Congratulations to this Year’s Best of the Best Winners—and a Challenge for Next Year
After a lot of deliberation and debate, the votes for the 2011 Club Industry Best of the Best awards are in, and we can now announce the winning programs:
The Lose to Win program at Lindenhurst (IL) Health & Fitness Center of Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital rewards members for losing weight. Its innovation was rewarded with this year’s Best Behavior Modification Program title.
The Atlanta-based BodyPlex Fitness Adventure chain’s New Member Challenge gets gym newbies off to a running start and gets the award for Best New Member Integration Program.
The PT55 program at LifeStart Wellness Network, Chicago, which gives nonmembers the opportunity to become fitter and healthier in just 55 minutes a week, was named Best Nonmember Program.
Sparrow Health System, East Lansing, MI, proved that winning can be child’s play. The Sparrow MAC Summer Camp at its Michigan Athletic Club was awarded the Best Children’s Program title, and the Sparrow Health and Wellness-sponsored Feelin’ Good Mileage Club running initiative for school kids was judged this year’s Best Community-based Program.
Staff members from the facilities with winning programs will be recognized at the Best of the Best Awards Brunch on Oct. 14 at the CI2011 trade show and conference in Chicago. More details about the winning programs will appear in the October issue of Club Industry magazine.
You may have noticed that the list above only mentions five programming categories. Unfortunately, we did not receive enough entries to award a Best Member Appreciation Program this year.
So, what’s the story, club operators? We know that many of you must have fun, unique ways to show your members how much you value them. There’s no need to be modest—leave a comment below to tell us about them.
And if you don’t have a member appreciation program already in place, it’s time to put your thinking caps on and come up with an innovative way to thank your members for their ongoing support. I challenge you to create a program that’s worthy of a Best of the Best award in 2012.
August 18th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
I was dissappointed to find out that the Best Member Appreciation Program did not have enough applicants in it. My staff and I worked hard thi syear to come up with a program worthy of The Best of The best competition. I thought we had it in the bag with a program geared at knowing every single one of our members by name and face…something I DARE all of you to try =)
We called it “Say My Name!” and here’s how it works. Staff members must greet every single member and client by their name, or at least ask them their name if they do not know it, within 2 minutes of them entering our gym. If the staff member does not say or ask their name then the gym member or client has the opportunity to make the staff do 15 of the following: push-ups, squat presses, sit-ups, jumping jacks, inverted rows, or burpees. It’s become more of a game that everyone seems to enjoy. Members try to sneak in without the staff noticing and staff members are rushing up to the members and clients to say hello. It has truly been our best program in helping to provide outstanding customer service that goes above and beyond to everyone who walks through our doors.
Leave a Comment