We have a saying here when a member cancels or leaves unexpectedly.
‘Gone for now, but not forever.’
Recently we have seen the return of several clients who left prior to lockdown one. Sometimes as a gym owner, we will never understand why someone leaves ,especially if they leave without saying anything. Ghosting our texts or avoiding our calls, What we know is that they’re obviously struggling with something they’re not ready to talk to us about and that’s fine.
Recently one client made a return after over two years off. They left unexpectedly, hadn’t said anything, avoided our calls and we thought wow, we’ll probably never hear from them again and what a shame, they had made so much progress. I could not believe it when they booked an intro session with us last week I was so happy to see them again.
We picked up exactly where we had left off as if no time had passed. The client mentioned that they had continued to read our blogs since leaving and although they hadn’t done much with their fitness they were still receiving some value from us during their time off. We never got to why they left, we know it’s probably got nothing to do with us which is also why they are back.
Sometimes people tell themselves a different story to the one that we have. Where we think ‘they’re just not ready or in the right head space to talk about it but we hope they come back soon or when they’re ready.
They might be telling themselves that once they’ve left we will never accept them back based on how they acted/left. You can think we won’t like you, won’t want you, won’t be happy to see you.
But it’s far from the truth. Our door will always be open if and when you need it.
Coaching is relationship based and with us there is a relationship. It goes both ways and sometimes we mess up, sometimes you mess up at the end of the day we are all only human so give yourself a break!
It took an immense amount of bravery for this member to schedule an intro after all this time. But they did and they’re well on their way to working on their current fitness goals but this time with more clarity and understanding about what they want.
You see prior to them leaving they thought we only did CrossFit classes but coming back they’ll be doing a mixture of nutrition coaching and person training because it suits their goals.
Time really is the best teacher.
Whether you see us in the gym, follow our blog or consume our social media content, we only ever want to help. Having clients leave was always the risk we took when opening our gym. We know what we can control and we are perfectly fine with what we can’t. We don’t have any other story with our past members other than gone for now, not forever.
Want to know one crazy story from one of our other returning clients?
After failing to purchase Nutrition coaching from us, they went away and in just over a year lost 22KG’S all by themselves!
Following the recommendation of tackling nutrition and lifestyle first that we set in our last intro session this person referenced our conversation and blogs to be helpful and motivating to make the necessary changes. After starting by themselves and then reaching out to a friend all the way in Romania, they managed to lose 22kg and flip their lifestyle all by themselves! How amazing is that!
That person is starting group classes next week having now hit their target weight!
What a story!
