“Secrets don’t make friends” (Closed to Hell's_fury)

[CFMB_fan]

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“Secrets don’t make friends”​

"A Gym Membership Manager Starts a campaign of ‘Secret shoppers’ with interesting results"


Name: Adrian Markworth
Age: 51
Height: 6 ft
Eyes: Piercing Blue
Matrimonial Status: widower, one daughter Sophie (22 at University),
Hair: Black, with grey highlights and slightly balding, so cropped short
Build: Tall, broad like a rugby player but also carries some middle age spread
Profession: Retentions Manager at Esporta Health and Fitness


Adrian sighed deeply, one of those sighs with a hint of is thrownm, boredom thrown into it.

“What's Wrong Adrian?” the director of membership asked him coldly; aware that the CEO of the Esporta Fitness Business was also sitting at the table.

Adrian stood up and walked towards the screen and pointed to a graph, before asking to go back a graph or two as he spoke.

“WE ARE getting new members. Look at this graph here, these figures, we are reaching, or passing most months our membership targets. The problem is retention!!”

“Retention, what do you mean?” a slight hint of confusion in his boss's voice.

“Look at this graph here. The number of members who are leaving before the end of their first year, and voluntarily paying to get out of their contract is on the increase. And whilst I don’t have the figures with me, several clubs are clearly having a problem with this. We need to recruit, for sure, and we are doing.”

He paused as he walked back to his chair and reached for the water glass and took a sip.

“We need to try and find out why a lot of members are leaving before their initial year is over, or are not extending after their first year. Sure there is always a level of ‘wastage’ but not normally this high? Retention is key!”

The room fell into a momentary silence as the obvious was stated. The CEO looked at Adrian, and then his immediate boss.

“Are Adrian’s figures right?”

There was just a nod.

“Meeting adjourned,” the CEO stated, “We will continue same time next week. Adrian, stay behind please…”

And so Adrian was promoted to Retention’s manager, a new appointment formed at that spot, being the same grade as his immediate boss who would still be ‘Membership Manager’ and report to the Membership director, as will ADrian. But his focus will be on retention.

~ XXX ~

That was a couple of months ago. Very Quickly, Adrian instigated a series of measures to try and ascertain why members were leaving their clubs, especially those who were terminating their contract before the first year, thus paying a small forfeit. Some delving into figures suggested that a couple of clubs were really pronounced, had clear problems.

And so he instigated ‘Secret Members;’ Members who for a month would use their club and fill in detailed questionnaires, for which their membership would be reimbursed together with any costs they spent at their club, such as coffee and food. He also initiated monthly online surveys sent to all members. It was early days, but a couple of trends were already starting to form, both across the entire organisation, but also specific gyms.

Those findings had been passed onto the CEO and Club director and had been discussed at a Senior management meeting.

But one of the troublesome clubs was not to far from him. And so he had a false membership created for himself, and started to use the club. He was overweight and needed to lose weight anyway. And so he started to leave work early on a tuesday to be able to arrive at the club at peak evening hours.

His own initial findings agreed with some of the survey results he had received, but yet again it was still early days. And so on that Saturday lunchtime, he was running on the treadmill prior to his second Personal Training Session with Bailey.

Bailey was a cute early 20 something Gym Team member and Personal Trainer. Working there part time, she was also attending college to develop her massage skills and become a sports masseuse and physiotherapist. As he ran, or was it jogged on the the treadmill, he looked around the club, noting the cleanliness, the attitude of the staff. Every visit so far, most of the younger gym team had ignored him, there was definitely an ‘X FActor’, the young male gym team members gravitated to the younger females, especially if they were pretty, attractive. That would explain why some of the older members were leaving. His own initial observations were matching the feedback he was starting to receive from the membership surveys and ‘Secret Members’.

He felt the treadmill slow down to a fast walking pace, his 15 minutes was up. With his hands now placed on the sensors, he started to monitor his heart rate as he looked into the large mirrors at the front of the gym area, and saw Bailey approach, her long dark brown hair in a high unkempt pony.

“Good morning” he offered as he removed his headphones. He stopped the cool down and reached for his gym towel and mopped his forehead as she turned to face him standing in front of the treadmill. This was their second session, their first was more for Bailey to assess his fitness, his strengths and weaknesses. He was overweight, but did cycle regularly when he could, so he wasn’t unfit per se; he just needed to lose weight and gain some strength training. They had already agreed that Adrian should do the aerobic training in his own time, allowing thier one to one sessions to focus on strength training. She had recommended to him some basic YouTube HIIT videos that he should do at least once every other day, as a bare minimum.

 

[hells_fury]

Bailey looked at Jake one of the managers at the gym shaking her head. Of course they were meeting outside of the gym with what he wanted to talk about, a mere shake of her head before she looked at him. ”Jake this is ridiculous, and this conversation is done, I need to get to work and so do you.” With that she left the smoothie shop they had been meeting at. A bit of anger coursed through her veins over what had been said but that was nothing she was going to deal with now.

Bailey wasn’t naive or stupid, she was merely trying to work her way through college, her parents had helped some however the rest fell to her. Her living expenses and paying off her student loan was her responsibility. Thankfully they had at least helped to pay for tuition, of course anyone who ever went to college out of state knew that was not the only cost involved. Heading in the back entrance, the employee entrance of the gym she went directly to the employee locker room.

The gym itself was massive, however a lot of modern updates were missing. Like a smoothie bar which they didn’t have, tanning beds, a pool, better showers, Bailey had recommended a lot of things to management but no one seemed to care. A few of her clients had specifically requested a few of the things, sure a pool was a massive build however she kept watching clients decide to go else where, and now knowing what Jake just told her it was no surprise.

Stripping out of her jeans and button down top she put them into her locker before pulling on the capri work out pants with a black tank top. Slipping back into the running shoes she went over to the mirror, pulling her hair up into a messy ponytail she grabbed the shaker bottle and headed off to make herself a protein shake, it was something she always did before working with a client.

~~~~~~~~​

Her eyes fell on Adrian before she approached, the man was a touch out of shape but she knew what he needed to do. It would be cutting out the fattier foods, having a protein shake after every workout, and a lot of cardio, however she would be focusing on the strength training with the man. Which was fine by her, in high school and college she had been part of the power lifting teams and had won a fair share of her own medals. One thing Bailey loved was lifting.

Standing at the treadmill she smiled before taking a drink of her shake. “Good Morning Adrian, are you ready?” She asked him, she was prepared for today, they would begin with the bench press, before moving on to squats and finally the dead lift. She was still gauging how much he could lift and at which point he would have to push himself, that was the point she needed to find, and that was her goal today.

A weight belt was draped over her arm, that he would be wearing when he lifted, safety was a big thing, though not all the trainers felt the same, and surely none of the managers could see eye to eye. The most they cared about was the next young girl to walk in the gym that they could hit on. That however didn’t work with Bailey it never had, especially not when she could out lift the majority of them. They were lazy and did the bare minimum. Bailey knew which protein drinks would work as replacement or as an after work out repair, which pre work out supplements to begin on so you didn’t feel shaky everywhere, Bailey tried with her clients though they wanted more, more than she could give.

 

[CFMB_fan]

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Adrian saw the weight belt over her slender shoulder, the depth of the belt looked large against her petite frame. Not that she was a weakling, but she looked petite, petite and toned.

They made small talk as she leads him to the weights area, and listened to her prep talk as he placed the belt apprehensively across his waist. Adrian had never worn one before. But then he had never really done free weights. When he was younger and much fitter, most gyms which catered for the ‘average’ person had numerous machines, as they were considered safer, and needed less monitoring by staff, and did what they said on the ‘can’.

But over 30 years of research had changed the ethos and the emphasis was on free weights or weight machines that were more specific.

And so the session started, first with some basic weight exercises as Bailey selected weights, and after the first 12 repetitions or so adjusted and made notes on her iPad; which itself was not supplied by the company. As such, it was Bailey's own iPad, kudos to her he thought. So he started with arm and shoulder exercises, using a machine to work his shoulders, and then it was the bench press as he laid on his back, looking up at her. It was then that he noticed her curves, the back tank top hiding the stress lines in the fabric, but from where she was, he could see them.

And then she moved to behind him as he did a set of 12 reps with no weigh to ensure he had the right technique, and then she placed some weights on the end, trying to get the balance between pushing him, and yet not injuring him.

After she was happy, he moved to squats, again practising the technique before she started to give him kettlebells as weights. His cycling though soon was obvious as they were stronger than she anticipated.

He felt that her main concern was his safety, as she advised him, and came across as very professional. He would, when he could watch the other antics going on in the gym, but he wasn’t always able to watch, see or remember as he was being pushed. He knew he would ache on Sunday, and more importantly on Monday.

But soon, 50 minutes had passed, Adrian’s brow covered with a layer of perspiration, and already walking the ‘John Wayne Swagger’ from a couple of sets of exercise. But he was soon on his back, as she started to stretch him, specifically his legs and arms, as he looked up, admiring her shapely legs, her touch again coming across as firm and professional.

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[hells_fury]

Bailey wasn’t an easy trainer, and she did not take it easy on her clients. Of course any time a man came in for personal training they were paired with her, the male trainers seemed to only wish to handle the woman, though she did have a few women for clients, especially the spouse’s of some of the men, she was the only trainer who accepted couples in the entire gym. She had monitored Adrian through her work out, and until he was sweating and drenched in it she had not been satisfied with their work.

Of course she had worked right along side him, guiding and mentoring, showing examples of the proper posture and so on. When it had come time to stretch she moved them into one of the private rooms the gym did offer, which was nice from most places, she had many clients especially the women who preferred to stretch in private and not with an entire gym watching them.

So she worked on his legs first, making sure everything was still working and nothing had been torn. With her personal trainer license she had also gotten a certificate in sports medicine, which made her highly popular with the athletes, all of which was in her resume and the company systems tracked. None the less she offered what she could, and made decent money, at least enough to live off of.

“Today once we finish with the stretches I want you to take some of my protein shake, don’t worry I will give you, your own bottle and show you how to make it yourself, however it help you recover quickly and not be so sore on Monday, I want you back in her Monday we have more to do.” Her tone remained professional though she did offer a smile. She preferred meeting with clients every other day as Adrain would soon learn, weekly appointments in her book were not enough. Of course their first encounter had been a bit awkward when she explained the before and after photos, the photos however were never shared except with that client, and it was a way for people to see their progress, to see the change and the difference.

 

[CFMB_fan]

Tuesday Evening's session

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His eyes were often closed as she stretched him on his back, at times her position, her closeness seemed a tad to close, for his slightly old-fashioned ways. But she was rather pleasing to the eyes he told himself, his inner conscious replying ‘you mean you fancy her you old pervert. She's only a year or so older than Sophie!!’

Finally, their session finished, and then the comments about protein shake and Monday.

“Firstly Bailey, as I mentioned when we had our first session, I can only make Tuesday in the week at the moment, my work schedule is a tad tight. Besides, I’m not a multi-millionaire!” he joked.

“And Protein shakes, do they really work? I've heard so much bad press… “ He hesitated as he saw a look on her face.

“Sure, for semi-professional athletes who have a balanced diet supplied to them, I can see the benefits as their meals are controlled by sports dieticians, but for fat slobs like me? I always have a pint of cow juice after my cycle rides, semi-fat which seem to work, as well as water.”

He looked down at her as he seemed to drawf her, as he stood at around 6 foot tall.

With their next session confirmed for Tuesday early evening, and ADrian having been shown the protein recipe and had his own bottle, he headed to the changing room, and opened his looker, taking out his little A6 notebook and pen and made a few notes, a couple about Bailey, mostly good with the possible ‘pushy but maybe that is part of her job’; he started to make comments about the status of the gym, the pile of towels in the corner, dust in some areas as he looked around.

Sunday, he mounted his ride and cycled 30 miles averaging just over 16 mph. He could cycle slightly faster, but his body was feeling the effects of yesterday, and so he decided to take it slightly easier, and as Bailey asked or was it demanded, he had installed Strava and accepted her as a friend, so she could monitor his activity away from the club, specifically his aerobic training.

Monday was a full day with the ‘Monday Moan’ a meeting that started at ten, where it was in effect a weekly senior manager meeting, often with the CEO participating as well as some directors, though it was principally for the senior managers.

Finally, he arrived at the gym to start his pre-session warm up on the treadmill, in his shorts and singlet, listening to some Prog-Rock on his headphones as he waited for the ‘beast’ to arrive.



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[hells_fury]

Bailey


When the session ended she watched as Adrian left. He had been her only appointment for the day. With that she went to the back switching into her casual attire before heading out. Her classes had been boring the past couple of days and she worked on a few papers that would be due in a couple weeks time. The text messages from Jake were getting to the point of annoyance and she instructed him to stop with a few choice words.

Finally Tuesday had rolled around and Bailey was well prepared, more free weights were planned for the day, though when she got to work she first noticed Adrian doing his warm up before she noticed one of the other girls fighting with Jake. The place was a mess, towels hadn’t been done, the cleanup hadn’t happened and none of the equipment she needed for the session today was prepared. Shaking her head she headed to the back and changed into her work out attire.

Walking out she approached Adrian, offering the best smile she could find once she was in his line of sight. Though she shot daggers at those who should have been doing their jobs and had the place ready for the day. Her eyes wandered around the gym noticing a few of the other trainers were missing whom she knew should have been there. None the less she looked at Adrian and smiled offering the man a nod.

“Hello Adrian, I hope you’re doing well. I was wondering how you would feel about taking our session outside today, the weather is beautiful and figured a change of scenery could be good.” Ultimately it came down to the fact that most of the equipment was in use and others were not cleaned or ready the way she would need them to be. Her tight leggings wrapped around her, and the tank she wore hugged all of her curves. Her long brown hair was pulled into a high tight ponytail today, all clean lines showing off her curves and features in different ways.

Bailey glanced behind herself briefly hearing the two other employees getting a little loud in their discussion before her attention returned to Adrian. There was a part of her that began to realize she needed a new job or at least needed to work at a different gym. This place wasn’t getting any better, even when the higher ups from corporate tried making their changes, what a joke that had been. However this was not the time to let her thoughts wander, she had a job to do and intended to do just that. A slow smile returned as she looked up to Adrian. Being only 5 foot 1, the man did dwarf her in size.

 

[CFMB_fan]

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He smiled as she approached, slightly ahead of time. He had been observing and thought that the gym area was rather untidy, in fact, thanks to his iPhone, he had even taken some photos of what he saw.

He also saw a group of staff chatting to a female member as she seemed to try and start her work out on the treadmill. She was cute, as was Bailey he noticed. This time she wore another black tank, with a wider scoop neckline, revealing the broad straps of her racerback crop bra.

He helped her gather what she needed as they headed outside, and worked out in the late afternoon, early evening sun, although when he could Adrian dd the exercises in the shade of a tree.

The two of them started to develop a rapport and during the session, an opportune moment came up for him to ask ‘Is it me or is the club in shambles today? Who is the gym manager? He knew who the overall manager was, Ben.

But as they trained, when he could he developed small talk, asking her about her course, where she was doing it, and whether she was enjoying it. She also commented on the ride on the Sunday on Strava, as she had given him a ‘kudos’ for his activity.

 

[hells_fury]

Bailey had recognized everything, Adrian was working, not just claiming to work on his body but genuinely working, at least that was her impression thus far. He did his daily rides on the bike and continued to come to their sessions. Outside she took them through a normal session working out with him in the sun.

Sweat covered her own body now, stopping briefly she took a long drink from the water bottle as he began asking his questions. Looking at him she smiled and nodded with sigh. “Sadly yes the gym seems to be a bit disheveled today. If you would like I can provide you with a form so that you can lodge your complaint with our manager Ben.” Yeah Ben was the manager it would just be nice if he actually showed up to do his job.

She wasn’t about to tell him all the dirty details, the fact was she couldn’t deny the place not being taken care of. However Ben ran the gym, he managed their hours and their paychecks and more often then not those that did care about their jobs ended up short on their paychecks by more than a few hours, this gym had a lot of short comings but that was nothing she would clue Adrian into. After all he was her client.

“I do offer sessions outside of the gym if that would work best for you, I am here to help you.” She smiled then, that much was true, most trainers could and would offer their services outside of the gym especially on days like today when the gym itself had not been taken care of as it should have been. Finally she began working of the cool down stretches with Adrian as they continued outside.

 

[CFMB_fan]

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He pushed himself as hard as he could go. He was being supervised, by a professional, and he knew that to improve his fitness he had to push himself, like he did for a while on the treadmill. Using HIIT style timed sessions.

Despite the early evening sun being still warm, he was enjoying the fresh air, and the feeling of being in the open, and not being scrutinized by the younger generation. Bailey seems to be able to push him enough to make gains, to improve, or at least he will improve over time. But during their little breaks, they had quick conversations, the topic of the state of the club being foremost, it seemed that Bailey wasn’t totally happy; something that he would investigate further. Not because he cared about Bailey, but he sensed that the low retention of the club and Bailey’s unhappiness were elated. Whilst he was the focus on membership retention, staff retention is just as important, if the latter is poor, then the former is more likely to be poor as well. He also sensed that she was keeping stuff away from him, being professional. He would have to make a few notes before his shower.

Finally, their last session was a few minutes of Hill sprinting, as Bailey raced him to a tree about 100 metres or so up a gradient. OF course, she was there first, before she turned around and walked back to the starting point, before they repeated the process.

Finally finished, Bailey started to stretch him as he pushed against a tree in various poses as he stretched various muscle groups before he was on his back as she pushed his folded legs into his abdomen, stretching those glutes. As he looked up, he could see a drop of perspiration drip onto him as she pushed the thigh into his abdomen. She was clearly pushing herself as much as she could, and he could tell from her arms and shoulders that she was well toned.

As she stretched him, she spoke about her ‘freelance’ sessions which caused him to open his eyes wide. Personal trainers were allowed to do freelance outside the club. Though technically difficult to police, they were not meant to ‘pouch’ members from the club. But that Bailey broached the topic to him meant that she didn't know about his position in the company.

“And how much do you charge freelance Bailey, and where do you do your sessions? He was genuinely interested, partly because of his position in the club but also at a personal level. She smiled as she answered him, and they discussed the topic.

He was starting to like her as a person.

Back in the changing room, he collapsed on the bench in front of his locker and started to make notes about what he saw upstairs, as well as Bailey’s comments.. Happy that he had remembered if not all the points, the majority, he locked his locker as he headed for the shower.

The following morning, he looked up the latest statistics for that particular club, but there was not much change, but then was there likely to be. But there were already some interesting comments; which are, for the most part, backed up by his own observations.

Time for a meeting. And a fruitful meeting it was, with the area manager agreeing to visit the place unannounced at different times of the day that week. He wondered what the outcome of those visits would be.

The week was busy, but he endeavoured to exercise every day, sometimes he managed a run in his lunchtime, though on Friday he was content with a two-mile walk, but he pushed himself, and completed the walk in just over 28 minutes, quite a pace for many these days.

He arrived an hour early, on purpose as he headed to the cafe and ordered himself a coffee, before sitting inside. The weather was good, but he wanted to observe the club, the staff members. He saw Bailey from afar, in a simple crop top and matching leggings, and he enjoyed the view. He made a few notes, before heading to the changing room.

Again, he used the treadmill for his warm up, gently jogging, as he watched the gym team and the personal trainers. The club was rather empty but it seemed to have a slight improvement in cleanliness, with weights, kettlebells and the like for the most part being put away. Maybe the visit by the regional manager had been useful.

And as he started his cool down, he saw Bailey approach. Her long hair in an unkempt high pony, swinging in time with her strides.

“Afternoon.” he offered mopping his brow with the small gym towel.