remembering all your client’s names is NOT impossible…

Unfortunately for everyone who’s ever said ‘I’m just not good with names”, memory is a muscle. If it’s weak, it’s because you don’t choose to strengthen it, to train it to be stronger. It often sounds similar to when a new client will come to your class and say “I’ve just always had a bad core”… when what they’re really saying is that they’ve never committed/had the time to focus on strengthening it.

We live in an era where memory is barely needed. If you play your cards right, you can store everything you might ever need to know in your pocket computer, and pull if out when you forget something. This process doesn’t just stop our memory from strengthening… it actively weakens it. When was the last time you intentionally tried to remember something organically, without using Google or countless amounts of data stored on your phone?

Learning and remembering your client’s names is not only, not that hard, but it’s also a cornerstone of a studio experience. I can’t imagine it’s motivating when you walk into your local studio and the same instructor asks your name every week.

Before I get into the practical side of this, I want to address the most common response that I get when I talk to other teachers about this. Most typically they’ll laugh it off and say “yeah but I see over 50 different people a week, that’s a lot of names” to which I usually smile and say “it is a lot of names… but it’s also your job.” I wholeheartedly believe that Pilates teachers should be learning, remembering and using the names of all their clients, no matter how many they teach. I’m not unaware of the time end effort this takes, but it’s not nearly as hard as it sounds.

1 INTRODUCE YOURSELF AND ASK THEM THEIR NAME. Hearing someone say their own name can be a helpful way to recall it later on. It’s also important that you make eye contact when you do so, so you have two points of reference when you need to find their name… you heard them say it, and you saw them say it. What do you do if you forget? Easy. Ask them again. Make sure you apologise for forgetting their name, something along the lines of “I’m sorry, could you please remind me of your name?” Or any version that feels natural to you. Let’s hope we only need to do this once. Once you’ve asked a second time you need to try extra hard to remember their name to avoid the total embarrassment of having to admit again that you didn’t try overly hard to remember it.

2 MUD MAP THEIR NAMES AS THEY ARRIVE. This is one of my favourite ways to remember and use client’s names in a bigger (3+) class. I do a rough drawing of the mat/reformer placement in the room by way of rectangles, and then fill them in with the names of clients that claim each space. This is super helpful to refer to during class to give encouragement, modifications or adjustments.

3 ADD NOTES ABOUT THEM AND ANY CONVERSATION YOU HAD. This is an easy way to put a face and name together. Often we might have a brief chat to a client about something random before or after class. You can add notes about this to your mud map to give yourself another layer of memories surrounding that person. It might be the name of their child/dog, or a trip they recently went on.

4 USE THEIR NAMES. Create a goal to use each client's name 3 times throughout their class experience. When you welcome them into the studio, one point during class (even if its just to tell them they’re doing great) and when they leave class. The effect that this has one someone by way of feel welcome and seen is what will set you apart as a teacher, and in turn, a studio.

If you’re reading this thinking, “that’s a lot of work” … I’d give you the same response that I give when people tell me they have too many different people in class… but that’s your job. That’s the job of an exceptionally welcoming teacher who is committed to the journey of every client in the room and is willing to show that through the extra effort they go to learning, remembering and using their names.

I’d love to know how you remember your client’s names! Any tips to pass on?

Alexa xx