The mobile phone is unfortunately an essential tool of the personal trainer. A moderately successful PT will have 10-15 clients, and do up to 6 sessions a day, at least one of which will be rescheduled, cancelled, or have someone not show up to, and someone else wants that time slot, but hang isn't that one on holiday? And so on. You need to be able to call and text to arrange things, you certainly can't rely on the gym's front desk to pass on messages for you in a timely fashion. And you need the phone to check on new clients the day after their first workout, call them for their birthdays and generally stay connected.
But when the PT session starts, put the fucking phone away and don't answer it if anyone messages of calls. Check it after the person's session. The only exception I've made is when my wife was eight months pregnant, I told all my clients that if it rang I'd check if it was my wife or some close friend or relative, they laughed and understood.
"But what about using it as a stopwatch?"
Buy a stopwatch, or get a $15 digital watch that has a stopwatch on it.
"Yeah but there are useful apps for tracking workouts!"
No. Did I miss something? Have paper and pens stopped working?
If you as a trainer use your phone at all during the session, whether as a stopwatch, workout app or whatever, everyone watching will assume you're sending text messages to your buddies about your wild weekend. You just lost 10 potential clients, well done, perhaps for your next trick you could do a loud crotch grab on your client, unlike playing with your phone there may be a few who actually like that.
Your clients are paying $1-$3 a minute for your attention, that's what they want. Undivided. Fucking about with your mobile phone as you press the wrong part of the screen or enter the wrong number or try to find the exercise you had to substitute in because of the guy spending half an hour doing 4" range of motion 200kg leg presses will divide your attention. Don't do it.
Much the same goes for chatting to other trainers or gym buddies during someone's PT session. The obvious exception is when you introduce the client to someone and include them in the conversation. Don't talk over the head of someone bench pressing or anything like that. And don't knock out some chinups while the person is doing a plank. Seriously.
If you are not interested in what they're doing, why should they be? Focus, Grasshopper. Keep your attention on the person who is paying for it.
Oh lord, my gym is the worst at this. Last week I saw the most ridiculous thing ever. The client was on the phone, yapping away for the entire session. She wasn't talking about anything important, just chatting to a girlfriend about her weekend. The trainer was fine with it - he just led her around pointing at which machine to use next. When she was doing a shoulder press using the smith machine (one armed, of course - can't put down the phone), he no joke started doing chin ups behind her. I didn't know what part of that was the worst.
ReplyDeleteIt's that sort of trainer-client engagement that really inspires people to come and sign up with that trainer!
ReplyDeleteIn that case, it sounds like it was at the client's end to begin with, and he lost interest. If it were me, that's a client who would be looking for a new trainer.
There are apps worth using, to be sure, but the client can be using them. I put my phone away, which amuses and I think pleases my clients. They know if I have someone before them it's not even worth texting me to say they're late, because I won't see it until they get there. My goal is as much attention as possible, because what I don't see I can't coach.
ReplyDeletePutting the phone away is so rare now that it seems like a compliment to the person who is with you. That in itself is makes the it a no-brainer for trainer or anyone in an industry that involves invoking trust in a client. The other day I blogged about a teen who decided to text while spotting his buddy on the bench press and broke my rule about not correcting people at the gym. That someone would do that blew my mind.
ReplyDeleteYou see, on one hand, I love how blunt you are about these things, but on the other it makes no sense to me why someone would have their phone out while training someone. I have been having trouble getting clients but I'm working on it. I know that keeping my current clients happy is much more important than anything else.
ReplyDeleteArticles which may be of interest to you, Damien.
DeleteThe PT-client relationship
PT income and the 80-20 rule
Or in short, you get and keep clients by demonstrating competence, establishing trust and rapport, and most of your income will come from just a few of your long-term clients, and most of your headaches from a few... but never the same few!
Fire me an email if you have any specific thoughts or queries.