Carmen Sturniolo, owner of personal training business Ambitious Athletics, takes the intimidation factor out of fitness by having consistent conversations with customers. From a client’s first orientation meeting to their ongoing check-ins, Carmen sets the expectation that they’re partners and their conversations go both ways.
For Yelp reviewer Steven C., Carmen’s communication made all the difference. Negative experiences at other gyms had made Steven nervous about entering the fitness scene, but meeting Carmen immediately put him at ease. “I wanted to go back because they knew who I was and they knew what was going on in my life,” Steven said.
When Steven became a member, these conversations continued—with Carmen checking in to make sure Steven was getting what he wanted out of his membership.
Understanding how your customers think and want to be cared for can help you lower the intimidation hurdle at your business. Discover what Carmen and Steven’s interactions look like from both sides of the customer journey.
Intake conversations with new clients
To put new customers at ease, Carmen has a personal conversation with each client member and offers a $20 one-week trial period as a low-risk option. This creates a safe environment where clients feel supported.
Carmen: “You come in for that initial starter session, and that gives us the opportunity to meet you, understand where you are and who you are as a person… It’s so we can have a conversation with you and just be ourselves and demonstrate our quality of training here and our community and how we carry ourselves and want to actually make a difference in health and fitness… because that’s important to us. That would be important to me if I walked into any gym—any business that I was investing in myself—to be known as somebody, not just a number.”
Steven: “I was really nervous [because] I’ve been to gyms before, and most of the time it’s just open equipment, so you go and you feel bad about yourself because everyone else is very in shape. [But after my first class,] Carmen sat down with me and another person doing the orientation and asked our goals and our story. It wasn’t just, ‘Do you wanna be buff in six months?’ He really talked to us about who we are as a person and why we’re there. And I was able to share struggles with mental health and how I wanted to benefit my mental health through physical activity.”
Ongoing check-ins with members
Carmen and his staff look at a report every Friday to see which clients have been able to come in and which ones haven’t. If clients haven’t shown up, they check in to make sure they’re doing okay. This check-in acts both as a form of accountability and care for clients who want to form a regular fitness practice.
Carmen: “We take showing up very seriously and not to the point where we’re on your case, but we know that showing up three to four times a week is most beneficial for your goals… A lot of things that can happen during the week, during the day, that could set you back and you’re probably not thinking, ‘Oh, I need to reach out to my gym and let them know I’m not gonna be in for a couple days.’”
Steven: “Usually with the gym, I would do three days—come in three times—and then I [would start to feel] really uncomfortable. But here, you get more and more comfortable with each day. And if I skipped a class, Carmen would send me an email and say: ‘Hey bud, hope you’re doing okay. We have this goal for you. Wanna make sure you’re coming in.’
“And I prepaid for three months or something, so it wasn’t like he was trying to get me to come in and pay for each individual class. He was just trying to help me reach my goals. That, too, was like accountability. It kept me motivated for sure.”
Review responses to loyal customers
Carmen takes reviews seriously and has a process for reading and responding to them. Reviews like Steven’s help lower the intimidation factor for future customers, so Carmen believes it’s important to let them know how they’ve helped his business.
Carmen: “If it’s a 1-star or a 5-star review, I wanna be able to read it and react logically if it hits me emotionally, so I carve out 30 minutes in case I need to absorb it. Then I always take that time to email. If it’s a current member, I’ll email them and say: ‘Thank you so much for taking the time to write this review that is helpful to us, and also helpful to the next person that could come in.’ That took away the gym intimidation in order for [the next person].”
Steven: “I was very inspired to write a review. [I felt] like other people need to have this experience. I know that I felt intimidated, and I know many people who are starting a gym don’t [end up going] because that’s the case. So I just felt compelled to let people know that if you go to this gym, that is not gonna be a problem. You’ll feel very invited. It’s warm and welcoming, and so I had to go over my experience and then also how to do it—how easy it was to just go on the website and click the orientation class and get started.”
These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear more from Carmen and Steven, or visit the episode page to read more, subscribe to the show, and explore other episodes.
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