ReveNews
24hr Annoyance
Everyone knows that subscription business models are based on breakage. A consumer signs up and either never uses the product or never unsubscribes from the service.
Recently I changed banks. I had many subscription services I had tied to my bank debit card. Most were courteous enough to send me a note via email that I needed to update my account and left it at that. I will be updating my membership for all of these services.
24hr Fitness, however, has not been courteous in their approach. Rather than simply inform me as a customer that my account needs updated they have badgered me, harassed me, and have lost me as a customer.
Now, I am by no means a workout junkie. I hate the hamster-like feeling of running on a treadmill. I signed up with 24hr Fitness to gain access to their racquetball courts. When I lived in Phoenix, there were racquetball courts everywhere. After moving to Seattle, I was surprised to find such a recreational focused town didn’t have a plethora of courts. So, 24hr Fitness was my answer. Several in my area featured courts that were in decent shape and of course I could play on them at almost any time.
That was the appeal. That was the sole reason I signed up for 24hr Fitness. I did not sign up because I wanted to be called three times a day.
Three times is the frequency their “service” has called me since I have changed banks. Now, usually I would have been mildly irritated but would have answered a query from a person. But the call center 24hr Fitness is using operates with an automated dialer. Instead of a human you get a machine voice asking for you to hold in order to remedy “important information” about your account. They are interrupting my valuable time with a machine in order to place me on hold?! Talk about a poor customer service experience.
Business owners should follow 24hr Fitness’s example if they want a blueprint on how to lose customers. This is a subscription model: if a customer wants their re-use your service right away they will update their account for that privilege (like I did with Netflix). Inundating them with 24hr a day annoyance will simply turn a former customer into an advocate against your business.
I actually go to 24 Hour Fitness here in LA - similar to you, because they have the equipment I want. It is a huge gym.
The game is sales in a very big way and they are a sales machine. I’d also prefer if their sales process were less aggressive.