How You’re Losing Clients With Your Messaging
Recently, my local pilates studio gave me a masterclass on messaging that loses a client.
A new studio just opened up near my house, and since I’ve been looking to change things up (I'm a Barry's Bootcamp gal through and through 💪), I checked out their website.
It looked nice enough, but I couldn’t find the only two things I was looking for: class schedule and pricing.
The only CTA was to sign up for a free intro class, which required entering a ton of info and commiting to one of the free slots this week.
Strike one - missed opportunity for a nurturing customer journey to introduce the brand
After signing up, I received an open-ended text asking for me to share a summary of my fitness background and any injuries. No specific questions. I was kinda confused what exactly they wanted to know.
Strike two - missed opportunity to get to know me and build a relationship, plus putting the mental load on me to figure out what they wanted
When I showed up, the studio was dark, the front desk girl seemed grumpy, and even though I was the only person in the whole place, she didn’t ask me anything about myself or say much at all.
Strike three - missed opportunity to personalize the messaging of their promotional offer, plus bad vibes
In my 1:1 class, the instructor launched into a history of what pilates is and how the movements work. As someone who’s done a lot of pilates, not only did I already know this, but I also didn’t really care. I just wanted to know what kind of workouts I could get there.
Strike four - missed opportunity to sell the benefits and transformation of the workout
My intro class was a series of basic and limited movements designed to show me how pilates worked. Probably the same set of exercises every first-timer gets.
Strike five - missed opportunity to ask about my personal goals and customize some movements to focus on
Without having broken a sweat, I was ushered back into the lobby where the class schedule and prices were presented to me.
Strike six - missed opportunity to discuss the benefits of the varied schedule or the kinds of physical experience you get from each class type
By the time I saw the (sky high!) membership prictetag, I was halfway out the door.
(Not to mention, the instructor didn’t seem to like me for some reason)
Everything I learned, I could have found on ChatGPT.
Here’s the lesson:
When you’ve got the golden opportunity of one-on-one facetime with a potential client, don’t waste your chance to get to know them. This is the moment to connect with them and personalize the experience better.
These days, that’s the difference between making a premium sale vs. losing out to an AI solution.