Fitness First, Information Last
I've been looking around at other Gyms. The ANU gym is great and all but I just wanted to check out the competition. I'm willing to pay a little bit more for a bigger programme and better services. Anyway, I'll probably end up staying at the ANU gym since it's so cheap.
So I tried to find out about Fitness first's prices. I, like most of my generation, headed straight to the web site. Nothing! No where on their site did they mention the plans or prices. Oh sure it looks like they do. Lot's of click here to find out about memberships etc. But it either goes to a page asking for your phone number and someone will get back to you or it talks about their free trial. I don't want a free trial, I want to know how much this will cost me!
So I decided okay I'll leave my email address. No one got back to me. I then rang their number and got a voice mail machine that said 'Our fitness consultants will ring you back'. No one ever did. I even went down to the Canberra Centre (I happened to be in the area) and remembered they had a stall there to give info about the new club opening in the mall. THe booth has no price information and asks you to leave your email address. I already did that!
Finally I rang another number I found on their site and got put through to a gym. They said they don't do membership info and they would put me through to sales. Why the frick did you put that number on the front page of your site!? It asked me if I was not a member, what did they think I just wanted to ring the gyms and chat? Put me through to sales.
So finally I've reached someone who should actually know the prices! But she won't tell me. 'Oh you need to come in and we can work out what's best for you'. Marketing speak for 'come on in and we'll pressure you into joining up'. So I'm going on Saturday to finally find out the price. Though at this rate they'll give me the prices and say 'okay all our prices are in base 7 and are multipled by pi'
Why is it so hard for a company to give out the price. Put on your website 'These are our prices, but if you come in we can work out a better deal'. Heads up companies - our generation what's information now, at the click of a finger. If we can't find it in under a minute then we move on. You just lost our business.
Comments
Yet another example of 40-something marketers demonstrating they have absolutely no understanding of our generation. Banner ads? Nope, don't see them. Commercial breaks? Ignored or fast-forwarded (or cut out completely from the torrent!).
On the other hand, at least they didn't have highly compressed JPEG image as the only page on their website, a la Vietnam Airlines... Want to book tickets? Visit one of our friendly agents in Vietnam!
For those hitting this site from Google the Fitness First prices were (as of 8/2/07 these prices may be different):
Lifestyle Membership - 12 month contract
- Joining Fee: $100
- Admin Fee: $60
- Fortnightly Dues: $39.95
- Programme: $69.95
Total cost (assuming you never change your programme) - $1268.65
Premier Membership (month to month)
- Joining Fee: $150
- Admin Fee: $60
- Fortnightly Dues: $49.95
- Programme: $69.95
Total cost (assuming you never change your programme) - $1578.65
Take that Fitness First - people want this information. Maybe you should consider adding this to your site. If your embarrassed about the price then you shouldn't be charging that much. If you feel it's good value then put it on the site.