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Post by determined1 on Jan 24, 2017 14:11:02 GMT
This one's a no brainer. Automatically update the members' credit card info. For every person who cancels we have 4.2 who simply ignore our calls and we wind up having to cancel their membership and send them to collections.
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Post by greenergrass on Jan 24, 2017 14:36:08 GMT
Corporate doesn't think this is a big deal. They think it is a small percentage of people with this problem therefore it has not been a priority. They think that everything we need to be successful is provided and the failures are our fault. Forget about the absentee owner sales pitch that got you to sign a franchise agreement and spend significant investment to open their fitness brand. Even the franchise agreement changed dramatically and what was our choice? Abandon the investment and sell for a tiny fraction of our cost? Or sign a new agreement that has no protection (worse than the orginal) for the franchisee while it further depletes our resources. Then regardless of market conditions and a failing brand, you are stuck. The corporate answer is of course to continue spending MORE of your money to add their programs which are supposed to turn it all around for you. And even though you have fewer members, you should expand! You should have bought EasyFit and Truestar when they introduced that. And now you should buy into MyZone and FOD, and the new supplements. And don't forget to advertise in your DA because corporate's advertising schemes are pathetic (Nascar and singer).
Let's pretend to work together, but then actually compete against each other because if a member is going to join Snap, the lowest price in the metro area is going to get the member. So everyone makes less money, we continually weaken ourselves and the brand with the lower prices. More franchisees bail, taking a loss, and we have fewer locations available to our reciprocal members. Now we are NOT the choice if someone joins because of reciprocity because there are cities that no longer have a convenient Snap Fitness.
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Post by greenergrass on Jan 24, 2017 14:37:00 GMT
A blow to our retention is when our reciprocal members travel somewhere and all they find is Planet and Anytime Fitness.
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Post by Dale on Jan 24, 2017 20:07:57 GMT
A blow to our retention is when our reciprocal members travel somewhere and all they find is Planet and Anytime Fitness. Don't expect that to get any better soon or quite honestly ever. Snap franchisees are on the decline and will never increase more then there are today.
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Post by snaplongtimer on Jan 26, 2017 20:45:22 GMT
Yeah unfortunately I only heard part of the webinar. What bothered me of what I did hear was the comment about my retention efforts are basically crap if a member left me for a lower priced gym. I am all about retention efforts and nothing better than engaging your member and getting to know them above all else. Even then, many times there is no loyalty. Money talks bullshit walks for many. I cannot speak to every customer on a 24/7 basis, but engage those that I do see during my time there. My customers love seeing me for nothing better than the owner giving you a pleasing smile and thanking you for your business. You certainly cannot expect employees to do the same job for most do not. They will when you are there, but go ahead and leave to visit your other place and they are their own boss suddenly. I know how people are for sure. I cannot afford that awesome $15/hour front desk help requiring them to wear a minimum of 15 pieces of flare. I suppose you get what you pay for, but my point is it is impossible to engage for retention most every customer you have in a 24/7 club. Therefore, there will be those that will leave to save the cash. Our online shit isn't going to be keep them around once they know what they are doing in the gym. So before they make a statement on these webinars saying I am not trying hard enough, doing a poor job on retention and losing to planet down the road, lets look at one of their corp clubs that exited quickly and took a fucking loss on the sale because planet moved in a mile down the road from them. True story.
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Post by FirstTimer on Jan 27, 2017 0:24:55 GMT
So before they make a statement on these webinars saying I am not trying hard enough, doing a poor job on retention and losing to planet down the road, lets look at one of their corp clubs that exited quickly and took a fucking loss on the sale because planet moved in a mile down the road from them. True story.
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Post by FirstTimer on Jan 27, 2017 0:26:52 GMT
So before they make a statement on these webinars saying I am not trying hard enough, doing a poor job on retention and losing to planet down the road, lets look at one of their corp clubs that exited quickly and took a fucking loss on the sale because planet moved in a mile down the road from them. True story. So, would you be so kind as to name names? What corporate clubs have closed? Which ones didn't make it and even closed early? If they are going to accuse franchisees of doing a poor job, let's compare.
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Post by snaplongtimer on Jan 27, 2017 15:28:45 GMT
I don't have a list of what corp clubs closed. Call them on a club that closed and they'll feed you a line of BS. They will always paint a rosy picture for you. I am sure everyone has realized that by now. They won't tell you "low priced competition moved in and we don't like competing with that." They aren't going to trap themselves and hold themselves to the same expectations as we are held to. It was a local club purchased by corp before the end of the initial 5 year contract. It made tons of $$ with little to no competition. Corp paid a pretty penny for it. Corp chases big money producers (that's why they get first option to buy your club from you per the contract) and bailed this location when low priced competition moved in. I watched their Craig's List sale listing for a little shy of a million bucks which is probably close to what they paid for it. I knew what the gym cost to build. I knew the original owners. The final listing sale price I had seen online was something shy of $500k. They dropped it by 100's of thousands than originally posted because nobody was buying it. So I have no proof of why suddenly when low priced competition moves in that club went up for sale. That in addition to a new Anytime gym. Nobody gets rid of a money maker and I am confident in believing they didn't want to go head to head with the new competition that moved in. Hmmmmmm...I wonder how well the people working there engaged their members. Maybe they should watch their own webinars.
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Post by determined1 on Jan 27, 2017 18:49:47 GMT
Here's a list that someone compiled several months ago of postings by Corporate of Snap Fitness locations which were for sale on Craigslist Montrose, CO Batesville, MS Plymouth, MI Attalla, AL Vestavia Hills, AL Lyndon, KY Mooresville, NC Sylacauga, AL Hawkinsville, GA Columbiana, AL Lawrenceburg, KY Mosinee, WI Palestine, TX White Oak, TX Derby, CT Hugo, MN Royston, GA Apple Valley, MN Waterloo, IA Indianola, IA Farmington, MN Minnetonka, MN Claxton, GA Waterloo, IA Monroe, MI Indianola, IA Attalla, AL Hawkinsville, GA Dumas, AR Eden Prairie, MN Springfield, IL Anoka, MN Erie, PA Blackwell, OK Pittsburg, TX Sylacauga, AL Levelland, TX Atlas, AL Collierville, TN Lawrenceburg, KY Blackwell, OK Stuttgart, AR Levelland, TX The site I pulled this from is www.unhappyfranchisee.com/snap-fitness-franchise-complaints/
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Post by greenergrass on Jan 27, 2017 20:04:07 GMT
Retention rates. Makes me think about retention of franchisees. What kind of "best practices" does corporate have for improving retention of franchisees (besides increasing to a 10 year agreement, of course)?
Who is ready to walk away from this? What will be the final straw? Is it financial (will it happen when you hit a certain point financially)? Are you just waiting for your current term to expire? Or will you hang in there regardless? I'm just curious. As much as I hate losing money, I'm thinking MY quality of life will be better when I close even though I have lost money. And I'm just not sure I will wait until the end of my term (I can walk away from the space I lease at anytime, luckily). If my first quarter goes badly, I won't wait for the end of my franchise agreement.
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Post by Dale on Jan 27, 2017 23:01:15 GMT
Without a doubt most are waiting for the end of their term. I guarantee total number of clubs will continue to dwindle. Many more waiting for their term to end and get out versus new franchises sold.
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Post by snaplongtimer on Jan 28, 2017 17:14:16 GMT
End of term for me most likely, although for one club, I'm tired of struggling and may be sooner than that. My thoughts echo Greenergrass exactly. A club I want to shut down come spring all depends on it's 1st quarter performance. I'm having a very good January for a struggling club signing over 1 new member per day and that is unusual for this club, but still behind previous years in overall performance. Ever since I fired my employee and took it over myself the business has picked up. I am sure it's just coincidence, but I'm getting tired of working for nothing.
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Post by greenergrass on Jan 28, 2017 22:33:39 GMT
Thanks for the replies. I do believe corporate needs to hear these responses so I'm hoping for more input from other Zs.
Obviously corporate can sometimes find a replacement owner and then they get a nice new franchise fee paid. But at some point, I think the number closing will be overwhelming (as it probably is even now). Their ideal Snap Fitness owner seems to be someone who is a Personal Trainer (although they will take anyone's money). But many of these Trainers will stay independent rather than pay the high monthly fees of a franchise.
January this year is also better than January last year. I don't know if it is the economy or what. But as mentioned by snaplongtimer, it's nothing like it was in previous years (four or more years ago). Incoming leads are sparse.
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Post by snaplongtimer on Jan 29, 2017 16:44:08 GMT
Struggling clubs have a very small probability of selling. The purchasing of the license is one thing, but tack on the modernization fees which kill the deal for sure. Struggling clubs can pretty much be priced to sell for the value of the equipment. In a typical snap fit club, let's just say it is $25k. Add the license fee and unfortunately at this time, the modernization fees...ouch. This nearly triples the price of the gym which no investor in their right mind would think it is worth it. I could give it away for free and it is still not worth it to an investor. Possibly a high energy foolish individual after inheriting a boat load of money may consider purchasing it.
This is the problem, I believe, corp faces with allowing struggling clubs to go out of business versus suing them when they do which would cost them tons in legal fees (given the amount of clubs going out) while also adding extra pages in their circular. I don't believe any franchisor would take this path.
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Post by swtexan on Jan 29, 2017 17:43:02 GMT
That's exactly what happened here in my neck of the woods. There was an Anytime for sale that was owned by an incompetent couple- list price of slightly under $200k. I think that they ended up getting near that simply due to the fact that the new owner inherited some money and wanted to buy a gym- go figure? I am praying for exactly that scenario when it comes time for me to get out.
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