimes stare, you know, I’m spending money in here. I want things my way. And they, and we have to work with assumption that a lot of people hate change. They, the first thing you say is. Boom. I’m going to make change in here.
I’m going to redesign the gym. Well, if you do this, I’m quitting. Um, I’m I’m, I’m out of here. Um, friend of mine has a very successful gym or had one for years and years finally sold it. It was 40, he had it 40 some years. It was the oldest gym of all Louisiana. And he, uh, got rid of the gym, but there’s a time in there where we took out a bunch of.
Uh, black, blue and black Nautilus chain driven. That’s the old, it was, there was a room of it. And there was probably 30 old guys that used it out of maybe 2,500, 3000 members. And I said, you got to get rid of it. And we did. He wanted to get rid of it, but he had cost him probably 20 members because they go, if it goes weak, Well, we have all of a sudden equipment.
This is what we want to do, but he needed the space. It was the right decision to make and he had to fire clients to get there. So what does that necessarily mean?
You know, an obvious thing is, uh, they set an appointment for training and then they don’t show up pisses owners off, you know, it’s like, oh my, you know, this, I’ve got clients and they’re not showing up.
And they’re just there, you know, it’s costing me money and I’ve, I’ve got limited time anyway in the morning. And you know, they, these crazy people and like, okay, settle down, settle down. Okay. One, how many clients do you have in this gym? 150. Okay. How many are problems?
Okay. It’s not everybody. So most gyms or gym owners are absolute is, uh, you know, how bad business it’s horrible, I’m dying. You know, how many members are mad at all of them? You know, it’s just, it’s not the case. It’s in this case for, you know, and or seven or whatever the number is. It’s, it’s small. And I go, okay, now, Rank them in order of one to seven, let’s say there’s seven of them.
Who’s the worst defender. And who’s the least worse of the seven that causes the most problems. And so they go Mrs. Johnson, you know, crazy woman, it’s her it’s, you know, they know right away. It’s one. Here’s what you do Monday. So one, you always talk to your attorney about firing members. They just, you only need to do it once or twice, and they’ll give you kind of a, a protocol on how to do it.
You, you, so I, I believe in the three strike rule. And so I tell my attorney, yes, I give a warning. I give a second warning. Then I toss. And the attorney knows that way they can defend me if there’s any paperwork I need to do what we need to do. So here’s how it usually works. You can always run it by your attorney, but this is how it normally works with the attorney supervision.
I bring Mrs. Johnson in and I say, look, Mrs. Johnson, this isn’t. I’m going to have a witness there. I’m going to have my manager, my lead trainer, somebody is going to be sitting in the corner. They don’t say a word they’re just there. And I said, Mrs. Johnson, you know, you’re scheduling all these, you scheduled twice what you need, because I know you don’t want to miss anything.
So you schedule every single one and then you show up to half of them, man, with due respect, that’s cost me a lot of money because you’re keeping other people out. I, I, we, what can we do to solve this problem? So the first one is very gentle. It’s like, what can we do together to solve this problem? Well, well, I just don’t want to miss and you know, I just do these.
I said, look, here’s here’s what has to happen? Um, I’m going to give you, I’m going to tell you now that’s not working your cost me a lot of money. I’m going to ask you formally to please not do that anymore. If you do, there will be a point that I will have to let you go as a member of this. And that usually corrects that right away, because they really don’t want to wait on us.
Now, some of them will position and posture. Well, how dare you do that? I want to, you know, I was here first. I was on your list, you know, blah, blah. I said, you’re costing me a lot of money, man, with due respect, you know, what can we sell this together? What, what do you need for me to solve this problem? Well, I need to be able to get anyone I want to get in when I want to get in.
You can’t do that, man. There’s other members here. Well, you need to open up more slots in the morning. She may be right. That’s something we talked about in the last episode about reinvention. We may have outgrown our business system and the members are bulking at it, but if it’s just Mrs. Johnson being in pain, I give her a one.
Then she, two weeks later, she’s done it to me again. I bring her back in, got the witness and the coroner Mrs. Johnson. We talked about this here’s what’s happened last week. I gave her the document. I write this up. I’m keeping all this as a file locked up. And I said, Mrs. Johnson, I’m going to tell you right now.
You did it again. Um, I will tell you if this happens one more time, I will cancel your membership immediately. I said, do you understand that. And she either cries, sobs apologizes, or they get adamant and want to walk away, whatever, you know what? I don’t care at this time. I’ve got one out of 150. And keep in mind if that member’s pissing you off, it’s probably pissing off all the rest of your members because they know what’s right.
Third strike. I bring her in as Mrs. John. You know, I checked you already paid for this month. Still. Here’s a check for the refund. I always personally give them an extra $5 or so case. I missed a dollar here, a dollar there. I don’t want it ever coming back at the gym. I don’t want her to tell her attorney.
I undercharge, you know, I did give her money back. Here’s your check. You canceled a meeting. I am so sorry. This didn’t work out the, I recommend this gym down the street. I think you may be more comfortable there cause it’s definitely not working here. I’m sorry. This didn’t work out, but I, again, my apologies.
I’m going to have to send you on your way. And I canceled her and I walked her to the door and she’s bam, she’s done. I’m done with her.
The most important point is never, ever own a business you’re afraid to go into because you’ve got a pain in the ass members that ruins your own experience in your own business.
Some members just. Get it. You can’t fix them. You can’t change them. You need to fire them. You need to throw them out. If there’s ever a day where you’re thinking, oh my God, I can’t. I’m going to go in a little later day because I know this person is in the gym at this time when you’re avoiding your own members, enroll in gym.
You’ve got an issue. The big picture is it’s affecting your entire business. Members, it’s not 150 people that probably hate you. It’s probably four seven. Put them in order. Get rid of the worst offenders. Next week another one. And once you, you get two or three of them, your business settles down.
That makes perfect sense. I appreciate this insight and I’m sure the viewers will enjoy this as well and will that will give them the courage and the energy of the need to start firing members, ones that no longer fit the bill for them. So thanks again, Tom
Thomas Plummer: fire one a week until you’re caught up.
You’ll feel better. Thanks.