You have arrived at the web home of Noah Brier. This is mostly an archive of over a decade of blogging and other writing. You can read more about me or get in touch. If you want more recent writing of mine, most of that is at my BrXnd marketing x AI newsletter and Why Is This Interesting?, a daily email for the intellectually omnivorous.
Now, for everyone's viewing pleasure, I present my response to Mr. Harvey and crunch:
Roger,
First, thank you for replying to me in such a timely and thoughtful fashion. I really do appreciate that.Do you have any plans to change the policy that "only members in good standing, non-members that have paid a guest fee, or non-members with a valid guest pass are allowed entrance to the facility?"
My problem with this policy, as I understand it, is that there is no opportunity for the person at the desk to use any judgment. While I appreciate the fact that you can't just have anyone running around the club without paying, it was amazing to me that after being a customer for six months I couldn't be given any leeway. As a side note, this was not the message I was getting from Luis and Joe. In fact when Joe came over he said to me that it was Luis' decision.
What is more, I was not informed during my last visit that my membership would be ending. Therefore, I had no way of knowing, when I walked in on Saturday, that I would not be able to work out. Had I been informed that my membership was ending, I most likely would have gotten the info while I was still a member, worked out, and come back next time to sign up with my new plan. I must admit that what made me so upset that day was that I just wanted to go to the gym and never imagined I would run into so much difficulty doing so.
In the end, I guess it bothers me that you have a customer service policy that doesn't allow your employees to make your customers happy. It would not have cost Crunch, Luis or Joe anything to let me work out that day. However, the potential loss is significant -- measured in my ability to communicate my story. On my website, the head of HR and Customer Service for Harman (the audio company that makes JBL and Infinity) left this comment outlining how to compute the value of a happy customer. I found it very interesting and thought you might as well.
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There's a way to compute the value of a Happy Customer:Direct Value
A. Average retail price of product
B. Average customer revenue per purchase
C. Number of purchases per lifetime
D. Lifetime Customer Value (B*C)Indirect Value
E. Customer tells 5 people (D*5)
F. Revenue from referrals (25% of E)
TOTAL VALUE OF HAPPY CUSTOMER (D+F)At Harman Consumer Group, we are very attuned to this formula. The interesting thing is that in our business, it usually costs us to make the customer happy. In your case, Noah, it WOULD NOT HAVE COST CRUNCH ANYTHING to let you work out.
I am increasingly insistent on good customer service and I certainly would not ever entertain going to NY Crunch, for myself or my employees. They certainly don't understand customer service.
Elenor Denker
VP, HR and Customer Service
Harman Consumer Group
---------------You can read the other comments or comment yourself at: https://www.noahbrier.com/archives/2005/01/crunch_fitness.html
I also would like your permission to post your letter (taking out your email and phone number, of course). I think it's important to let people know that you did respond to me in such a thoughtful fashion.
While I very much appreciate the offer of a free month, I would like to see bigger changes made in the way you treat both your customers and employees, before I decided to enter a Crunch Fitness again.
Best regards,
Noah Brier