Our company, EngageMore, has just amassed 2 million engagements! EngageMore is an engagement software tool that captures real-time conversations between gym members and gym staff. We are excited and proud that our engagement tool has helped fitness center staff learn more about reasons for joining, wellness goals, and other interests by engaging in over two million conversations with gym members.

Here are 3 keys to customer engagement we have gleaned from millions of data points:

#1 — Engagement needs to be personal.

Consumer expectations are much more advanced as a result of regular exposure to the technology they use. Days of using sweeping, one-size-fits-all engagement strategies are long gone. Gym members respond much better when they have the opportunity to discuss specific goals that are personally relevant.

#2 — Engagement is most effective when it is facilitated by a real person, with an emphasis on face-to-face conversations.

INC magazine predicts “the increase in face-to-face interactions” will lead to a significant trend in 2018. Amidst a saturated sea of technology, offering a “human connection” can differentiate you from your competitors.

#3 — Hope is not an engagement strategy.

Engagement is only as good as the engager, and to ensure success, employees need to be held accountable for engaging. EngageMore customers rely on robust data analytics to create engagement targets and then to measure outcomes to determine whether staff-to-member engagement is thoughtful, consistent, and effective.

Are you overwhelmed by the idea of changing your engagement culture? Keep it simple.

1. Make it personal.
2. Engage in person.
3. Quantify your efforts to qualify your results.

What we have learned after starting 2,000,000 unique conversations. was originally published in EngageMore on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Target is trying to solve a really big problem. A major frustration for customers shopping in physical stores is the inability to find the item they are looking for. We have all been there, mindlessly walking through the aisles hoping that lightbulbs will be in housewares. We peek down long aisles, trying our best to quickly locate the 65 watt soft white bulb we need. After going through every aisle in the houseware section, we break down and look a staff person. In our search for lightbulbs, we accidentally talk with two random people who happen to be wearing a red pollo shirt who aren’t Target employees. We finally locate Steve, from electronics, who informs us that lightbulbs are found in the hardware section. We slap our foreheads in frustration and make our way across the store.

Target is using beacon and bluetooth technology that will show your location in the store. You will be able to create shopping lists and then be provided directions to every item you need. The company described it as “GPS for your shopping cart”. Target’s Chief Digital Officer Mike McNamara said, “This promises to make it easier to find what you’re looking for, so you can fill up your cart and get on your way.”

It is easy to see why Target would want to do this. Who enjoys endlessly hunting for random items, only to finally break down and ask for help. However, the risk is that this new technology removes human interaction from the process. It will be tempting for Target to cut back on staff if they see customers really using this technology, which could lead to a far worse customer experience.

It is telling that even in a purely retail business, like department stores, leaders are concerned about human interaction. This moment of pause strengthens the argument that no matter what your business, good technology can’t supplement good people. Great customer engagement can not be created by technology. Technology is cool, sexy, and is usually faster and easier to implement. The real work for organizations to to facilitate meaningful human engagement with their customers occurs when leadership teams develop systems, train staff, monitor staff behavior, and then provide critical feedback to improve the behavior. It is no wonder that everywhere you look, business are trying to automate processes to remove the human factor. Technology is easier than humans. It does what it is told and does so without asking any questions. However, the companies that will thrive are the ones that do the hard work and invest in technology to enhance human engagement — not replace it.

I colleague of mine once said, “Just because it is easy, doesn’t make it the right.” We should all evaluate our technology investments with this filter.

The Technology Trade-Off was originally published in EngageMore on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When running a marathon it is critical to know where you are in the race — are you on mile 8, mile 20, or mile 25. Understanding where you are helps to dictate your pace, strategy, and gives you the mental strength to finish the race. Without knowing where you are on the course, you can’t possibly run your best race. Understanding “where” you are as it relates to how you are performing your job is equally important. In order to perform your best at your job, you need to know where you are. It is well documented that millennials are hungry for feedback.

I think millennials get a bad rap on this one, because everyone truly wants feedback. Everyone values knowing where they stand in relation to where they are supposed to be. I think millennials are the first generation with the audacity to forcefully, unapologetically demand to know where they are as it relates to where the organization wants them to be. However, this request for “where” has created some organizational stress.

In order to tell someone where they are, both parties must also know where they are supposed to be going. It is easy to tell people they aren’t cutting it, and that they are missing the mark. It is also easy to give positive, pats on the back, without any general landmark to exactly how good someone is doing as related to where they themselves want to be. Companies must do a better job clarifying the destination.

Great organizations take calculated measures to insure that employees understand where they need to get to, not just where they are. Obviously, this is easier in certain jobs than others. For example, a sales job is pretty straight forward. You have a goal to sell 100 widgets in a month, and at the end of the month you have only sold 50. It is very clear where you stand, but companies with strong sales cultures can communicate the operating metrics behind the outcome metrics. A strong company will communicate to that salesperson things like funnel economics where they need to make 500 calls to get to the 100 widget sales — so they would ask — how many calls did you make? This level of detail of “where” would help in the feedback process. As opposed to just reacting to the fact that the sales person missed the goal by 50% — a strong leader might ask about the number of calls made.

If you run an organization that does not have such a cut and dry “where” then your opportunity as a leader is to provide clarity for your organizations “where”.

Once you have established the end destination, then the feedback you provide is much more relevant. There is no guess as to where the employee should be headed, and now you can focus all your efforts on getting an idea of where they are relative to the end goal. This clarity of where provides truth and direction to everyone involved, and then everyone gets to reap the rewards!

The WHERE matters was originally published in EngageMore on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

January and February can only mean one thing — new year’s resolutions. Every year like clockwork excited, hopeful out-of-shape humans flood gyms all over America. These hopeful people have just had Santa leave them new running shoes, spiffy new clothes, the latest wearable technology. They look good and they know that this year they will fit into those jeans. This is the year that I will not worry about taking off my shirt at the pool. I will have the energy I need to play with my children.

Each year between December 27 and January 4 the most searched Google phrases are “weight watchers” and “gyms near me”. These folks have a plan, but as the great boxer Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face.” The soreness is the punch in the face. The feeling like the outsider is the punch in the face. The awkward uneasiness to which there seems to be limited answers is the punch in the face. It is this punch in the face that is critical. How good a facility does at helping to get members over this imaginary “punch in the face” will ultimately determine how many members make it for the long haul.

The challenge is now how can we keep these members engaged so they evolve into long term, successful members. We all have people in our lives that will start with a gym membership and quit by April. Hell, I know wellness professionals who struggle with sticking with a work-out regiment. Everyone lives in a busy, fast paced world — with families, jobs, friends, and hobbies. How do you keep these new members coming back when the rest of the world is working so hard to give them a reason to quit? It is estimated that 80% of new members quit by April 1, and two of the top three reasons for quitting are — “Lack of guidance” and “Feeling out of Place”. But don’t just take our word for it — check out the research for your self.

We live in a world that offers people a multitude of “work-out” options, and if you aren’t actively working to stay engaged with your members you will lose them! As little as 8 years ago the gym industry was primarily made up of “big box” health clubs and YMCA’s competing for the same customers. Now, wellness facilities are competing against large corporations like Beachbody who offer unlimited on-demand work-outs delivered to any platform. Gyms are competing with boutique gyms that have a focused strategy and execute on a limited amount of tactics. (think SoulCycle, Orange Theory, and 9Round)

The new fitness club environment makes me think about a desert cactus. The cactus does not thrive because of its ability to acquire water, it only thrives because of its unique ability to retain the water. The increased competition in the gym industry is creating a new reality for all health club facilities. Those that can not retain their members will wilt away and die of thirst.

In order to execute any successful retention strategy you have to build relationships with the right member. A club must understand which member is in need of some special attention and what that attention needs to be. Relationships and results are the new currency in the gym community. Facilities that facilitate face to face engagement increase new member retention by up to 15%. Don’t let another April come and go with you losing all of these new members that you just worked so hard to acquire. Be a cactus, focus on retention so that you can bloom all year long!

Be a cactus; retain, retain, retain was originally published in EngageMore on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We are a culture consumed with two S words — size and smart. We love big things — big houses, big cars, big televisions, big experiences, and big vacations. We are also obsessed with smart. We have smart phones, smart cars, smart appliances, and smart devices.

Size and smart are not mutually exclusive. You can have both, but when it comes to data you have to be very careful to decide upon which to focus. In the world of data analytics I often see size and smart secretly fighting for priority. As I have consulted with companies you hear C-suite leaders talk about needing “more data” on that topic. They say things like, “if we just had an idea about X, we would be in a much better place.” It is this need to have as much information as possible that takes over and creates a false sense of security. Organizations think the more they know, the safer they are.

The big data revolution and the consumption of huge data sets are the equivalent of Thanksgiving dinner. Organizations gorge themselves on data — asking for more, knowing all along they should stop. They want structured data, unstructured data, and then they want to correlate the date to look for trends among subsets of data. Often times organizations find themselves curled up on the proverbial couch in a tryptophan induced coma. They spend so much effort on the collection of the data, that there is nothing left in the tank to do the real work of taking the operational steps to change the culture.

It is estimated that by 2020 1.7 megabytes of new information will be created each second for every person. At least Thanksgiving is just one day a year, but sticking with the metaphor, soon it could be Thanksgiving everyday for organizations as the cornucopia of available data continues to grow. Organizations are stuck in the perfect storm. With the emergence of behavioral economics reminding us what poor decisions makers we are, and the technology revolution providing us huge amounts of data, it is no wonder that we are simply looking for more and more data. We are hoping that with just that one more piece of information we can ultimately make the best possible decision. We all need to stop letting “size” drive our efforts and give “smart” a chance at the wheel.

In our company, here are some of the processes we use to try to get to smarter data.

We are very clear as to what we are trying to “do” with the data? What is the goal of digging around for the data? I don’t even put this as a step — it is more of a non-starter. Many organizations go wrong here, they believe they want more data but they can’t articulate why. It has been my experience in these situations there is already data available, but the organization does not like what the data is saying — so they are looking to find the data to fit their own pre-conceived story.

Step 1 — Search — determine what you are looking for. This is where you look through all sources looking for the one that you think makes the most sense.

Step 2 — Filter — Narrow down the options so you can real hone in on a specific data set.

Step 3 — Analyze — Spend some time going through the data, start crunching the numbers. Work to develop a good understanding of what the narrowed data set is telling you.

Step 4 — Use the data — Do some hypothetical exercises, go through and think about what decisions you might have made if you had previously had the data before making that decision. When you hypothetically “re-make” your decision — does it feel better? Could you create a limited test to see if this data drove the correct decision?

Step 5 — Verify Data — Look to have another data set and then use that data set to see if you come to the same conclusion as the first data set.

Smart over BIG in the data battle was originally published in EngageMore on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hard working Americans have perpetuated a myth that has confused the masses while creating an unrealistic expectation around “effort”. Growing up, I was told things like “keep pushing”, “you have to work through the pain”, “only you can decide to quit”, and the every famous . . . “just give it a little more”. I was not only told this by my parents — but by teachers, coaches, and bosses. All of these people had great intentions and were simply trying to push me to reach my full potential. I am grateful for their pushes, but as an unintended consequence this focus on unending effort created quite a misconception.

The statements these well intentioned mentors spoke, whispered, and at times yelled (thanks Coach Woodson) were accurate, but not complete. Humans can not dispense unrelenting effort in all things, forever — it is just not physically possible. We are taught to believe that personal “effort” is unlimited and that we somehow pick and choose how much effort we are willing to part with at a given time. It is beaten into us at a young age that everyone has an unlimited supply of top-line effort. So, when we do not release a portion of this mythical unending supply, we are somehow choosing to stop short. The likely fallout from this crazy idea is that once you can’t give any more effort you begin to question your own ability. You think that you are less of a person by simply being out of effort.

The famous Marshmallow Test of the 1970s began to show that effort does have limits. The Marshmallow Test was conducted on pre-schoolers and tested their ability to delay gratification. These youngsters were given two options — one option was to simply eat a marshmallow. The next was to wait a preset of time (5 minutes) and get more marshmallows. There were all sorts of variations and the researchers were able to prove that effort is a not an unending resource given to all people. Yes, some of the kids seemed to have more self-control and could exert more effort to delay gratification, but just this simple fact that it was not a given that everyone had an unlimited amount was enough to prove that self-control and effort indeed have limits.

In another study conducted in 1996, Roy Baumeister conducted an interesting experiment to test the limits of effort. He took two groups of test subjects and one group was exposed to the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were then placed in the room for 10 minutes, but here is the difference. One group was allowed to eat the sweet treats, and the other group was not allowed to indulge in eating the cookies. After time, the unlucky souls who had to smell the cookies but not eat them were then required to eat radishes. Yep, disgusting radishes. The interesting part of the study involved asking each group (the cookie group and the radish group) to complete a persistence-testing puzzle. The results showed that the radish group gave half the effort that the cookie group gave. This half-ass attempt was related to the fact that they had already given their effort to not eat the cookies. They were too tired to work on the puzzle — so they gave up. They lacked the sufficient amount of effort to complete the puzzle. You can find the entire study here.

If you are trying to advance your organization, but just not seeing the results you were hoping for maybe ask yourself what your people are spending their effort on. Clearly communicate what you want people putting their effort towards, and then make sure that they have the support they need to actually focus on those goals.

Effort has a limit was originally published in EngageMore on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Imagine this:

You heard about a new grocery company that recently opened a new store near your home. You received some coupons for it in the mail, advertising discounts on a few of your favorite foods. So you decide to go check it out next time you need to buy groceries.

You get to the store, walk up to the front entrance, and step inside…. but…. you don’t see any food. You roam the aisles, nothing on the shelves. The store doesn’t have any food. So you leave, likely disgruntled and even hangry, condemning the new grocery company and vowing never to come back. The next time you need groceries, you’re eager to go to your old standby, because there you know you’ll find what you need, receive helpful service and won’t go home empty handed.

This analogy is not so far from the experiences of gym members who are “shopping” for a place that will meet their “list” of wellness goals, interests and preferences. Every body who joins a gym has a goal in mind that they’re hoping the gym will help them achieve.

Americans spend $26 billion annually on health club memberships but 50% of those memberships terminate each year. (Source: IHRSA) People end their membership agreements with gyms that can’t meet their expectations or deliver results.

Operating a grocery store with empty shelves is just as ridiculous as operating a gym without helping members reach their wellness goals.

As a gym owner or staff member, which are you — the disappointing grocery store with empty aisles? Or are you the trusted and helpful store that meets (and hopefully exceeds) your members’ needs, keeping them around longer and making you more money?

Shopping for Wellness was originally published in EngageMore on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nobody likes to be stuck in the middle. I think we have all at one point or another had a relationship that was stuck in the middle. It is better known as the Friend Zone. Usually the relationship starts off as good friends and then one of you (usually the guy) tries to take it to the couple zone. It goes bad fast, and then it is just weird. We have all been there.

I have decided that being stuck in the middle is the worst place to be because the vague directionality of the middle creates hesitation in our ability to take action. In the last 3 years, stereotypical big box health clubs (think Gold’s, YMCA’s, Lifetime Fitness, etc.) are beginning to realize they are getting stuck in the middle. These big box fitness clubs are the one stop shop of the fitness world. They average 50,000 square feet worth of facilities and have pools, gyms, and multiple types of work out rooms. These once powerful industry giants are feeling the pressure from both ends of an ever evolving health club spectrum. On the low price end of the spectrum, budget clubs are allowing people to pay $10 a month for access to top of the line equipment. Organizations like Crunch fitness are proving to the fitness community that people are willing to pay lower prices for less of a hands on experience. These budget clubs only give access and if a member wants more than that, they must pay. The other end of the spectrum is filled with boutique clubs that offer high end, focused experiences with high end price tags. Organizations like Orange Theory Fitness, SoulCycle, and Hot Yoga offer very limited, very focused programs at a premium price that large numbers of people pay for each month.

Over the last 3 years boutique and budget clubs have grown 70% collectively, while traditional “big box” clubs have seen a 5% decline. A recent article explains that members prioritize a sense of belonging, results, expertise, and staff who understand what their wants. The divergence within the fitness market shows that people are choosing one of two paths: first, they are willing to pay more for niche experiences, or they are choosing to simply have access to equipment without the typical frills and staff support. Now, I don’t have the answer to which path is the best for your club, but I would say that simply hoping to remain relevant by being in the middle is not a sustainable strategy. If you doubt this principle you should look at the large number of big retailers that are closing because they stayed in the middle and are now being dismantled by competitors. (Sears, KMart, Sports Authority, Office Depot, just to name a few)

Advancement is never attained by the organizations who shy away from change. Conversely, forward thinking, relevant organizations pick a path and diligently work to successfully navigate the chosen path until they reach their destination. Which path are you willing to take to stay out of the middle, to move forward, to advance your cause? The interesting thing about organizations that are willing to change, and try a new path is that even if the organization doesn’t get exactly where they had hoped, they usually look back and are still in a better place then they would have been if they had simply stayed in the middle. Stop standing still. Pick a path. The middle is where dreams, organization, and relationships go to die a slow, painful death.

Don’t get stuck in the middle. was originally published in EngageMore on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The idea of decision making is not a new concept. For years, professionals have been struggling with the ability to make better decisions, and rightfully so. A recent Bain research group found that decision effectiveness is 95% correlated with financial performance. Everyone understands that success is predicated at one’s ability to make decisions. However, in that same research the researchers discovered that of the 500 managers interviewed 98% of them fail to apply best practices when making decisions. The data underscores the dirty little secret we all know — making a good decision is easier said than done.

Futurist Stowe Boyd recently wrote that, “what has been revealed about human cognition in recent decades is the psychological equivalent of discovering that the Sun is the center of the solar system, not the Earth.” For generations, psychologists and economists alike have argued that humans are rational beings and make decisions in a rational manner. They have made the assumption that we chose the most effect utility when considering a multitude of possible outcomes. However, with the birth of the science of behavioral economics and increased brain scanning technology there is a new insight to how humans make decisions. The research shows that humans are woeful decision makers. It shows that we are prisoners to our emotions and that we are easily directed by a multitude of outside influences. These heuristics or biases have been found to drive our decision making process. We do not make decisions rationally. The new revelation confirming our inability to make decisions has prompted many researchers to actively study how decisions are made.

Recently, a Harvard Business Review article was dedicated to decision making and how to improve your outcomes. The steps are as follows:

1. Write down five business goals impacted by decision.
2. Write down at least four alternatives.
3. Write down the most important information you are missing.
4. Write down what’s likely to happen in the future good and bad.
5. Involve a team of at least two, but no more than 7 people.
6. Write down what was decided, why, and how much the team supports the decision.
7. Schedule a follow up in a couple of months.

Check out the entire article here.

Another key change in this new checklist method is to keep score of the outcome of your decisions. By understanding your own track record and the effectiveness of your decisions you can begin to find trends. An organization can easily see how and why decisions were made and thus adjust future decisions accordingly. Research has shown that decision-making best practices have a 6 fold increase in good business decisions and cut failure rates in half.

Next time you have to make a decision, don’t just make it and move on. Use the checklist and then 4 or 5 months later revisit the decision to see how it turned out. The research shows you will not be sorry to take this more structured approach to decision making.

How do you measure your decisions? was originally published in EngageMore on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.