When I started InForm Fitness I wanted to share my beliefs about the value and efficacy of the Power-of-10 workout. I also wanted to create and maintain an atmosphere where our clients would feel as safe as the workout itself.
A lot of thought and planning has gone into how our clients experience InForm Fitness. We’ve carefully considered the room lay out, the workout studio’s temperature, the lounge area, the accented waters in our cooler, and countless other details.
Having just read Danny Meyer’s book Setting the Table, I realized the parallels between any customer-facing business, such as InForm Fitness and a restaurant. Mr. Meyer talks about service versus hospitality as a differentiating characteristic leading to success. “Service is delivering on your promise. Hospitality is making people feel good while you’re delivering on that promise,” writes Meyer.
According to Meyer, delivering service that resembles a routine of going through the motions “diminishes the beauty” of true hospitality, which requires the above-and-beyond level of attention that doesn’t always come naturally. Delivery with a passionate belief in what you are doing, while connecting to the client on a very personal level is hospitality! To provide merely the service is a missed opportunity proclaims Meyer.
This, now abundantly clear, is a distinction that reinforces the notion that any businesses’ hiring practices are of paramount importance. Beyond the skills, which you can train, is the attitude, which you cannot train. InForm Fitness’ select team of professionals has and continues to be a primary focus of mine to ensure the right personality and attitude are a fit for our clients.
We hire our instructors based on the highest caliber and levels of training, certification and continuing education. We equally weigh in our consideration a candidate’s character, demeanor, and interpersonal skills.
For example, dedication and attention to detail characterize one core and prerequisite skill set for being an instructor at InForm Fitness. A candidate’s capacity and interest to discover, appreciate, and honor the individuality of our clients is an attitude and practice that helps my team be true caregivers.
Reading Setting the Table and examining my own company reminded me of a story I read in The E-myth, by Michael Gerber. Gerber shares the story from Revlon’s founder Charles Revson, who asked a room full of sales people at a conference, “what do we sell?” As one might expect, the overwhelming majority responded with “makeup” and while that would seem logical, Revson didn’t think so. Revson believed that what Revlon sold was “hope” and in this context it all makes sense.
What Inform Fitness Offers is Freedom!
InForm Fitness delivers safe, efficient exercise, with smart, well-trained and hospitable instructors, and that translates for our clients into:
• Freedom from risk of injury while exercising with one of our specially trained instructors and guided through each session.
• Freedom from guilt – knowing that you are getting the best exercise for your body and your health, even if it isn’t several times a week at some trendy gym.
• Freedom to be yourself in an environment engineered for your privacy, as much as your comfort and safety.
• Freedom from aches and pains and limitations on your physical abilities and
• Freedom of time, with a 20-minute, once a week workout that gives you the time to live a happy, healthy and purposeful life!
I encourage our clients to share their experience at InForm Fitness. If you are not a client, please come experience our hospitality at any of our InForm Fitness Studios and experience a full-service consultation with any of our instructors. We look forward to your first and your return visits.
