Your Weekly Mail from LMI / Nov 16th, 2007
1. GOLD’S GYM ONLINE BOOKING FACILITY
Over the last six months, Les Mills has been working with Gold’s Gym to assist them in creating an online automated process that will allow their instructors to book initial trainings run by Gold’s Gym online.
Benefit to Agents
This online tool will now enable Gold’s Gym to deliver faster, more efficient online bookings for your Gold’s club instructors and also tighten the instructor agreement process around Golds trainings through the web store. To date, every single Gold’s module booking has been a manual process at GGI and many separate document transactions to process an instructor from booking stage through to actual training. Planning ahead for growth, coupled with the 2007 advances in online technology through the CMS, the move to controlled online bookings for GGI instructors by Gold’s is a logical one. LMI is sure that both the US Agencies and GGI will immediately enjoy the benefits of this rollout.
Agency FAQs
To assist you in understanding how this process works and how it may affect you as a Les Mills Agency, we have put together some basic FAQs:
Q: Will the online booking process for Gold’s instructors be the same as our instructors currently use?
A: Yes - a replica mini-site has been built for Gold’s Gym to allow their instructors to book initial training online through lesmills.com.
Q: How does the CMS know if an instructor is Gold’s or not?
A: All Gold’s Gym clubs in the CMS will now get 'flagged' as a Gold’s Club by LM Agents at the same time as they are entered as a licensee onto the eNet licensee management tool.
Q: Do we have to differentiate if the Gold’s Club is a Corporate Club, Royalty Based Club or a Franchisee?
A: No. All clubs will be categorized just as ‘Gold’s and for the purpose of this booking tool, an instructor will be classified a Gold’s instructor if their primary Les Mills club is a Gold’s facility.
Q: What happens if the instructor isn’t linked to any club, or they teach at several clubs which are a mix of both Gold’s and non-Gold’s facilities? Can they book a Gold’s training?
A. Gold’s instructors needs to have their primary club selected as a Gold’s club (in their profile) to be able to book directly online for a Gold’s training. In the case where the instructor is neither linked to any club, or is linked to a non-Gold’s club, then the instructor will get a pop up message saying: Sorry, your online booking for this initial training cannot be processed as this Les Mills training is delivered by Gold’s Gym International exclusively for instructors whose primary Les Mills club is a Gold’s Gym facility.
Please contact GGI Training Coordinator, Carrie Kepple ckepple@Gold’sgym.com, (214) 296-5816, as you may be able to obtain authorization from your local Les Mills agency to attend this Gold’s Gym Les Mills training.
Q: How does an Agent set the licensee up as a Gold’s Club in CMS?
A: When you load a club into the Licensee Management section of lesmills.com, you will see an ‘additional field called “Is this a Gold’s Gym?”
Q: What happens when a Gold’s instructor tries to book a LM Agency training online?
A: No problems, the Gold’s instructor can select and book either Gold’s or Les Mills Agency initial trainings directly online. No restrictions apply in this direction.
Q: What happens when a non-Gold’s instructor tries to book a Gold’s training online?
A: A restriction applies. If a Les Mills instructor tries to book a Gold’s training online they will be blocked from doing so automatically online - with a PopUp advising the event is run by Golds.
The booking screen PopUp will say:
Sorry, you cannot book this training as it's delivered by Gold’s Gym International exclusively for Gold’s instructors whose primary Les Mills™ club is a Gold’s Gym facility. If there are no other trainings nearby, please contact Carrie Kepple, , tel.(214) 296-5816 as you may be able to obtain authorization from your local Les Mills regional agency to attend this initial training.
Q: If I am an instructor from a Gold’s Franchisee club, how can I elect to train with Les Mills Agency and book my module spot?
A: You won’t be able to book online, as only Gold’s can book GGI modules, and non Gold’s can book LM modules directly online. The Agency will need to process this booking manually through the CMS.
Q: Does GGI have access to full agency CMS functions, or just their own GGI online module booking tool?
A: Gold’s have access to a limited amount of CMS functions that allow them to solely manage their initial training events online.
Q: Will their online charging system of instructor credit cards be the same as ours and are the prices the same?
A: Yes, Gold’s honors the same instructor pricing system as Les Mills Agents for initial trainings.
Q: Do they offer the same terms and conditions for module bookings?
A: Yes - Gold’s use the same terms and conditions for booking trainings.
Q: Will the online instructor agreement process now be a pre-requisite for all GGI training bookings also?
A: Yes – all new instructors training under GGI modules now have to sign their online agreements prior to booking their module space just the same as it now works for Agency bookings. This means that each newly trained Les Mills instructor will have a record in the CMS for your region, irrespective of which company delivered the initial training, and will tie in with Agency CMS individual instructor records for AutoShip and Assessment.
You will be able to enter in the Training Grades directly into the Instructor record when it arrives from Carrie at GGI for your Club Coach.
Q: Is there any part of the Gold’s online booking tool which might be of concern to me as an Agent?
A: The tool has been developed with full consideration of the US Distributor - Gold’s Gym master agreements and initial training requirements/restrictions in place under the supplementary agreement with Gold’s. LMI is confident that the tool will enhance initial training servicing by GGI and enable efficient supply of increasing demand going forward - all working to cater for more licensees and more instructors to be looked after in a more time efficient manner.
If you have any further questions regarding this please do not hesitate to contact Julie Riker, US Agency Support () or Sheree Carter, Online Manager ).
2. BTS SWITCHING CAMPAIGN
The Marketing team is working on a campaign. This will be ready by the end of November to send out to all your BTS clubs pre Christmas.
Attached is a spreadsheet derived from the BTS club locator were 388 clubs as at 11th of November 2007.
We will finalise this document by next week and will include phone numbers. However, if you see any errors please advice Rachael Barker on .
3. NEWS FROM THE MARKETS
Publication of Les Mills news
1. American Fitness (journal of the AFAA; circulation 42,000) has published in its Nov-Dec 2007 edition an extensive feature on BODYVIVE™.
2. Club Insider News (circ. 5200) in October 2007 carried has carried an article that is critical of Phillip Mills and LMI. We are drafting a response on behalf of Phillip, which we will provide in a future edition of Bar Up.
Editorial planning
3. We have seen a preview of an article on BODYPUMP® that will appear in a local magazine in Monterey CA in December.
Appendix
American Fitness, November 2007
Club Insider News, October 2007