Positioning your wellness services so that they address real-life customer problems is an effective way to attract and keep clients. You can do this by tailoring programming to specific life circumstances.
Here are five customer problems that your fitness, weight loss or healthy lifestyle business can solve that go beyond general promises like “lose weight” or “get in shape”. Maybe you can think of others.
1. Deployment Dieters
The problem: Military spouses want to use their partner’s deployment to lose weight and improve fitness.
The details: A well-known phenomenon: The spouse who stays behind often grabs this golden opportunity to lose weight and improve his or her fitness, often as a surprise to their returning husband or wife. Many overseas deployments last twelve months – plenty of time to learn new life-long healthy living habits. And the built-in social network that exists for most military spouses helps provide the emotional support proven to be a key to successful weight loss.
Great choice if: your business has a weight management focus and you’re located near military facilities. Military household budgets are tight, so you’ll have to strike the right balance between price and value in this market.
2. It’s Tough Being A Teacher
The problem: High stress jobs + kid-borne germs = sick teachers
The details: The American Medical Association reports that 75% of teachers will call in sick during the school year thanks to bugs they pick up from the kids they teach. And a recent UK study suggests that what our moms always told us is true – getting chilled (say, during lunchroom duty or recess) can give you a cold! One education think tank reports that about 1% of school district budgets go to substitutes. And reducing teacher absenteeism helps improve student test scores and behavior.
Great choice if: your business has a general wellness/fitness focus. Consider offering a program focused on overall wellness, including fitness, healthy eating + nutritional supplements thought to enhance immunity, energy and mental focus. And don’t forget stress management!
3. Job-Specific Problems
The problem: Every profession has unique wellness issues.
The details: Accountants often suffer from eye strain and back pain thanks to time spent in front of a computer. Civil engineers climb on and around construction sites, tough on knees and backs if you’re not in good shape. Dentists and dental assistants feel the effects of leaning over dental chairs all day. Attorneys and executives often eat poorly due to high-pressure schedules and travel commitments.
Match your fitness and wellness expertise to the wellness issues faced by a specific profession. Offer complimentary healthy living presentations to the local chapter of the appropriate professional organizations, customized for their issues. Use pre/post-meeting networking to make connections with potential members, customers, and clients.
Great choice if: your business offers chiropractic, personal training, yoga, or rehab-oriented healthcare services, plus health clubs or other businesses that offer back care and similar programs.
4. Business Travelers
The problem: Fitness on the road is tough for business travelers.
The details: Hotel fitness facilities are often inadequate or nonexistent. And most business travelers won’t seek out a health club in a new city. Build relationships with suite hotels and B&Bs that focus on business travelers staying several days. Perhaps the hotel would sponsor a fitness kit to be provided in designated rooms, or a group walk every day at 7 p.m., or offer 30-minute fitness classes using lightweight portable equipment like resistance bands. Another possibility: group personal training for hotel guests.
Great choice if: you offer personal training, fitness videos, or similar fitness-related products and services. Look for suite hotels and B&Bs that cater to extended stays. Interest will vary for large chains.
5. Work-In a Work-Out
The problem: More and more employees work in offices at home. This often means they’re sitting at a computer all day…and slowly going stir-crazy from lack of social contact with other human beings.
The details: More and more companies are reducing facility costs and improving employee satisfaction by allowing staff to work from home. Typical examples: sales reps, project managers, software engineers, and others. And don’t forget realtors, interior decorators and others who frequently work from home. Places like Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and Life Time Fitness offer services including wireless Internet access, coffee, food, and comfortable work areas to attract these customers.
Great choice if: you’re a health club or fitness center and your business can offer business-friendly services like WiFi, coffee and snacks, casual photocopying, TVs tuned to news, business newspapers and magazines. Combine it with scheduled stretch sessions or other fitness programming to turn a guilty pleasure into a virtue. How about a business membership that combines fitness center access with these extras?
