Why Personal Training Clients Quit (And How Great Trainers Prevent It)

Most personal training clients don’t quit because of workouts.
They quit because of loyalty, leadership, and how they feel in the relationship.

Welcome to Smittyville: The Smartest Small Town in Fitness.

In Episode 1, Fitness World CEO and former personal trainer Chris Smith breaks down the real reason clients quit personal training and what great trainers do differently to build loyalty that lasts.

This episode opens in Town Hall, where Chris and fitness business journalist Krissy Vann unpack why retention has less to do with programming and more to do with trust, consistency, and leadership both inside and outside the gym.

From there, we head into Trainer Circuit, a one-to-one mentorship moment where Chris answers a real trainer question, drawing on decades of experience growing teams, coaching trainers, and leading at the highest level of the fitness industry.

We close with a Smithism. A hard-earned nugget of wisdom Chris has collected along the way.

If you’re a personal trainer, coach, or fitness leader who wants to:

• Keep clients longer
• Build real loyalty
• Grow beyond the gym floor
• Learn from someone who has actually done the job

You’re in the right town.

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📌 Subscribe and share this episode with a trainer who needs to hear it.

Listen on all major podcast platforms and follow Smittyville here:
👉 https://linktr.ee/smittyville

Transcript

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what level of service can you provide how high can you take it can it be concierge level like 5 star service cause if it is really not probable that a client's gonna leave you high and dry in fact if anything they're gonna go you're the most amazing trainer I've had welcome to Smithville the smartest Small Town in fitness real talk for real trainers hosted by Chris Smith CEO of Fitness World and fitness business journalist Chrissy Van this is the show for personal trainers we talk business leadership money and the stuff no one teaches you on the gym floor welcome to Smithville Population Trainers let's start in Town Hall this is where we talk about the things that actually shape a career in fitness today we're talking about loyalty were you ever ghosted in your personal training career I'm sure I was at some point I mean if I was trying to think real specific like it was this client this was the situation I might have to really kind of scratch my head to to get there but I'm I'm sure it happened you know I guess the when I'm asked questions like that even of trainers these days I'm answering that for him it's more of like well what did you do what do you mean what did I do well you either did something or didn't do something to create that scenario right so what did what did you do and what didn't you do and it's like well I don't understand and it's like well did you provide world class customer service as as you got to know them a little bit and built some rapport and and got to you know build some you know like I would use the the term likeability rapport and trust like as you start to kind of build that relationship on the onset you know where did you take that did you figure out that this person's really struggle with nutrition and you Learned it's late night snacking and so were you texting them to say hey I know you probably had a good day with food you had a great workout this morning let's finish the day strong to just give them that little edge mentally to kind of help them hold back from that refrigerator door or the cupboard or whatever it might be or that client says I really struggle with my mornings and my energy and whatever and it's really hard for me to eat breakfast then conversely where you figuring out a way to message them and again you can do it via text old school if you will or again nowadays we're using all these different platforms like trainorized by ABC or or whatever it is and people have my fitness pal and all these different tools in their toolbox to access kind of client relationship or client management and so you know for me it's just world class customer service is kind of what defines it so you're either doing that or you're not and again I think that morphs and shapes differently based on client's needs and goals that's a long answer to like did it ever happen to me I'm I'm sure it did if you said what was my solution to solving that as I built my career and as I've had and you know as I've advised others in terms of how to do the same as a trainer it's just like like what level of service can you provide like how high can you take it can it be concierge level like 5 star service cause if it is really not probable that a client's gonna leave you high and dry in fact if anything they're gonna go you're the most amazing trainer I've had and which a lot of trainers go oh my programming is so much better probably not it's gonna be your service service equals sales right so if I want loyalty from a client I have to give immense loyalty in the form of service so I'll give you another like funny example I've had trainers say this to this day I've been hearing this for nearly 30 years now well you know I met Joe or Susie or whatever fictitious name you want to use and I don't want to teach him too much what do you mean you don't want to teach him well I mean I just met him I don't want to teach him a little bit I'm like dude if you can teach him everything you know in one two three kind of quote unquote introductory sessions then you don't know shit to begin with wait a second so they don't wanna do it because they think it'll give away their secret sauce and therefore render themselves useless to the client gotcha in a matter of like an introductory 1 2 3 session type package or environment and I'm like you what like to me it's actually a red flag of like you don't get it fair cause to me it's like I'm gonna give you as many things as I can not to overwhelm you or drown you in information and whatever else but I wanna like show you that I know what I'm doing and I'm genuinely invested in caring for you being loyal to you from the onset of like I'm gonna give you everything I got to help you get to your goal in the safest fastest most effective way possible I don't want there to be any doubt in your mind so that then when I'm asking for loyalty back in the form of would you like to continue to be my client I'm really enjoying training you we've already made some progress what you know whatever the conversation sounds like that person hopefully is gonna reciprocate you know that energy and go yeah then this has been a great relationship so far like let's keep going I mean it's different here at Fitness World because a lot of the individuals that you have on board here have gone to the Personal Training Institute and you're instilling these values from the get go that they're able to take with them into career but have you ever had somebody under your wing like if they're losing client after client like has that pattern ever happened in anybody that's been under your wing oh yeah yeah we look at all that stuff so we look at data right macro data what we call Packer so participation activation completion renewal right and then just try to understand that so that's a data right so that's a result and then we have like the behaviors in terms of what their experience was and what shaped it and then we have systems and processes that are ultimately designed to drive the whole deal right so so what's the most common reasons then I like have you if you have the data what would be some of the most common reasons that that happens to a personal trainer mainly so they could avoid the pitfall a lot of it is that they just didn't connect with their trainer hmm it's not even results it's the relationship do you think that anyone can form a connection or is there a right trainer for the right client I think there can be a a better trainer or right trainer for a client but I think a lot of it's controllable and people just don't want to do it so it's back to vulnerability and being open to feedback so like what I would coach and teach any trainers to say at least once a week you have to have a conversation with your client talking about how are we doing and part of that conversation we check in on the five pillars of fitness right so we're checking on your nutrition your mobility your resistance training and we go all the way through and then we're talking lastly about you know not just strength training but your professional assistance so we're saying how am I doing how are we doing in terms of this client trainer relationship and we're having regular check ins I mean it's no different than any relationship if there's regular communication and check ins that's how trust is built that's how positive relationships and positive outcomes take place and so it's it's no different than anything that you would learn about or try to understand but it's teaching that and to do so in like a meaningful way to again yes drive a business outcome but that business outcome is also in that person's best interest like my business outcome of helping you like look better feel better get to your goal is also gonna add longevity and lifespan to that person's life and keep them out of the hospital so like I don't feel bad about it at all in terms of teaching people how to have more meaningful you know personal training conversations yeah I mean it's in the name personal training there you go however tech is obviously changing the name of the game so where do you feel that is going to have a bridge in regards to loyalty when it comes to client trainer relationships is it positive or disconnect actually oh I think if if done well or done right then it's just it's for sure a positive right just gives you the more ability to kind of do you know put you know lots more touch points I think the thing is to make sure that like there's a certain level of automation you can do in any kind of business or enterprise business and AI will lend itself to making that even easier but I think you don't ever want to lose the genuine and genuineness and being authentic in your communication cause if it feels like it's a bot or someone just doing something to do something and it's not genuine authentic that's not gonna build rapport and trust people are gonna see through that and be like ah this just another one of these like when you call somebody you need service and you're just really frustrated you call now you gotta go through the chatbot for you know press this for this if this and it's like you're now even more frustrated but you don't have a choice so you sit there like that's not a good experience right and it certainly doesn't make you want to continue to do business you know often with whoever it is now you're stuck on hold within that cycle so in that same instance I think if you use it the right way it can be positive do you feel like you have a good gauge over what clients will be loyal versus not do you feel strongly about that we do some of this we'll do the service calls as an example we'll start calling clients in advance of like or how their experience is going and we'll try to understand like are you getting world class customer service we're inspecting that so as we go through those inspections if you will and we find giant holes and if I find a bunch of holes with one particular trainer as an example and then you look at their quote unquote Packer data and no one's buying more well I wonder why they're not giving programs to all of their clients right you found out that they were actually late to a couple different you know individual sessions uh let's say they late no show canceled and or charged a client who had a legitimate reason for unfortunately not being able to make it that day and so now you just irked them right where it's like I show up all the time on time like I'm good to go I'm a loyal I'm a loyal client and now the one time I can't make it because my kid was throwing up in the car you're gonna whack me uh huh like what are we doing so that's often times we just find it's like it's silly stuff truthfully when you think about the big picture of business or again loyalty and what should it look like it should be a two way street it's not a one way street right can't just expect clients that need to be loyal to me and I know what I'm doing it's like well what does your loyalty look like how does it show up let's head to the trainer circuit real questions real situations Chris shows up listens and mentors from experience my question is obviously now being so successful if you could go back and give yourself a piece of advice what would that advice be yes Selena I think there's definitely different points of inflection in my career I'm definitely a believer in you know hard work and always have been I mean part of my story is some people say well I wanna be you someday and I tell most people I say you can't and they're like what are you talking about why can't I be your story like I thought anyone can be anything they wanna be I'm like well I'm not sure you wanna do what I did so I work six days a week right long days for 20 years I still work hard now so a lot of people don't want to do that right they want instant success or they want this or they want that or whatever else and it's like I'm not sure that's what I want like that's not for me necessarily right I mean I see the post revealed like dude I only work like 10 hours a week on my passive income stuff and I make 150 grand a year I'm like yeah dude I pay more than 150 grand a year in taxes like before a third of the year is over that's the taxes I'm paying not the money I'm making and so I'm not I'm trying to do things on a whole different level right so in order to do that you know you got to think differently and act differently so for me there's just a different points of time so I say all that to set you up for again I have five kids I worked so much in those early years really super hyper focused on my career and I don't know that I actually had enough mentorship perhaps on people telling me like knowing what I know now right like hey dude you're still gonna get where you wanna be but you probably could be more present at home so I wasn't as present with my two oldest daughters and my wife as maybe I wish I would have been and that's cause again I'm not no joke

I would be at work at 6: 11:22

00am and come home at 11 and you're like well when did you sleep I'm one of those freaks I can sleep five hours a night and I'm good have been my whole life I get seven hours of sleep it's like people have slept for 12 I'm like I'm I'm I'm out of control if I get seven hours of sleep so if I could change anything it would just be finding a little better balance and you'll hear different people talk about work life balance like my approach on work life balance is pretty simple like do what you gotta do to get the job done and do what you gotta do to get where you wanna go versus saying well no I worked eight hours today well did you get done what you wanted to get done today well no then you probably need to work more than eight hours did you is the eight hours gonna get you where you wanna go well no well then you probably needed to work more than eight hours so this idea of like I only need to do as little as possible I think again it just depends what your goals are I had really big goals and really big aspirations so I chose to do more that being said like I was trying to make I think I could have done all that I have done with a little better balance especially early in my career before we wrap we'll leave you with a Smithism a lesson Chris has picked up along the way I think with this one back to loyalty and some of the topics we were talking about I would go with a famous quote from uh one of one of my original mentors in the industry gentleman named Eric Jenkins who passed way too early but the price of success is the pain of change so the price of success is the pain of change cause change is hard right it's hard for trainers to change it's hard for clients to change and I think often a lot of people take change for granted and assume it's easy uh again particularly young trainers who have never even necessarily had to change yet cause they haven't even gone through some stuff yet uh call it life and so just you know some of these things are taken for granted but the price of success is ultimately the pain of change that's today's Smithism Chris Smith is the mayor of Smithville and I'm Chrissy Van your town correspondent this is the smartest small town in fitness we'll see you back here every other week