The big day is here!
The campaigning is complete and the party's getting started! Day One of Global Assessments! Your members show up to class and the music is energetic, the coach is excited and that excitement is contagious! Global Assessments are like Friday Night Lights! Delegate tasks to the right coaches or maybe even to a member. Is someone great at making playlists? Ask them to help! It takes one task off your to-do list, and they’ll feel valued since you asked them to help! Win-win!
You run the Assessment -- members Level Up -- they input to Chalk It Pro (CHIP) -- you have a system for approving Levels -- members are on Cloud 9 because of the way coaches and members made them feel after their success! But, wait … do members know where to enter their Levels? Do you have a system for approving Levels? How and when are members celebrated? These are systems to have in place BEFORE the big day, because they're needed during Assessments.
There are going to be peak emotions, stories to share! So much magic is happening during all the excitement, the joy and the sense of accomplishment that Level Ups bring. You need to be ready to capture these moments, with your camera and your words. These are stories to share on your social media for weeks afterwards -- which extends out the hype and the excitement!
And now -- while emotions are high, when they're feeling accomplished and amazing -- ask members for referrals and reviews on your website. What a great way to get new warm leads without running any ads. Why wouldn’t they refer a friend or family member?! -- you’ve helped them reach their goals AND you’ve genuinely connected with them. Priceless.
Ty Jones, co-owner of CrossFit Initiative has used Bingo a couple of times during their Assessments. He says that gamification takes the focus off people's performance and puts it onto participation. He’s made it easy for you to do it too! Go to the resources section on the Legion FB page for access to 300 unique bingo cards. There are 15 Assessments and 16 squares, so the “free square” is the “overall Level complete” spot. CrossFit Initiative did prizes for four in a row, and when members blacked out their cards, their names were entered into a drawing for a bigger prize! Ben Olin from Standard CrossFit said Bingo produced the best participation they’ve had during an Assessment.
Snow Charpentier from CrossFit IronHaven did a photo contest to create a buzz and draw up excitement. At the end of each class, the whole class would come up with a creative photo idea to celebrate the Level Ups of that class. Everyone in the class was in the photo, so even if they didn’t Level Up, they still got to participate -- which made for some awesome community engagement! They printed all the photos at the end of G.A. and put them on a board for members to vote on. Everyone in the winning photo got a prize! The members came up with some very interesting photos -- which make GREAT social media content and create that close-knit community vibe that makes gyms great! Jen Shelby, co-owner of Community Fitness Granbury, said that they did this during their last Assessment and got the best participation and excitement they’ve had!
Another way to get members excited and engaged comes straight from your coaches. How engaged are they? Are coaches Assessing their own Levels? They set the example. They are the exemplars of the culture you want to create -- so be sure to post pictures of your coaches Assessing too. If they aren’t able to attend a scheduled class, you could even do a facebook live of your coaches Assessing. Even when members aren’t at the gym, you're generating buzz!
It's great to be creative with how you do Assessments. Jenny Jeffrey, owner of Onside Performance Centre, customizes their Assessment schedule based on the prior month's programming. For example, they omit the last two Assessments that were just assessed the month before in the regular programming. This gives more time to get in the other Assessments, and members don't repeat Assessments back to back. They push out the schedule on every communication platform that they can, including a newsletter, email, Chalk Talk and social media. They’ll also reach out to people individually who are missing any Assessments.
Going for the Friday Night Lights feel? You could run an internal competition with captains, teams, judges, and really make a big deal about it! Jeff Brown, owner of CrossFit Bluestone, created four person teams, with an established member as a captain. He used a very simple point system. One point for just doing an Assessment, so people who Leveled down still got to participate and help their team. It also encouraged members to do API, Rowing, and some of the longer, tougher Assessments. Two points for achieving your same Level, and three points for Leveling Up. Each member could get a max of 45 points. It created a productive peer pressure element, to get members to participate. You can get creative with the prizes too!
