How to deal with flaky clients

[musclelady2]

I just started training my first client. This week has been 3 weeks and I only had only one training session with this client. I told this client what my expectations were of her. What was funny was that I had asked her what were her expectations of me and she told me that she would have to think about it. I thought that it was rather strange not to tell me one's expectations but didn't make a big deal out of it. Last week she cancelled out on me because of her job. Then this week she called me and scheduled a session with me today at 1:00pm at our gym. So today when I was on my way to the gym she texts me telling me that she was on her way and that was about 12:45pm and then I texted her back telling her that I'm on the way also. So when I arrived at the gym I was still on time. I waited 5 minutes then 10 mins. Before you know it it was 30 minutes. Then I went back to the locker room to access my cell phone thinking maybe something happened on the way. Then I get a voicemail message saying that she was outside with money to pay me for the session. Like I'm going to have my cell phone attached to my back thinking that she might call me. To me having my cell phone is asking for to damage it or have it stolen plus it would be unprofessional of me to have my phone on me. I think she was full of crap in the first place saying that she was there. She is a member of my gym so there was no excuse not to meet me inside. So when I wrote it off that she was a no show I did my own workout. When I came home I phoned her telling her that I can no longer train her until she decides to be serious about me training her. Her actions tell me that she is not serious. When I called her I didn't reach her but I did tell her the message about not wanting to train her.

I just want to know did I handle this right? And in the future how can I detect a flaky person and how to deal with them professionally without being discriminate? Any suggestions I would greatly appreciate.

 

[dloop20]

It is tough working with clients. I think you handled it well.

One suggestion I would have is to find out what kind of client you have, and figure out how hard you can push them. Some may be motivated more than others, but our job is not just to work with the ones that are motivated, but the ones that cannot motivate themselves as well.

In the end, if you decide not to work with a client because she may not have taken it as serious as you like, you may just be hurting your own pocket. I think with clients like this, you should just practice on them. Learn different ways to approach her and different ways to motivate her. I would only do this is you had few clients and had time.

 

[musclelady2]

Looking back at this experience I have learned a lot from it, because it only makes you better with the next client. Granted though this client was paying me I still have to set my standards. And I made it clear to her that all that I expected of her was to be on time and to take the scheduled workouts seriously. I understand with what you're trying to tell me and from this experience I have learned to start charging a client for 5 sessions at a time and pay for all those sessions upfront. Because that covers me and if I show up and my client doesn't then the money covers my time, effort, and gas. Plus I would make that non-refundable. I would also require that I get a 24 hour notice of cancellation and if I were to get a last minute cancellation it would be at my disgression whether or not to accept it and count the missed session as a paid session with no make up. Like any business person would say that time is money. As a trainer I have to set boundaries for my client and if he or she crosses those boundaries then there will be consequences.

One thing that's hard for me to understand is why would someone want to hire me as their trainer and not be serious about making the sessions. It's really something that's not a joking matter. Personal training is serious business and should be treated as such and if a client doesn't want to commit to the sessions then they are wasting my time as well as theirs. But at least I can chalk this experience as a very valuable learning experience. Later on this evening my client had told me that she was in her car and fell asleep. And then she tells me that she can't commit to being at the gym at a certain time. But she needs all the work that she can get. Hello? We had agreed to a time to meet at the gym and we both wrote the time in our calander planner. Then I told her who set up the time for both of us to meet? We wrote the agreed time in our planners so there's no excuse. Then she didn't say anything more. It's not the matter of who's right but it's about owning up to the responsibility of not showing up and being considerate of my time. Because if something unforseen were to come up on my end I would have the courtesy of calling my client right away and reschedule and not cancel out at the last minute. In my opinion, when a clent makes an appointment for a session with me that they should treat as anything of importance like a doctor's appointment.