Mountain Climbing

Climb Every Mountain (Leisure Report, February 2007)

David Minton says scaling a 2km mountain on a bicycle is less of a task than operators face in their efforts to reach out to members.

The Mont Ventoux is a 1910m high conical peak that's visible from far across the surrounding Provence countryside. With its altitude and the cooling Mistral from the north, it's often snow-capped in April, while the cherry orchards below are in blossom and the fields are turning green.

Mont Venoux

Ventoux is the highest part of a mountain range running from the village of Montbrun-les-Bains in the east to Malaucène in the west. The view from the top is truly magnificent, especially if a Mistral has cleared the air. From the north eastern lookout alone you can see most of the Alps, including Mont Blanc. If you are going to the top of Mont Ventoux during a Mistral, or any time other than the middle of summer, a good windbreaker and gloves will be appreciated.

The road from Sault to the top of Mont Ventoux is 26 km: 20 km to the Chalet Reynard ski station and 6 km to the peak. The first few km are across rolling fields of lavender, although tall yellow-black poles mark the road for winter snows. After the lavender fields, the road winds through forests of pine, oak, larch and beech with picnic tables sitting amongst the trees here and there off the side of the road. This is the road used by the Tour de France and an estimated 1 million people lined the route up the mountain to see the race the last time it came here. Mont Ventoux is a 'giant' whether you refer to its extraordinary climatic differences, its strange looks, or its pull for cyclists. It's one of the last great rides I must do, so I've enrolled for the 102km Cyclo Sportiv race that takes place on the last weekend of May. I also need to get the legs back into shape because I've had a few weeks off. Well, 14 weeks to be precise, 14 weeks of one excuse after another. So putting the gym back into the diary is hard, harder than I thought.

14 weeks, 9 countries, 18 flights, 8 hotels

Looking back at the diary I can see the excuses and where the time's gone. In 14 weeks I've visited nine different countries, taken 18 flights and stayed in eight hotels. All these airlines and hotel companies diligently collected, cleaned, checked and stored my contact details so they can established an 'on-going relationship' with me. So all the hotels except one (the SIBEC hotel in Portugal is the odd one out) now send me emails on a regular basis, so far at least one a month. They tell me about their special promotions and all manner of enticing deals to whet my appetite to return. Some even text me to remind me to look at my emails for latest offers which must expire by midnight. Although I think this is going a bit too far, I do appreciate their efforts and the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems that are working behind the scenes. I also like the cross-promotions that land in my inbox from all this activity. Hotel du Vin, for example, have linked up with Hotel Crillon le Brave in Provence, which just happens to answer the question 'where shall I stay when I ride up Mont Ventoux in May?' When I phoned and booked I was the second person from the UK who had responded to that promotional offer in just one hour!

All the airline companies send me promotions, from China Airlines with their exotic sounding Asian network, to Aer Arann with the Irish connections. I get seat sale details, new routes and, most recently, email and text to confirm flight cancellations (fog at LHR in December). Printing off my boarding pass 24 hours ahead is now second nature.

And then?..Over the same 14 weeks I heard from my health club just once. Not to say they missed me or to check why I had been absent from the Friday night group cycling classes, but a phone call - while I was in China - to say the annual fee for my locker was due. Besides an irregular news (sic) letter emailed twice in the past year I have received no communication from my club. So whatever CRM system the club uses it keeps track of the finance, which is great, but what about a 'call to action' email or text like the hotels or airlines?

National Fitness Audit -two MOSAIC groups dominate

In the Leisure Database Company's 2006 National Fitness Audit of 1.8 million members, the profile across all 433 private clubs who took part showed that just two MOSAIC Groups dominate. Group A, 'Symbols of Success' and Group E, 'Urban Intelligence'. These two groups make up 38% of all members although they represent only 18% of the UK adult population. So these people have more than twice the propensity to participate; in short, they are an easy sell. If you can communicate with them, offer them the right product at the right price in the right location, they're yours. All you've got to do is look after them once they have signed up.

Communication

It's surprisingly easy to communicate with these members. After all, over 97% of them have either Broadband at home or some form of mobile communicator like a Blackberry. These people are used to effective, regular communication from a wide range of arts and leisure organisations who, along with the fitness club, are vying for their time. So for a Mosaic Group A or E person like myself, who after 14 weeks discovers he's not as self-motivated as he thought, it would have been nice if the club had 'communicated' with me on something other than finance. As a former (yes I'm finally leaving) high value, long term member, who each year spent more on PT sessions and secondary spend items than the value of my membership, the CRM system does not recognise or value me above any other member. So does the CRM system care or will I be missed? No way. The number of show rounds converting into new members is above target and that's the bottom line. But my club's not so different? I know of members of parliament, main board directors of hotel and FTSE companies, global brand managers, even people who work for private equity houses which own or are looking to invest in our industry, who frequently bitch about it. Most of this goes on over the dinner table and behind closed doors - damaging but contained, at least. What happens, though, when one of the disenfranchised members is a journalist? What if a journalist is a member of a club, like me, where you're paying for service but you receive none? When journalists vent their opinions the whole global online community is the audience.

Negative Press in January

Why oh why did every main newspaper have a go at our industry over the beginning of January? Simple? Too many of the journalists have had miserable experiences. Too many are encouraged to make promises we/they cannot keep and too many members are just left to motivate themselves. If I didn't have a support group, which is without a club to train in as we're all leaving, I'd be feeling worse than I am. I have a mountain to climb in a few months time. The fitness industry also has a mountain to climb when it comes to existing customer service.

David Minton is the director of The Leisure Database Company