Discover how to stay in contact and maintain a professional relationship with personal training clients while they are on vacation.
Vacation can seem like a dirty word in the personal training business. Indeed, when your client declares that they are off on vacation you may worry that after a week or two of the ‘good life’ they’ll lose their motivation, and you’ll never see them again.
However, the good news is there are some ways you can stay connected and support your clients even while they are on vacation. Something that in turn should help them stay on track with their fitness goals, and ensure that you continue to have a positive working relationship once they return. Read on to find out what they are.
Set Clear And Achievable Goals
One of the best ways you can continue to build your relationship with your client during their vacation is to work with them to set clear, and achievable goals for the time that they are away. The achievable part is crucial here as the goals you set need to be realistic and help them feel a sense of success, even while on vacation.
With that in mind, aiming to lose 5lbs, or increase their 5-mile PB may not be the best goal. Instead, suggest smaller healthy habits such as drinking plenty of water, and staying active each day. You can take advantage of Everfit’s Habit Coaching to prescribe habits to them to help them maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Give Your Clients Reminders
Even though your client is on vacation, it makes sense to still stay connected with them, so you can help them to work towards their fitness goals. One way to do this is to use Tasks to send automatic reminders. Then you will be able to set reminders for them and gain their attention whether they are busy exploring new locations, or busy relaxing by the pool.
Check In With Your Client While On Vacation
One of the best ways to continue to build a relationship with a client while they are on vacation is to take the time to check in with them while they are away. There are several benefits to doing this, including making your client feel cared for and supported. Additionally, by checking in, part way through a vacation, you will be able to work with your client to assess whether they have been meeting the realistic goals you set with them before they left. If they have, then you can celebrate, and if not you can guide them to get back on track.
Help Them Make Reasonable Meal Choices
Another great way to support your client and build your professional relationship while they are on vacation is to help them make sensible food choices. Of course, this will look different for each client depending on their goals, and eating habits. For some, this may mean focusing on portion control while they are away, while for others a form of fasting such as OMAD might work best and allow them to indulge without sabotaging their fitness goals.
Some trainers encourage clients to log all their meals while on vacation, but it’s important to note that this can feel a lot like hard work to clients that just want to kick back and relax. To get around this, and to provide an even more high-end quality service to their clients some trainers allow them to send pictures of their meals. The trainer is then able to estimate the nutritional values and macros for the client and log these, helping them stay on track with much less work while on vacation.
Make Sure They Log All Activity
Finding a gym while on vacation can be a pain, especially if the hotel in which your client is staying doesn’t have one. However, most people do a great deal of activity while on vacation, much of which they don’t even realize they are doing.
For instance, walking to explore the local area is common, and there is plenty of walking to be done on day trips. Swimming is also a very popular physical activity while on vacation whether it’s in the sea or the pool, and is a great low-impact way of burning calories. Then there are additional activities like water sports and tennis that many engage in, and it’s very important to remind your client to log all these different types of activity that they are doing.
Indeed, by helping your client stay on track with logging their physical activity while on vacation with the Logged Activities, you will not only help them reinforce the habit, and work towards their goals but also feel a sense of achievement for staying active even when taking a break.
