3 Things Spin class taught me about customer experience

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Seven years ago, a minor knee injury stops me from my daily run route. I change it up to hot yoga, drinking the Ommm Kool-Aid and am hitting up 4 to 5 classes a week.

Wanting to add variety, I join ClassPass after a recommendation from a good friend. ClassPass is a monthly membership that provides you with access to thousands of studios, gyms, spas and salons in over 2,500 cities worldwide. You get credits each month to book classes and appointments like boxing, yoga, manicures, facials and what has become my newest obsession, spin class.

Back up for a moment:

Am I even cool enough to step into the studio?

I don’t believe that I can do spin class. Can I actually endure cycling on a bike for 45 minutes at high intensity, high resistance with loud music blasting through the speakers? Are my legs strong enough? Will my butt get sore? Am I even cool enough to step into the studio?

Despite feeling inadequate, I took my first class and leave feeling hooked!

There are days that I walk into those 7am classes at Grind House half asleep, depleted, insecure and leave feeling inspired, motivated, confident and stronger than when I originally walked in the door. The instructors, front desk team and studio dogs continue to make me feel welcomed and included in the community.

Alissa’s (second in on the front row from left) classes always leave you feeling strong!

With all the lessons I am learning from this new exercise class, I had to loop it back to customer experience because well, that’s what I do.

Don’t be afraid of resistance

That moment when the instructor says, “turn up the resistance” and suddenly you’re doing what feels like 1000 leg presses while riding on a bike: eeeek! In customer experience, it is common to face a lot of resistance, whether that be the company not wanting to put budget into something that can positively impact the customer journey, someone in another department refusing to fix a bug because they are not “customer facing” and the problem isn’t a priority for them, or being told “no” for the ten thousandth time on that new software that would make your job supporting customers a lot easier. Through resistance, you learn. You might get a “no” that then leads you to brainstorming a new idea which becomes a “yes”. Resistance makes us stronger, physically and mentally. Resistance also becomes a helpful tool in boundary setting to guide us toward when too much is too much, when to slow down and when to speed up.

Customize the experience

In Spin class, you’re assigned a bike with a number. This bike location in the studio may differ from day to day. Since others are also using this bike during other classes, you will likely need to adjust the settings to fit your body by raising or lowering the seat and handles. You’ll want to bring a bottle of water. The studio will likely provide you with a towel that you can throw over the handlebars, as you’ll need it to wipe up sweat once class gets moving. Speakers will bump out the tunes loudly and if you’re like me, ear plugs are absolutely necessary. Grind House Cycle provides their students with ear plugs, along with hair ties, towels, shoes, lockers, a water refill station, shower, restroom, foam rollers, yoga mats and probably more things that I’m not even aware of. Down to every little thing, making sure students have what they need during each class is crucial. When we work with customers, tuning into the little things that don’t seem like a big deal can make a huge impact on customers. Doing research, asking questions and understanding what customers need to be comfortable and have the best experience will increase customer loyalty.

Enjoy the ride

Each time I walk into the studio, I am welcomed with a smile and friendly conversation. The instructor always asks if we need help setting up our bikes. I know I’m in good hands with the studio. When it comes to enjoying the ride, that is up to me. I show up and have a choice to enjoy the resistance, sweat, power pushes and sprints. I can enjoy my progress, still enjoy when there are days I don’t push myself as hard or when I don’t reach my goals. It really is more mental than physical, for me at least. In customer experience, we’ll find ourselves in challenges that we may not want to face, roadblocks in our path and sometimes, we just want to throw in the towel. Making a focus to enjoy what we’re doing, no matter how difficult, can be what motivates us and others around us.

Just like showing up to an exercise class, you’re showing up to making an impact on the customer experience every day. I see you and acknowledge your progress, even if you don’t feel like you’re making any. It matters because at the end of the day, customer experience and customer service are just people helping people. So, pat yourself on the back for all the hard work you do. I’m cheering for you!

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Jenny Dempsey
Jenny is Consumer Experience Manager for Apeel Sciences and FruitStand with more than 15 years of customer service experience. She is co-founder and a regular contributor on CustomerServiceLife.com.

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