Personal Training Policy: How to Manage Frustrating Client’s Who Always Cancel?

Heart Break!

You take the time and plan a thoughtful program.

You show up early, and set up the gym so everything is ready.

And you wait, and wait, and wait…

But your client never shows up, or you get a text/email/voice mail that says they cannot make it and can they reschedule.

Keep Your Cool

Yes it is frustrating, sometimes it is downright rude, but every trainer out there has been through this scenario. The most important thing is to keep your cool and be a professional. Some clients will never be superstar clients, that’s OK. But your time is valuable, and you should make sure that all your client’s respect your time, otherwise it’s time to say goodbye. Don’t jump to conclusions, maybe something bad really happened. (Hopefully not!) Call them, leave them a message, and be positive at least until you find out what exactly is going on.

Avoid Creating Repeat Offenders

The first step in helping your client’s respect you and your time is to create clear expectations for the relationship from the very beginning. Whatever your policy is regarding cancellations (I have a 48 hour policy that goes for both myself and the client, but the industry standard is about 24 hours), you should have it clearly written and presented to the client from the very beginning.  This will help the client take you seriously, weed out bad clients, and demonstrate your professionalism.   I always make it a two way street, if I don’t show up, they get a free session (in 9 years it has never happened, but it shows them that you are committed to them, so they should be committed to you. Fair is fair.)

Any exceptions to your cancellation policy should be clearly written as well (i.e. life and death emergencies). In particular, you should spell out that work emergencies DO NOT COUNT AND ARE NOT VALID REASONS FOR CANCELING WITHOUT NOTICE! Most of your client’s are going to try and put work before their health, which is ludicrous; this is an imbalanced priority that you do not want to encourage. You don’t have to present them with a contract full of legal language to sign, just write it out or type it up, and have them initial it, so the expectations are clear.

The next step is enforcing your written policy! I will usually let the first cancellation without enough notice slide, especially if it is close to the deadline, but you should do this ONLY IF YOU TELL THEM YOU ARE MAKING AN EXCEPTION THIS ONE TIME. (If they are a no show, I always charge except of course if it was a life and death emergency.) This allows you to reiterate the seriousness of the cancellation policy. And the next time it happens, you MUST charge them for it no matter what. Otherwise, you are at risk at conditioning their behavior in the wrong direction. If you don’t charge them, they will expect you not to charge them when they do not provide notice, and will get upset if you try to charge them for it later on. Set the expectations from the start, actions speak louder than words, don’t just say it, do it!

Behavior Change and Habits

Our client’s come to us to lose weight or look better, but whether we realize it or not, we are in a lifestyle business. That means that every client that comes in to see you needs to change their life in some way, often many ways, or else they wouldn’t need your help.

• They don’t sleep enough.

• They are stressed.

• They don’t know how to work out or don’t work often enough.

• Their back hurts.

• They are lazy and tired all the time.

All these things add up to disease and imbalanced health, but more often than not, they are coming more concerned with their looks than anything else. The client doesn’t fully realize or want to admit that THEY NEED TO CHANGE THEIR LIFE.

This is what the elite personal trainer focuses on. Not just getting them in shape, but helping the client take control of their life. It is the only way to achieve and maintain their goals. What the hell is the point of getting in shape and then losing it a few weeks later? Why not just get in shape, stay in shape, and be happy? This is a goal for all clients.

But you will never be able to influence your client, and inspire them to change their behavior, if they don’t respect you in the first place. When they cancel on you, they are saying, whether they realize it or not, “This isn’t a priority”. Help them make it a priority. Enforce your policy with a sincere smile and a gentle energy, but enforce it consistently. You will weed out the bad client’s who cannot match your commitment to their goals, allowing you to focus on the super clients that will become walking billboards for your business.

Stick with it; this is often a big issue for personal trainers who are just getting started and not very confident. Make sure you do not give “weak” energy for the client to feed off of, create good habits in managing your clients, and you will have less cancellation very soon.

Neat Little Trick for First Workouts

The first time a client comes to workout with you is the time when they are most likely to cancel!  And if they don't come in, there is no way for you to get them as a client.  First,  just understand their predicament:

• They want to believe you will help them, but have seen some terrible trainers out there.

• They are scared, and feel vulnerable.

• They will be opening up, sharing an intimate space, and be forced to confront their own behavior, and on some level they know it.

• The gym is intimidating, they may have a terrible self image, or feel ashamed.

Whatever the case, the first step is to try and disarm their fear as much as possible.  Talk to them on the phone and be generous and supportive.  Send them to your website so they can see your face, see the testimonials of your clients, and get to know you.  Then set up the appointment.

Often the first workout is complimentary, but a sneaky little trick we use is to take a credit card down and explain to them that the first step is often the hardest for people to take (so true!), and so people often cancel their first appointment.  Explain that your time is valuable, so to ensure that they will show up and not waste your time, you take a credit card #; they are only charged if they DON'T show up.  This is a great way to screen out people who will waste your time by no showing, or will be crappy clients.

Leave me some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you. What are your biggest problems with clients? How do you handle repeat offenders? Let me know what you think.

Until next time, keep your business fit.