MetalBoar
Black Belt
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2018
- Messages
- 532
- Reaction score
- 489
This isn't an important post, more just kind of musing about things and wondered what others had to say.
I've recently started looking for a school again. I wanted to start up my training much sooner than this, but losing my business and moving cross country took a lot of adjustment and I've only recently gotten my work situation in order where I have both the time and the money for it to be practical. So, I've been looking at web sites and contacting places that look interesting to ask questions and find out how to watch or try out a class. I've found the variety of responses to be pretty interesting.
When I was first running my small strength training gym I was almost always working a second job, so I was sometimes not as responsive to enquiries from potential clients as would have been ideal. I soon learned that if I didn't respond to a phone call very quickly, like within a couple of hours, and the sooner the better, my chances of scheduling a demo workout with that person went way down, and if I didn't contact them until the following day, it was close to zero. People were a little bit more tolerant of a delayed response to email, but if I didn't get an email to them by the next day, again, the chance they'd come try out our gym was pretty small. So, I got fanatical about responding to any contact within 15 minutes, even if it meant pulling off the freeway to do it, and it got me a lot more clients as a result.
I've been emailing local MA schools to ask about watching a class and to clarify any questions I have about their training, and the responses have been all over the map.
At one extreme, there was a school that is very close to my house that teaches a style I'm interested in, but the pictures on their website appeared to be very kid focused and their adult marketing was very fitness focused. I almost didn't email them, but they were so close I decided I had to check them out. They had an automated form on their website to submit your email address for a response, so I sent it in and got an immediate automated response with some basic info, that offered to schedule me a free class and gave me an email address to contact them with other questions. Great! I emailed it with a series of questions, and was shocked to get a reply less than 10 minutes later from their office manager saying that she couldn't answer my questions but she'd forward my email to the school owner and I should get a response soon. I was impressed, and then even more impressed, when I got a really thorough set of answers to my questions from the owner less than 2 hours later. Their friendliness and competence shifted my assessment from being a school I wasn't sure was even worth emailing to being one that I really wanted to go and visit.
Another place had a form that I filled out that required a phone number as well as an email address. I don't like to get calls because I do creative work, don't have a fixed schedule, and don't want to be interrupted in the middle of a meeting or when I'm trying to write. In the "comments" section of their form I asked them to email instead of calling, because of my work. Of course, about 2 hours later, when I'm in a meeting, they call me and leave a message with a hard sales pitch, but no answers to any of my questions. Even though I had been really interested in this school, this sent them to the bottom of my list. I'm not saying I won't give them a chance, but I'm not going to get in touch with them again unless I exhaust all of the other good options.
At the other extreme, places have taken days to respond and in some cases haven't responded yet and don't seem likely to. If they're out of business, that would make sense, but some of these places seem to have very up to date websites with upcoming events or recent updates. I'd get it if these were all just clubs that maybe weren't too concerned about adding new members, but I'd expect the obviously commercial places to be more interested in new students.
What have your experiences been like? Any thoughts?
I've recently started looking for a school again. I wanted to start up my training much sooner than this, but losing my business and moving cross country took a lot of adjustment and I've only recently gotten my work situation in order where I have both the time and the money for it to be practical. So, I've been looking at web sites and contacting places that look interesting to ask questions and find out how to watch or try out a class. I've found the variety of responses to be pretty interesting.
When I was first running my small strength training gym I was almost always working a second job, so I was sometimes not as responsive to enquiries from potential clients as would have been ideal. I soon learned that if I didn't respond to a phone call very quickly, like within a couple of hours, and the sooner the better, my chances of scheduling a demo workout with that person went way down, and if I didn't contact them until the following day, it was close to zero. People were a little bit more tolerant of a delayed response to email, but if I didn't get an email to them by the next day, again, the chance they'd come try out our gym was pretty small. So, I got fanatical about responding to any contact within 15 minutes, even if it meant pulling off the freeway to do it, and it got me a lot more clients as a result.
I've been emailing local MA schools to ask about watching a class and to clarify any questions I have about their training, and the responses have been all over the map.
At one extreme, there was a school that is very close to my house that teaches a style I'm interested in, but the pictures on their website appeared to be very kid focused and their adult marketing was very fitness focused. I almost didn't email them, but they were so close I decided I had to check them out. They had an automated form on their website to submit your email address for a response, so I sent it in and got an immediate automated response with some basic info, that offered to schedule me a free class and gave me an email address to contact them with other questions. Great! I emailed it with a series of questions, and was shocked to get a reply less than 10 minutes later from their office manager saying that she couldn't answer my questions but she'd forward my email to the school owner and I should get a response soon. I was impressed, and then even more impressed, when I got a really thorough set of answers to my questions from the owner less than 2 hours later. Their friendliness and competence shifted my assessment from being a school I wasn't sure was even worth emailing to being one that I really wanted to go and visit.
Another place had a form that I filled out that required a phone number as well as an email address. I don't like to get calls because I do creative work, don't have a fixed schedule, and don't want to be interrupted in the middle of a meeting or when I'm trying to write. In the "comments" section of their form I asked them to email instead of calling, because of my work. Of course, about 2 hours later, when I'm in a meeting, they call me and leave a message with a hard sales pitch, but no answers to any of my questions. Even though I had been really interested in this school, this sent them to the bottom of my list. I'm not saying I won't give them a chance, but I'm not going to get in touch with them again unless I exhaust all of the other good options.
At the other extreme, places have taken days to respond and in some cases haven't responded yet and don't seem likely to. If they're out of business, that would make sense, but some of these places seem to have very up to date websites with upcoming events or recent updates. I'd get it if these were all just clubs that maybe weren't too concerned about adding new members, but I'd expect the obviously commercial places to be more interested in new students.
What have your experiences been like? Any thoughts?