As a lot of you long time readers know I started a business, nutrition and advanced coaching corse this year, which is going great by the way.
One of my recent tasks was to find out why my clients choose to train and stay on with me, which is something I have never really asked before.
It’s not even something I actually stopped to even think about (not that I didn’t care) I just had my blinders up, head down and worked hard to give them the best service I could.
So, eager to learn why, I asked all my clients the following 3 questions:
Why did you approach me?
What makes me great at what I do?
What could I do better? (this was my own question I threw in as I am always looking for ways to improve)
The response I got was very heart warming and I couldn’t believe that I had never asked these questions before.
Here are a few snippets of what was responded:
"You have a good amount of knowledge. You show everyone that you are always trying to improve your own knowledge with courses. You are relatable in that you speak about days where you cba to go gym and eat lots of foods etc on social media. As my actual personal trainer you are very patient and very encouraging. You are very good at demonstrating exercises and you always make a good program up for me. I also think its great how you check in with your clients often and its nice to know you are always there if we have any questions or concerns!!!”
“A big part of your USP for me is the ‘personal’ element of personal training, as in being able to have actual dedicated one to one time with your in a private space. It enables that hour to be focussed and free from distraction and anything can be adjusted to suit needs.
Your considerate and caring manner is different to the image of a PT some might have and that is important to me. You actually come across like you’re interested in the individual and genuinely care. You make it about them, not you.”
“Clearly very passionate about what you do and know your stuff. I feel you genuinely want to help people reach their goals and that it isn’t about ego.
Also that you tie nutrition in with exercise and are so knowledgable in this area. But you also understand that people have other pressures too.
Support you give between sessions. Not had that before from a personal trainer but it makes you feel valued and more motivated. Again feel it’s because you want people to succeed, no ego or judgement. Genuinely supportive.”
Obviously they all struggled with the question what can I improve on as I’m just so awesome (please note the sarcasm), but ensured them this was for me the important piece of information that I needed to know.
It was incredibly rewarding to see everyone say that it was hard to think of something of what I needed to improve on, a few couldn’t think of any, it was also good to see no answer was the same.
Here are some of the responses:
More nutrition information on transitioning from dropping body fat to gaining muscle, more detailed information on training splits away from personal training sessions, Spelling in blogs & change up my gym music playlist.
I got to work on all these points right away and addressed these issues for my clients, spelling and grammar may take me a while longer though haha.
When issues and areas for improvement are highlighted in the future I will be on top them right away.
It was incredibly rewarding to hear the most common answers for why they chose me and what makes me good at what I do were: attentive, caring, patient, no ego, not a typical PT, supportive, how I am always pushing to continuously educate myself and because I have a private training facility.
I will continue to highlight and work hard on strengthening these to help me become a better coach and trainer.
I urge you to find out what you do well when it comes to achieving your goals and also what you can improve on.
Example:
Q. What do I do well when trying to achieve a leaner body?
I am good at going to the gym every week without fail.
Q. What do I need to improve on?
I need to improve on tracking my calories as I do not know how many I eat.
Plan of Action:
Push myself harder in my gym sessions and superset exercise to increase calorie output.
To start tracking my calories daily to find out how many I am eating day to day then slowly reduce my serving sizes.
Highlighting and improving your strengths is fairly easy as they don’t require much work, improving your weaknesses can be tough and will take more effort. Pointing it out and recognising it is a great start and will make it easier to improve on.
Give this task a go and let me know how you get on.
If you are looking for a personal trainer with the above qualities and you’d like me to help you achieve your goals then please feel free to message me @ louis@lemonfrogfitness.org
A huge thank you for reading :)
P.s if you didn’t hear I release a brand new recipe book each month to help you guys achieve your goals and it’s completely free. The only way to receive each one is through following the link below and leaving your name and email address.
http://bit.ly/2NR5tYA