Social Web Report

I went to my gym the other day, the Cannons in Aberdeen, and asked if I could bring a guest in. The assistant said it would cost £14 to do so. Considering a local authority pool might only charge £2.00 maximum I began an experiment there and then into how my query about gym guests would be dealt with.

The assistant said I could bring my guest in for £14, or apply for a 1-day guest membership online – with no idea of how long it would take to be processed. I told her how dismayed I was at that, but she couldn’t tell me anything more, just the information she had given me. So I asked to speak to a membership assistant.

The membership assistant spoke to me for the next five minutes, and confirmed what her reception colleague had told me, but didn’t add anything to my knowledge. And when I asked about how I could complain about the situation, she had no idea of any place on the Cannons website where I could do so. So, I thanked them (they were all very friendly) and went on to take my swim.

Looking back on that experience I wish someone had been able to offer me the full range of options and explain to me why they were the only ones. It was over lunch with a couple of friends later that day that I discovered there are probably good reasons for making the guest charge so high (for example, keeping the club from becoming a pool available to the casual, off-street visitor and therefore taking away from the ‘club’ feel). But I wish I had been told that.

Yet the website FAQs states the following:

Can I bring guests into my club?

The more the merrier! Visits to the bar and restaurant areas are free of charge, but all other facilities do incur a guest fee. Each guest can enjoy up to four visits within 12 consecutive months.

I certainly didn’t get any impression that the company wanted me to bring in a guest.

Now, the Seth Godin part…

It would have taken a little bit of attention to detail, a little bit of empathy, and a little bit of corporate knowledge to inform me of the situation and then leave me satisfied. Had one of the staff members done that I wouldn’t be sitting here typing out this blog post – using Cannons gym as an example of bad marketing. They haven’t lost me as a customer – I like the gym, and I like the staff there. But they might have lost a new customer – my friend, the guest.

Now translate this into a website experience:

A customer should never be left confused about what action to take or the reason for that action. Confusion leads to doubt and in a web world where there are so many other options and so many other people and businesses speaking out to us, the first hint of doubt and confusion could be a lost customer.

And if I was a more angry person, then I might actually seek out a forum in which to make a more vocal complaint, and I would have entered the very realm of empowered individual with digital broadcast and distribution at my fingertips about whom I am writing.