About Jeffrey Keller

Showing 1 - 19 of 19 Articles

"What It Takes To Be #1" In Customer Service
August 2008 - In 1969, Vince Lombardi gave his famous speech "What It Takes to Be #1". The speech, intended for an audience of rabid football fans, has transcended sports and become a philosophy for life. In his speech, he focused on the qualities he felt were essential for success on the playing field. Success, he felt, was not just winning, but competing with maximum effort each and every time an athlete stepped on the field. Read Article...

101 Tips for Being a Great General Manager
March 2012 - Everyone likes tips. They're simple, easy to digest, and sometimes for some people, earth shattering. General Managers (and Owners) get so caught up in putting out fires, dealing with employee issues and worrying about making their budget that they forget that even their jobs can be broken down into the simplest of tasks. Read Article...

A "Creepy" Business
November 2008 - Recently, an Owner/Manager sent me a "distress call" email asking me to give her a call. While I was talking to her on the phone, it became apparent that her problem was a serious one that has an easy fix, but is time consuming to diagnose the specific actions to take. She had "cost creep", and it was seriously eating into her bottom line. Read Article...

Being Real in the Club Industry
July 2010 - Without a doubt, the biggest challenge club owners and managers have in this industry is overcoming the "Trust" factor that Norm Cates speaks so bluntly about in nearly every issue of Club Insider. "Trust" affects all aspects of our operations, from sales, to retention, to service design. Read Article...

By The Numbers
April 2013 - Managers and owners hear it more and more, "You better know your numbers." They repeat it to their staffs, but many of them don't truly understand what's necessary to achieve their monthly goals or hold their sales staff accountable in doing so. Every club manager and owner knows that their life-blood is their Monthly EFT. But, are they achieving their growth goals appropriately, or are they out there on a wing and a prayer? Read Article...

Community Giving
Is It the Secret to Success?
January 2010 - It's been taught to generations that 'it is more blessed to give than to receive.' But how blessed is it when you give in order to receive? I heard this comment on National Public Radio on December 22nd. The underlying truth of this comment rang true for me, and I began to think about the club industry. Read Article...

Creating Independent Club Value
Part 2 in a Series of 3 on Building Value In Independent Clubs
June 2008 - Read Article...

Do You Lead a Tribe?
April 2009 - Last month's article was meant to inspire leadership, and hopefully it did. But, for all the inspiration that was gleaned from that article, it won't make a dent in the armor of employee apathy without a framework to use it in. Hopefully, this month's article will help provide that framework. Read Article...

Does Your Club's Customer Service Have Heart?
January 2011 - A lot of readers see articles from me on customer service and leadership. This is because I believe they are the main reasons we don't engage customers in that group of 85% of Americans who aren't our members. Instead, we trade members back and forth. Members walk away and go to the next place that has opened. Well, I'm here to say that it doesn't have to be that way. Read Article...

Incentivize for Success
October 2008 - My wife works for a very large national therapy contracting company. Just recently, she received a nice company logoed, multipurpose laptop bag from her employer. She has never received something like that from an employer before, and as intended, she felt very appreciated when she received the unexpected gift. But despite the employee appreciation that comes from an employer gesture like this, companies need to think long and hard about their goals and actions and how they can best use their money to incentivize their employees to achieve maximum performance. Read Article...

Is Attitude Everything?
Yes It Is!
February 2009 - When approached about my educational history, many people give me a puzzled look when I say that my focus during business school was Leadership. For most, accounting is an understandable major. Marketing is an understandable major. Even finance is an understandable major. But, when you tell people that your major was "leadership," it throws them for a loop. Read Article...

Keep the Learning Going
December 2009 - Now that the Club Industry Show is over and many owners and managers have returned to their clubs and businesses, how much of what we learned will be implemented? Read Article...

Retention Starts at the Start
The Factor 6 Sequence to Improve Member Retention
October 2010 - You've spent a couple of months prepping a big membership campaign. You spent a lot of money on mailers, put up the Facebook ads just like they told you in the online webinar, Tweeted the promotion like your buddy told you to do, scheduled the staff and prepped everyone for several long days. You launch the promotion, have tons of traffic, sign up the new members and pay the commissions and overtime for the sales staff to be there. Read Article...

Retention Tips That Build Value
July 2009 - One of the biggest challenges in the club environment today is how to increase the value of a membership without decreasing the price or increasing the cost to the club. For years, we as an industry have competed with each other for market share based on who had the newest equipment, or the biggest gym or the most cardio. But now, that competitive strategy just doesn't cut it. Read Article...

Sustaining Independent Value
Part 3 in a Series of 3 on Building Value In Independent Clubs
July 2008 - Sustaining something can often be much more difficult than actually getting there. Just ask any Olympic Gold Medalist. Once you're at the top, staying there is really tough. But, when it comes to sustaining value, an independent health club really shouldn't have that tough of a time. Read Article...

The S.I.M.P.L.E. Approach to Employee Loyalty
September 2011 - Probably the most popular topic these days in the club industry is retention. Member turnover is the ultimate demise of any club. Even if we sell a ton of memberships, we get nowhere if we lose a ton of memberships. Read Article...

Three Tips to a Better Sales Team
October 2013 - I realize that the title of this article seems a little repetitive to what everyone online puts in their blogs, email blasts and newsletters. But, this article is going to highlight three common mistakes that you can train your staff to fix that will make an immediate impact for them and you. All three involve "listening," which ironically, is the most difficult thing for salespeople to do. Use these to help them close more sales and pack your club. Read Article...

What Keeps You Up At Night?
July 2012 - Let me start with a question. What keeps you up at night? This question is the ultimate question you should ask yourself, because ultimately, business is there to provide a quality of life you enjoy. If you enjoy being a stressed out insomniac, then ignore the rest of this article. But, if your endeavor is to have an enjoyable life outside of work, pay attention to this heartfelt advice. Read Article...

Who Has the Advantage?
Part 1 in a Series of 3 on Building Value In Independent Clubs
May 2008 - Read Article...

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Showing 1 - 19 of 19 Articles