Canceled Sessions and Rebooking

As a trainer, working for someone else, you always should maximize revenue for the company that hires you. And you should care about the health of your clients. All trainers, to some degree, are also salespeople. To do that well in the sales area, a little sales training and skills are necessary.

Whenever a customer cancels a session, immediately suggest to rebook that session within the same week by giving them times they can come in.

Some examples, “Oh, I need to cancel my Friday workout…” Immediately say, “OK, let me see what I have on Saturday…” I would NOT say, “Would you like to come in on Saturday?” The answer to that question is a yes, no, or maybe. Simply offering them a replacement doesn’t leave an “opening” for the “no.” Offer them the times they CAN come in, so they can continue to get the benefits our workouts offer.

If a client cancels for a week or two (surgery, vacation, etc.) schedule their next workout before they take that leave. If they are hesitant, remind them. “It is very common to gain weight on vacation and we want to start taking it off as soon as you get back. Let’s look at the schedule…” Again, you are being proactive. You are maximizing the health and benefit of the client and income for the organization.

The health and benefit of the client is the more important part.

If they cancel due to injury or surgery, let them know that muscle strength is very easy to lose and very hard to gain. Fat is very easy to gain and very hard to lose. So, schedule them within a reasonable time from the surgery to start again. They can always adjust it according to their surgeon’s permission.

The healthier someone is when they go in for surgery, the faster they will recover. Something for you, the trainer, to know is that health is directly tied to metabolism. Metabolism is directly a function of muscular strength, size, or both. Food is also important, but we cannot control what clients eat. What we can try to control is how often and how effectively our clients work out.

With surgery or injury, we can still work out the muscles in the rest of the body. If a left shoulder is injured, we can work out the right arm and the lower body. If a knee is replaced, we can work out the other leg and all the upper body.

Fun fact: Fitness and health are “stored” in muscle cells. Nearly all fat is metabolized in the muscle cells. Energy can come from sugar which is eaten (unhealthy energy) or by metabolizing stored fat (very healthy). The healthier your cells are the more fat you will metabolize.

Another fact: “Old fashioned” medicine likes to tell us that age-related loss of muscle is natural, but it isn’t. You can maintain your muscle with proper high intensity exercise. You can build it back at any age. So, it isn’t a “natural loss.” Current data indicates that people lose muscle in stages as they get older DUE TO INCIDENTS. An injury stops their activity, and they lose some muscle. They have surgery, sit around for weeks, and lose more. They go on vacation and do nothing for two weeks, then get depressed at how fat they have become and sit around for two months trying to talk themselves back into exercising. This causes more loss. In a recent article, it was found that even young people will lose 1-4 pounds of muscle by lying in a hospital bed for a week. In just one week!

Repeat: Muscle is hard to gain and very easy to lose. Fat is VERY easy to gain and VERY hard to lose.

So, it is our job to get them back in the gym ASAP for THEIR sakes. The gym wants to make money, but our clients’ health and benefit is more important than that.

Always reschedule in that same week, or as soon as they get back.