Technician Talk with ServiceRX Franchisee with Jared Grigg

In episode 8 of Fix Your Gym, Adam Niffen is joined by Jared Grigg from ServiceRx, a franchise specializing in fitness industry services. Jared shares his 15 years of experience in the fitness industry and discusses the challenges and opportunities in the service side of the business. He talks about the importance of focusing on core business and providing value to customers, rather than getting into equipment sales. 

Tune in to learn more about Jared's journey and his insights into the fitness industry.

TIMESTAMPS

[00:01:05] Fitness Industry Service Side.

[00:01:56] Growing Up in the Fitness Industry.

[00:13:50] Quinac Machines and Technogym Outraces.

[00:17:34] Industry Changes and Competition.

[00:19:27] The Future of the Fitness Industry.

[00:27:30] Sales Companies and Conflict of Interest.

[00:31:20] Working Together and Building Legacies.

In this episode, Adam Niffen and Jared Grigg highlight the importance of collaboration and idea-sharing within the fitness industry. They emphasize that there is enough work for everyone and that the success of one company does not equate to the failure of another. They firmly believe that if all industry players are thriving, it will ultimately benefit everyone involved.

Additionally, Adam and Jared underscore the significance of maintenance and repair in the fitness industry. They note that many companies solely focus on selling fitness equipment and overlook the importance of preventative maintenance and repair services. However, ServiceRx specializes in maintenance and repair, aiming to support sales by taking care of the technical aspects for clients. They believe that this specialization is unique and valuable in the industry. 

QUOTES

• “I think the industry as a whole is pretty resilient. You're dealing with a lot of type A fitness people, and generally, they're used to grinding and they're used to adversity and pain." - Jared Grigg
• "We can all get together and work together and bounce ideas off of each other. And there's plenty of work out there and we can all learn from each other and really make our industry and what we do better.” - Adam Niffen
• “I got competition out there but I want to work with, especially in my region. I mean, there's enough work for everybody. And I feel like it's better if you work together and you don't shut people out and, I mean, I'm trying to build a legacy.” - Jared Grigg

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Adam Niffen

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-niffen-6baba7170/

Jared Grigg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ServiceRXNVA/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-grigg-843660257/

WEBSITE

Stride Fitness Solutions: https://stridefitnesssolutions.com/

ServiceRX: https://gosrx.com/

Transcript

Welcome to Fix Your Gym, a podcast dedicated to bringing you expert knowledge from fitness industry leaders, salespeople, gym owners, tech experts, and other fitness enthusiasts, where you'll learn about the latest industry trends, innovative technologies, new and current products on the market, and health and fitness news from experts across the nation. And now, here's your host, Adam Niffin. 

All right. Welcome to the show, everybody. Today, we've got my man, Jared Grigg on from ServiceRx. We recently had Scott Jennings on, who is basically the franchise... The owner of the franchise, ServiceRx. Jared Grigg is one of the franchisees. Been in the fitness industry service side for 15 years up on the Well, you're in Washington DC area, right? 

Yeah. I live right outside of there. Most of my work is in the metropolitan area. So Northern Virginia, Maryland, and DC. 

Yeah, so you cover probably a pretty big area up there. Yeah. So just to be clear, for those who didn't see the previous episode, ServiceRx is a fitness equipment. And you guys do some other types of service as well. Massage chairs, different things like that. I don't know what all... And I'll let you get into that too. But you're in a service company, fitness equipment service company for the most part. And then... Yeah, man. So tell me a little bit about how you got into the industry, how you got into ServiceRx. 

So when I was a little kid, my dad's actually a salesman. He's a salesman for Kaiser now. So I got in with him. I was a little kid. He worked for a company called Southern Fitness Products, which was a company out of Charlotte, North Carolina. So I've kind of always been around the industry. I grew up around warehouses and then guys lifting heavy weights, listening to rock music and chalk on the floor. And that was kind of my world. I went to bodybuilding shows when my dad would drop equipment off. And so I had a lot of experience early on just being around that culture. And then in 2012, I moved to Virginia, and I worked with another company that I learned a lot of good things from them. I learned really kind of how to be a tech a little bit, and then I learned how to be an installer, so I moved a lot of product for this organization. Then I left for a year or so just because I wanted to do some other things. I got into some really high-end tree work, and then I got into some home remodeling. I was pretty decent at the tree work, but the home remodeling was not my forte. I came back to this company, and then I kind of came back with a heavier focus. Just, you know, I kind of knew how to do a lot of things. You know, and I had to, I was kind of able to manage myself a little bit better than I was in my previous years. I'm 35 now. So when I came back, I guess I was late 20s. And so I moved a lot of product for that organization and did a lot of big installs for Technogym, Kaiser. wood way, a lot of the high end stuff, but I never really touched a lot of life fitness or pre core while I was in there. So I kind of, maybe at a certain point, kind of reached my capacity with them. I don't think I was going to make any, any more money. And, you know, I was recently married. And so, you know, I wanted to, I wanted an opportunity to grow a little bit more. Originally, I was going to probably move back down to North Carolina, at least that's what I thought I was going to do. I met Scott, he had done some subcontracting work for this particular company. I met him and he had this swagger about him and he was really charismatic and he just had a positive attitude. I was like, I want to be around people like that. And so I had original talks in early, I don't want to say it was 2017 or 18. And so I talked to him and, you know, I said, hey, I need this amount of money. And they were going to put me in Charlotte, you know, just as a technician. But we just there wasn't enough at the time. There wasn't the end of the profit margins were good enough for me to do that. And they said, well, hey, we still want to keep in contact with you. So I kind of went back to the other job and thought about it for a couple more months. And then one day I it's kind of funny. I had humble beginnings with them, but I had a With this particular organization, I kind of reached my wits end with it. I was kind of burnt out from doing installs. Some of them, I was doing it by myself in some situations. I didn't like the atmosphere that was going on. It wasn't super positive at the time, even though I don't want to say negative things about them. I did learn a lot. And I'm thankful for that period of my life, because it made me who I am today. So I called him, you know, this was probably August of 2018. I think it was August. And I said, Hey, man, like, what? I was like, I just quit my job. I don't know what I'm gonna do. But I want to be part of what you guys are doing. Like, what do you think about something in Virginia? And it was kind of already on his mind. And then the timing just kind of met up and he said, well, he kind of laughed when I told him that I quit. And he was like, all right, we'll see what we can do. So he started shooting out emails and letting people know like, hey, we're going to turn on the Virginia region because he kind of came up here for a couple of different manufacturers. And we knew that there was a lot of room to grow in this market. And so he turned the faucet on, and then we just started working. And at this point in time, it wasn't a franchise. That's what we were trying to move toward, but we were figuring it out together. So I was a guinea pig in a way to see what this was going to be. And so we went through the process. And originally, you know, I was doing my first my first month of business was September 2018. And I did $37.25. That was my gross, right. And so, you know, I had I had I had a 97 Ford Ranger. And you know, I had some tools that I got from Home Depot. I had some stuff already because I'd been in the industry, but I was heavy on installation. That's what I could do. I wrestled in high school and college. There was a similar pain that I could pick a treadmill up and move it. I enjoyed that pain in a way because I knew how to do it. I'm a short guy. God gave me a good back. And so I can, you know, I'm like, I can do this, right? I know how to do this. But the technical side of it was was a little bit difficult for me in the beginning. It wasn't like a skill set that I just absolutely had. And then so we got in, we had a software system. Early on, we use a different one now. But they kind of like Matt, was the logistical guy that kind of, or the mechanical guy that showed me how to do things. Hey, this is how the software works. And this is how you do this and you do this. And so we steadily kept growing. It was, for me, it was do or die. Like Scott and I were talking the other day and, you know, we both kind of agreed that we're too stupid to quit. So we just, we kept plugging away and we kept plugging away and, you know, Then we got set up. In 2019, we started doing record, which one of my one of my things that I wanted to do was I wanted to get on a pre court, right? Like it was like, I had always appreciated what they did, and how they I love their product line. I love that rear drive elliptical. And I always wanted to do stuff for them. And so it was like a goal for me to figure out how I could get in with Precorp and do their warranty work or do their installations. And so 2019, we had an opportunity to do when the KweenX stuff came out. And so we did the KweenX stuff. We did the small, you know, Planet Fitness. I think they were called 175, 275 wall units or whatever, it's just two posts. And so we ended up doing one for training. And we went down like I went down because at this point in time, I got it had any employees. It was just me trying to figure it out. So we went down to I think it was Sumter, South Carolina or something. And we got with their trainers, which their trainers were awesome, right? Like the hands-on experience that I got from those guys was really good. Um, so we mustered through this Queen X stuff in 2019. And then they were like, okay, you got to get trained on the big stuff. So, um, we actually had a job for advantage fitness products, which I got a lot of love for them too. Uh, those guys are really, really dialed in. Um, so we did the biggest one they make, right. It was like the giant, freaking 25, 30 foot long, second floor, post-tension, all this stuff, you got to measure, cut this and that. So I feel like that was the hardest thing in the industry to do was that Quinex stuff. And I appreciated the challenge. And then we were certified. And so one of the head guys, one of the head install coordinators, they kind of turned us on. And they said, you know, hey, we got all this stuff in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware for these Planet Fitness because they had signed some deal where each Planet Fitness had to have this wall unit for Recore. And at the time, I needed money. And so I needed cash flow. And so I had hired a guy, $10.99 at the time. So he was working for me. And then we went for an entire week and we did like 20 Quinexes. Like we, I loaded them in a cab over 16 footer and just freaking sent it down the road. Um, and that kind of turned me on. And then I did, I did some more Quinex work like on my own. Um, you know, at the, you know, at that point I'd hired a couple of people and we were still super install heavy. Um, And we did installs up until last year. I did, I want to say we did close to a hundred hotels for Hilton. It might not have been a hundred, but it felt like it. And it was all the same. It was two or three treadmills. You know, they get an FTS glide, stuff like that. So we did that up until 2023. In 2020, I turned on iFit up here. And that kind of saved me a lot through the pandemic. The pandemic was hard. We had to do a lot of pivoting. But it was also a good opportunity to kind of dial back and say, OK, what do I want my business model to look like? And I think the hardest thing for me to do. And this is one of the things that Matt and Scott really helped me understand. They were kind of guides through, they've been guides for me through the whole time. So like, I'm not, the beautiful thing about being part of this particular franchise is like, it's not like, okay, here, sign this FDD. And then, you know, good luck. Right. We're going to collect our percentage at the end, at the end of the week, at the end of the month and year. Right. they help you grow, right? And so like their systems and processes that they've built in to kind of help me figure out like, okay, these are my target margins that I need to hit every week. This is what I need to hit every month. So that's been really helpful to know that, you know, I'm not having to come up with growth all by myself, right? Like they're kind of pushing the envelope for me to grow a little bit. What else was I going to say? 

Yeah. I mean, that's interesting. I was just looking up these, these Quinac machines. I'd never even seen those before. And we do a lot of the Technogym Outraces. Yes. I don't know if you've seen those, but they're real similar to that. Those things and those things are complicated to put together. That... Yeah. 

Yeah, it was super complicated. I'm glad that I did it because I got a good experience from it. Was it worth it in the end financially? Probably not, but at least I could say I did some of that right. 

Well, Planet Fitness, man. They want you to... They're so big, dude. And they have... Everybody wants to work for them. Everybody wants to do all this. But it's like, you don't make any money doing it. You know what I mean? So I don't know why everybody's... Anyways, I don't know. But I don't know if that is the case in your situation. But it seems like everybody's fighting for these big contracts. But the market prices have been driven down so much. You're fighting for for what is eventually going to be a problem for you. You know what I mean? Um, but anyways, I don't know if I'm with the planet stuff. 

I mean, so what we've, we've done, um, you know, I had that run with, with, with pre-core to do these queen Xs. And that was a, that was a one-time deal. Yeah. I was just, you know, I was just in the right place at the right time for that. Uh, but there's no, there's no opportunity to, to keep making money on that deal. It's a one and done. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to get any maintenance from it. That's it, right? So it's cool to do. It was cool to do it, but it didn't help my business grow really. It gave me some cash flow when I needed it, but What we've done for Planet Fitness and what I've done in particular for them, they're franchised out. So I got a couple of different franchises. So for me, I focused in on what I can do for Planet. And the one thing that ISPs can do for Planet is the hydromassage stuff. So for me, and that's another manufacturer that I'll speak super highly of. So Scott had already had an existing relationship with Planet Fitness or with the hydromassage. And so with Hydra Massage, he came in and pumped me up to them. And then I took the ball. I started working with their coordinators. I started working with their senior technicians and things like that. And I just grew with them. And their margins are really, really, really good. And they make a really good product that's in every Planet Fitness in the world. It's in One Life, it's in Anytime Fitness, and then some chiropractic offices have it. So it's a product that's constantly growing. And it requires maintenance, right? At least once a year. So I have, I don't know, 20 or so Planet Fitnesses, give or take, that I do maintenance every year for them for hydro massage. 

Interesting. 

And so it's, it's, it's been, it's been profitable for them or it's been for us. And then it's, it's an asset to that client. And that's really the only thing I think people are from a technical standpoint, like, cause they hire their own technicians or their Kind of, I guess. And so we'll get... I'll do matrix warranty work or pre-core warranty work or whoever's in there, depending on what the franchise agreement is for them. So we'll get warranty work, but non-warranty parts, we're not touching Planet Fitness in that area. 

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Everybody's always fought to get in pre-core too. And I think that's interesting. And I have as well. And honestly, I've just given up on it. And truthfully, at this point in time, their training seems to be some... From what I've heard, it's the best training in our industry. The certification program for technicians, I've heard, is top-notch and everything like that. But the direction the pre-core is going, I don't know anymore. It's definitely not as high on my list as it used to be. But it seems like since Peloton bought them out, I don't know. There's been this There's a shift in the industry after COVID with everything like that. So it's interesting to see where the industry is going from here. And you have... Technogym has been around for a long time, but they seem to... Their sales and their growth has been pretty incredible over the last couple years. It's interesting to see where... So who do you think... Do you notice the same changes in the industry? And who do you think is coming out on top of these types of changes? 

Well, I think our industry is relatively young. If you want to compare it to, let's say, home building or something, or woodwork. I think the industries that have been around for thousands of years, and they've progressively gotten better over time. Our industry really is 50 years old, give or take. I mean, the Airdyne bike came out, I think that was one of the first pieces of equipment that had a little bit of technology in it. I mean, we're relatively young. 

What would you say? It's still one of the best pieces of equipment. 

Yeah. I mean, it's a timeless classic. I do crossfit type training. That's how I do fitness. And so it's definitely... I definitely still use it today in 2023. So the industry is relatively young. And so I think we have a lot of opportunity to grow. I'm optimistic because all we're all that I'm focused on is the maintenance and repair aspect of the business, which a lot of times what you've seen is, is you get a conglomerate or a company, and they're just trying to sell fitness equipment, right? That's what they do. And they'll they'll on the back burner, what they'll put in is preventative. Yeah, we'll do quarterly preventive maintenance just so they can get people to sign the deal. And so I think We're relatively, our specialty is unique because this is something that I would say in the last 10 years has really, we're developing and crafting our own skill and our own specialty to be an asset so that those salesmen can go out and they can just focus on selling. Because that's what we want them to do. We want to sell more product, do this, do that right, and we'll come in behind you and we'll take care of the parts. We'll take care of the maintenance. We'll take care of the client from a technical standpoint. Now, to your question, who do I think is going to come out on top? I don't know. I think the industry as a whole is pretty resilient. You're dealing with a lot of type A fitness people, and generally, they're used to grinding and they're used to adversity and pain. I'm hopeful in our industry because people are going to do what they got to do to survive. and they're going to make things better. As far as the Peloton pre-core merger, I don't want to say too much about that. To me, it didn't seem like a positive thing. I didn't like I heard about it before it happened. And I was kind of like, I don't like this because you're bringing you're bringing a virtual technical, like a tech thing into the fitness world. And they didn't seem like they wanted to play ball. really well. And then I don't know, it didn't seem to go great. I mean, Precor is pretty resilient. Their product stuff is fantastic. And as far as their training goes, so I've been to their training twice now. And I just got one of my other technicians certified with them last year, their training. And I think Scott kind of elaborated a little bit on this, so I won't go too deep, but it's this idea like you go in there and I've been to a lot of training. And what I've noticed is when you take men, especially, and probably women too, but when you sit there and you put screen work up and like, I'm just looking at a screen for six hours, I'm not really processing that information. Like I need to do the work with my hands. Yeah. And I need to make that. I need to make some mistakes. Right. And I need somebody to be like, no, no, no, no, no. Don't do this. Do this. Right. Like, that's how we learn. Right. And a lot of times, you know, from the old school part of the industry, they're like, Hey man, here's a bike, put it together. Like there's no instructions or nothing. And so you're like, uh, And I think there's an element with my technicians where I want them to figure it out. I want people to be critical thinkers. I don't want part changers. I want you to understand and know what you're doing. But also, I don't want you to sit there and struggle for hours and hours and hours. Sometimes, you need to learn like that because it's going to help you in the long run. But other times, it would be beneficial if somebody was there saying, hey, man, this is how you do this. it's going to be way easier to get a dry belt on if you just loosen the rollers in the back, right? That's something somebody needs to tell you how to do. And so that's one thing that ServiceRx has done really well, is they've given us bulletin things. So we have a couple different systems, but one of them that all the technicians get at onboarding is they get trainable stuff. And then that's trainable stuff. It has console codes that they can quickly look up, like if they need to get hours or miles off something, they can go to there. I don't remember all these codes. And then it also has like little quick videos that we've produced, Scott's produced in-house. Like, how do I do Orange Theory Preventative Maintenance, right? Well, here's a video on what to do. So it's not just, you know... sentence after sentence to do this, it's somebody showing you how to do it properly. So you're not wasting time, you just you just follow the systems and the processes. And then you're going to be successful in the other end. So that's, that's one of the things it's this franchise, I think is a little bit different is there's so much hands on training. And then the the middle aspect of for me in the beginning, I'll kind of rewind a little bit. But one of the things that was so powerful for me in the beginning was Scott said, I believe that you can do this, right? And in my mind, I'm going like, this guy believes that I can run a business, right? Like, I'm, you know, I got a little bit of education, but I'm not the smartest cookie in the box. But this guy believes in me. And so there's a, there's an element to where, um, you're being positive with the people around you and then telling them they can do these things. And then they go out and they do these things. Right. And so I've kind of that kind of culture and influence has influenced my own employees. Right. Like my management style is, you know, somebody who's good at something like I'm going to give them praise. Right. If they need a little constructive criticism, I'm going to give that gently. Right. Because I don't there's been very few times where I needed to have a super heavy hand with my employees. Right. And I've had to fire people. Right. But hey, man, this you don't belong in this culture. You know, it just is what it is. But. And then if people are good at something, and they're doing their job, I don't micromanage them either. My service coordinator is phenomenal. I have constant communication with her about things, but I don't ever worry like, oh man, she's dropping the ball on this. She's got it. Right. She's proven herself over a period of two years or so. She does a phenomenal job. Right. Same thing with my technicians. I mean, they yeah, they mess up. They misdiagnose stuff. And then that's an opportunity to say, OK, what did you what did you do wrong and how can we learn from this? Right. So we don't do it again. But in all this, all this was possible for me because I had I had a franchise that was behind me going people, process, procedure, people, process, procedure, right? Like heavy, good communication, like clear, direct communication with customers. You know, if there's, if there's, and that's the thing about like, and I don't want to ramble on too much here, but like with emails, right? Like sometimes your message doesn't doesn't clearly get across sometimes in emails sometimes. Or somebody is confused about what you're saying. And if I sense that confusion or whatever, it's an immediate... I'll pick up the phone and call them. Give them a call. They understand and it's clear up front how that works. 

Yeah, for sure, man. You touched on a lot of really good things. In particular, the idea of these sales companies or these fitness equipment companies focusing on selling equipment, then us actually coming in and providing value behind them. The issue that I see people run into, and I've made this mistake in one of my previous businesses in this industry, is that A lot of these service companies get into selling equipment, too. And then everybody's stepping on everybody's toes. And then you got this conflict of interest and things like that. So I like it. It seems like you guys are really focused in on how do we become good at our core business? Our core focus type of thing. Sounds like you guys have a really cool organization. Scott seems like a really good dude. So it seems like you have good leadership and he's developing good leaders like yourself, man. That's really good stuff. You know, this industry is not easy, man. It's not easy. It's not easy to become a technician. Like you said, there's a difference between an installer and a technician. And these days, if you're an installer, you almost have to be a technician anymore, man, because you have so many of these installation companies like MassMovement and all that. They had this problem between those two departments being separate. You have the service department, you have the install department. And the problem with that is, and I've learned this after working with Technogym, is that all of Technogym's installers have to be certified service technicians. And because you have all these guys, these day laborers coming in doing these installs, or whatever the case is, and they break shit and they don't know... There's a lot of benefit to being able to diagnose stuff right there and get things fixed. Yeah, man. It sounds like you guys have some good things going on. And I really like and appreciate your input and everything like that. It'd be interesting to see where you guys go from here. I think the sky's the limit for you guys, man. Because just after getting to know you and Scott, the types of people that you guys are, those are the types of people who win. You know what I mean? And so that's awesome to see that. Um, we're getting pretty close to time and, um, I'm sure we could go on for When I get people to do what I do, do we go on and on and on, you know what I mean? And maybe we'll have you on again and have Scott on again, but I definitely look forward to getting to know you guys, man. And, and, um, and I know we're on the opposite sides of the country and everything like that, but hopefully, you know, we can, we can get together sometime and, and, uh, maybe we'll have some sort of like event, man, where we get all of our technicians together or something and have a fricking party somewhere, you know what I mean? And meet each other, you know what I mean? Some type of networking event. something like that. That would be cool. But thank you again for coming on, man. We'll wrap this up. And yeah, I appreciate you. 

Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity. It's cool. It's cool to just talk to other people in the industry. 

It is, man. Yeah, absolutely. A lot of times, I think people are afraid to get with other other companies or something like that. It's like, well, it's competition. No, no, not really, man. We can all get together and work together and bounce ideas off of each other. And there's plenty of work out there and we can all learn from each other and really make our industry and what we do better. I feel like if you guys are winning, we're winning. Type of thing. 

Definitely the mindset that I have. I mean, I, I don't, yeah, I got competition out there, but, but I want to work with, especially in my region. I mean, there's, there's, there's enough work for everybody. And I feel like it's better if you work together and you don't shut people out and, you know, I mean, you know, I'm trying to build a legacy. I want something that my kids and their kids can grow off of. And so if I burn bridges, it's just not effective for me. 

Yeah, absolutely. And it seems like you're really on that path, man. And just like you were saying earlier, there's a certain amount of pain and struggle you got to go through to get that. And it seems like you have you're willing to deal with that. And, uh, you know, for me, I start to enjoy that process. You know what I mean? I start to enjoy the struggle because like after struggle, I know what's around the corner, man. There's going to be a period of, of reaping some rewards from going through that struggle, you know, and, and being in fitness and being in, you know, working out, doing CrossFit and shit. And you, you know, you understand that process. Well, you know, um, yeah, you can't go around it. 

You gotta go through it. 

Absolutely, man. So once again, I appreciate it, man. I appreciate your time and everything like that. Wish you guys well, and I'm sure we'll talk more in the future. 

All right, Adam. I appreciate your time and happy new year, brother. You as well. Thanks. 

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