My Crunch Response
About a day after I sent out my big Crunch complaint email, I recieved an apology from the COO of the company, Roger Harvey. In the email he apologized for the experience, asked me to not judge Crunch Fitness after one bad experience and offered me a free month to come back and try it out (after informing me I could cancel my NYSC membership within three days with no penalty). Mr. Harvey also informed me that it was Crunch policy to not allow anyone but members in good standing to work out at the club.
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.—————
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: http://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
Hi, I'm 
I am no fan of Crunch — I live across the street from one and no longer go there for a variety of reasons — but you show a remarkable lack of personal responsiblity with this statement:
“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.”
When you joined the gym, you could have made a note of the period you joined for. Moreover, that information is probably on your membership contract. Perhaps you might not remember the exact date your membership would expire, but a responsible adult would at least have a vague sense of “Oh, I joined in January last year, so my membership is probably expiring soon — I should check on that.”
And even if you forgot completely, it’s simply false to say you had “no way of knowing.”
You sound rather greedy.
Just read Noah Brier’s explanation of how his membership was canclled — I should have read the earlier entry on this blog that explains the situation more clearly than his most recent letter to Cruch. He did, in fact, have little or no way of knowing his membership expired. Sorry to be harsh on him.
Just read Noah Brier’s explanation of how his membership was canclled — I should have read the earlier entry on this blog that explains the situation more clearly than his most recent letter to Cruch. He did, in fact, have little or no way of knowing his membership expired. Sorry to be harsh on him.
Hey JT,
No worries, I understand. But I really had absolutely no way of knowing. I left this comment over at Gothamist, but let me leave it here too:
I had a corporate membership that had been continued after I left my last job. The membership was not set to expire until June 1, or something to that effect. The company cancelled my membership and this was all unexpected. As I wrote in my response to Roger Harvey, the COO of Crunch, I went in on Saturday expecting to work out. I had been there about two days before and everything had been fine, not even a mention that I might have a cancelled membership. So when they told me that I needed to renew, I just wanted to think it over. I had been paying a corporate rate before and just wanted to decide whether to go with the 1 year, $799 option or the two year, $1199 option (or something to that effect).
I was at the gym, with my gym clothes on and I wanted to work out. I wasn’t just looking for a freebie, I was just looking to make the best decision about a lot of money.
Hope that clears things up a bit.
After the initial story I thought you had run across an arrogant manager, but it seems the problem goes beyond that. I find it amazing that there are still companies out there that don’t give their employees the tools to make their customers happy (especially in the gym/healthclub industry where so little differentiates most places already). Anyway, thanks for communicating the story. I certainly won’t be joining a Crunch anytime soon if they don’t trust their employees to make “good customer service” decisions.
I used to work for Crunch at a fairly high level and am not surprised to hear of your experience.
If it’s any consolation, my own first-hand knowledge (things that I saw & overheard, and that I was asked to do while I was employed by Crunch) make your experience pale by comparison. What I mean is that I was absolutely SHOCKED by what I witnessed. I left saying I would never again step foot in a Crunch gym and have lived true to that promise.
In fact, I was so turned-off by Crunch that I immediately got out of the fitness industry all-together and put an end to that chapter of my life.
Crunch may suck… but please bear in mind that the ENTIRE fitness industry is a bacterial cesspool (literally and figuratively). Trust me when I say that Crunch is a hell of a lot better than the clubs it acquired during its growth.
In defense of Crunch, their guest policy WAS abused something awful while I was there. I know Roger personally and he is a good guy. I believe that he meant well and was trying to do the best he could with a dificult situation (policy vs. exceptions vs. precedent). Everyone tries to get a free ride for a day by going from club to club so you have to understand the policy, but their conduct towards a pre-existing member such as yourself is truly abhorable. I would have fixed it for you immediately ‘on the down-low’ if I was still there.
Here’s my advice. Buy a decent pair of sneakers and throw-out your MetroCard. Get over the “work-out thing” all-together and start living your life instead of watching someone else’s on TV while you try to shed an ounce or two.
That is, unless you are so positively VAIN (and an exhibitionist) that you can only take a shower with an halogen lightbulb projecting your naked silhouette on a publicly-viewable, not-so-frosted glass window. They are (to my knowledge) still the only place you can go for that “experience”. :)