by John | Apr 8, 2026 | Big Box Instructor, Promote and Build Your Class
Image from netpromoter.com
They describe Net Promoter Score (NPS) as The Ultimate Question
:
How likely is it that you would recommend this Club/Studio/Class/Instructor to a friend or colleague?
As a Life Time Fitness Instructor/employee I hear about our NPS scores frequently… and if you don't understand what NPS refers to and the effect it could have on their business or your class, you may be thinking; “so what?”
Well the short answer is your NPS score is an indication of how likely your students will be to promote the club where you teach or your class to their friends.
Let's start with some understanding from the people who developed this concept:
What is Net Promoter?
Net Promoter® is both a loyalty metric and a discipline for using customer feedback to fuel profitable growth in your business. Developed by Satmetrix, Bain & Company, and Fred Reichheld, the concept was first popularized through Reichheld's book The Ultimate Question, and has since been embraced by leading companies worldwide as the standard for measuring and improving customer loyalty.
The Net Promoter Score, or NPS®, is a straightforward metric that holds companies and employees accountable for how they treat customers. It has gained popularity thanks to its simplicity and its linkage to profitable growth. Employees at all levels of the organization understand it, opening the door to customer- centric change and improved performance.
As you can see in the image above, NPS is based on a 0-10 rating score in response to the question; How likely is it that you would recommend to a friend or colleague? The responses are then broken down into three categories:
- 0-6 Detractors – Unhappy people who will talk down your class or club – damaging your brand through negative word of mouth.
- 7-8 Passives – Satisfied, but won't go out of their way to promote your class to others.
- 9-10 Promoters – these are your fans 🙂 The students you look forward to seeing and they in turn look forward to telling others about the awesome class you just taught. In a nut shell, these are the people who will help FILL YOUR CLASS!
To calculate the NPS you subtract the number of Detractors from Promoters, which leaves you with either a positive number (good), zero, or a negative number (bad). So if you have 100 people respond to a survey of the ultimate question if you have more Promoters than Detractors you can expect to see your class size grow.
NPS ignores the Passives as they really don't hurt or help your business. I see the real improvements coming from moving the Detractors up the scale.
I have a few personal complaints and/or concerns with NPS:
- The score tends to be skewed by the number of respondents and getting busy people to respond is tough… which is why your manager is forever asking you to ask your participants to complete a survey.
- I'm personally more inclined to give negative feedback, actually… I'm guessing we all are.
- You may have very little influence on your clubs NPS. If your bike maintenance is lacking, one of the two projectors isn't working or the locker room has a funny smell that causes a member to score your club as a Detractor, there isn't much you can do. This could be a good reason to drill down and solicit NPS for specific areas/departments.
So beyond Life Time, who else uses NPS to measure how successfully they are satisfying their customers? Apple for one. The link is to an article that dispels the myth that Steve Jobs never listened to his customers – Apple listens every day.
In Podcast # 196 Studio Owner Emmy Ragali explains why she has an Instructor Evaluation form on her Go Cycle website. The link to it is easy to find and she and her instructors encourage participants to give feedback regularly. I see that one of the questions is; Are you likely to recommend this instructor's class to a friend?
Which is really all that matters 🙂
Does your studio use NPS [wlm_firstname]? What have been your experiences?
I'll be discussing how we all can help to improve our clubs NPS scores in later articles.
Originally posted 2012-01-18 04:51:13.
by John | Mar 21, 2026 | Instructor Tips and Tricks
Updated: 10/27/14 I continue to be confused by people's insistence that Indoor Cycling is in someway unsafe – so I thought I should republish this post.
Updated: 7/11
My mic failed this morning. We were about 10 min. into our hour class when any small movement of my head caused the loud crashing sound many of us have experienced. I was teaching to our latest Audio PROfile, Paceline Cycling in France and had everyone set up for our first 20 min. effort when I thought; Houston… we have a problem!
I've had enough “technical difficulties” in my career as an Instructor to know the best response in this situation is no (or a very minimal) response. Any attempt to solve the problem just leads to a big disruption in your class, so you just go with it. So off goes the headset. I offered a short apology for the problem and then I explained to everyone; “I see you all as self-directed athletes and now is your chance to prove it” 🙂
And they did.
Because I had given everyone a full explanation as to what's to come, they didn't have any trouble following the video and by all appearances everyone seemed to enjoy the class… and no one hurt themselves.
While we all rode along I got to thinking; “what would be different if I wasn't here?” I was thinking specifically of Jim Karanas' last post about using a virtual ride DVD as a substitute Instructor. I am convinced that, left to their own motivation, my class would not work as hard as they do with my prompting. But would they be less safe?
My personal observation – no.
I've been participating and/or teaching Indoor Cycling since 1995. Over that 17 or so years I can only think of one specific time where someone was injured. That's once out of – it must be over a thousand classes.
The only injury that I can remember was during the first week our club began offering indoor cycling classes. We had these shiny new Johnny G Spinners and Amy was all excited to begin teaching a class that I could actually attend. I don't know if they'll came as standard, or if the club purchase them separately, but in those very first classes the bikes used some very aggressive mountain bike pedals. When I say aggressive I'm referring to how the pedal platforms featured serrated edges, designed to keep muddy shoes from slipping off. The concept of a fixed gear bike was new to everyone. During the class a woman's foot came out of the toe clip and when the pedal completed another revolution, it carved a nasty gash in this poor woman's calf. The next time I was there, every bike sported a set of smooth Schwinn triple link petals.
So where do the concerns over safety come from? Because I don't see it.
My perception is that Indoor Cycle probably the safest activity you can do at the club. Orthopedic surgeon's dream homes are built from repairing 40-year-old Achilles tendons, torn from running up and down the basketball court… treadmills spit people off on a regular basis and I personally had to have my biceps tendon reattached from curling too heavy of a dumbbell.
People trip, fall and crash into one another in step & Zumba classes. I know a number of victims who hobbled out after a yoga class complaining; I think I pulled something 🙁 And yet class after class, year after year no one gets hurt in my (or anyone else's) Indoor Cycling classes.
Am I missing something here?
Update 7/11
Screen shot from http://www.spinningtv.com
I've been digging into this more and started to think about all the home users of Indoor Cycles. Spinningtv.com says they have sold nearly 1,000,000 Spinners to at-home users. With Amy's involvement over at ShopNBC I've learned all about the crazy numbers of sales they make via infomercials. Based on the number of infomercials Spinningtv.com runs, I'm going to bet that “Nearly 1,000,000 Sold number isn't an exaggeration!
When someone orders a home version Spinner bike they also receive a selection of DVD's featuring Josh Taylor or other Instructor who leads the customer through a virtual ride. I haven't watched any of these DVD's so I can't say with certainty, but I'm going to guess that Josh and Co. lead viewers through changes in positions and intensities… just like we do in our classes.
I Googled “spinning bike lawsuit” to see if some enterprising attorney had attempted to seek damages for a user (s) who was injured riding sans Instructor. All I could find were two #1 #2 lawsuits. Each had resulted from mechanical failures, both in clubs.
My next search was for “spinning bike consumer safety” to see if there were any warnings, recalls or other notices from some regulatory agency. I found nothing.
When you consider that indoor cycling has been popular since the late 90's, there have been millions of indoor cycles sold, who have been ridden by many millions of people – at all levels of experience – over 10's or 100's of millions of hours, I'd have to say that Indoor Cycling is a pretty safe activity for most anyone.
But I'm still confused… where do the concerns about Indoor Cycling safety come from?
Originally posted 2014-10-27 09:37:48.
by John | Sep 13, 2021 | Instructor Tips and Tricks
Amy and I went to a Halloween party last weekend dressed as PeeWee Herman and Miss Yvonne. Yes my costume included a “shoe mirror” 😉 During the party someone asked me “what's the secret word for today PeeWee?” and I thought why not add a similar feature to ICI.com.
Note: yes I am aware that Groucho Marx first popularized “what's the secret word” on his TV show.
Eustress – It's not a secret word and you may have never heard it before. I first heard Author Tim Ferriss use it in the 4 hour work week. Eustress is simply defined as Good Stress. More here. Tim describes eustress as stress that has a defined end where you can recover. Any form of physical effort is eustress except for when an athlete is over trained – and you know the result of over training, don't you?
If you are familiar with the “wear sunscreen” song, which is a musical version of a commencement address, you may remember the line: “do something everyday that scares you”. Placing yourself is scary situations, then experiencing relief, is a form of eustress. Some examples would be: public speaking (teaching your first class), skydiving, asking someone out on a date, asking for a raise or competing in a race.
When I use eustress in class, I explain that the eu prefix is the same as in the word euphoria.
Originally posted 2009-10-28 08:39:36.
by Jennifer Lintz | Aug 26, 2021 | Featured Studios, Instructor Tips and Tricks, Instructor Training
When I take off my instructor hat and walk into a class as a participant, I have two expectations beyond the obvious (getting a good workout):
1. The class will start on time.
2. The class will end on time.
I understand there are exceptions to every rule and occasionally instructors get started a little late or run a bit long, but in general, I think it is important that we make a concerted effort to stick to the official schedule.
Why? For me, it comes down to being respectful of people's time and making sure members' expectations match up with reality. If the schedule says class will run from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m., folks probably anticipate a 45-minute class that starts at 5:30 p.m. and ends at 6:15 p.m., and they should! There may be participants like the one in Krista's recent post who take extreme measures to be at class early. There may also be people who feel bad about leaving “early” in the event that class ends late. Straying from what is expected increases the likelihood that participants will leave feeling disappointed, frustrated or annoyed.
Whether you are a hyper-prepared instructor or a professional improviser, there are several things you can do to ensure you start on time and end on time. Below are my thoughts regarding time management in the cycle studio.
Arrive 15 minutes early. I don't just mean walking into the building 15 minutes before class starts; I mean walking into the studio dressed and ready to teach 15 minutes before class starts. This will give you time to get your music ready, test the microphone, adjust your bike settings, greet members, answer questions, and assist new participants with bike setup.
Read announcements before class starts. I typically turn on my microphone to make announcements 1 to 2 minutes before class begins. That way, when 5:15 a.m. or 5:30 p.m. hits, I am ready to push play and teach immediately. Every minute counts.
Have a plan. I don't like to feel unprepared and I also don't like looking at the clock, so my profiles are planned out down to the minute to avoid both of those situations. Preparing a thorough class plan allows me to focus on my participants instead of the time.
Be consistent with cool down. If you teach every Thursday from 5:30-6:30 p.m., pick a time when you will start cool down and stick with it. That way, even if you improvise in your classes, you know that when 6:25 p.m. (or whatever time you choose) rolls around, you better start slowing things down.
Stay focused. Talking too much can throw a wrench in class plans; I know, because it has happened to me. I can recall multiple occasions when I had to shorten hills or alter drills because I was long-winded with a story or something that was on my mind. Being conversational has its positives, but it is also important not to get too carried away.
What are your strategies for time management?
Originally posted 2013-04-11 12:34:24.
by John | Jun 30, 2021 | Instructor Tips and Tricks
When a student asks what they should purchase for Indoor Cycling Shoes, what do you recommend? Do you have a place to send them? Does your club sell Indoor Cycling Shoes?
If you're only using them for Indoor Cycling classes, then a shoe with a recessed SPD cleat is the best choice. Often refered to as Mountain Bike shoes, you'll find they are easy to walk on and won't scratch the floor. Every pedal you will find and a studio these days will have a SPD on one side.
Here are links to a number of suggestions at Amazon.com which has as good a pricing as anyone and you can't beat Amazon's easy return policies.
Indoor Cycling Shoes for Women
Indoor Cycling Shoes for Men
I ride a lot outdoors and prefer a conventional “Cycling Shoe” that has an exposed cleat – I have used Look cleats on all of my road bikes. My feet are very wide and flat. After suffering with ill fitting shoes in a “regular” width for years, I finally broke down and purchased a pair of Sidi Mega Road Cycling Shoes
. Yes I know they are expensive. I've had mine for at least ten years and other than looking a bit faded, they are as comfy as ever.
I should add that I wear my Sidi's with Superfeet supportive insoles that prevent my feet from rolling inward, which takes a lot of stress off my knees.
This post has more suggestions and recommendations for the best indoor cycling shoes for wide feet.
Originally posted 2010-06-19 09:51:02.
by Chuck Cali | Mar 26, 2021 | Master Instructor Blog, Promote and Build Your Class
This cute kid found something good – image from http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2012/09/24/gluten-free-apple-crisp-fall-away-from-tradition/
The posts with more than a couple of comments always catch my attention. It shows a hit on a subject that interests people enough to share their thoughts. I have always considered this forum's primary objective to do just that. Light a fire so-to-speak.
That said, the post on Single Leg Pedal Drills got me thinking. They are a staple of my classes. I teach on both magnetic as well as friction resistance bikes. Like Doug (Yo Doug good to hear from you) I cue the riders to “let one leg go along for the ride.
The term ‘contraindicated' has – over the years — been associated with these drills when the rider has been instructed to ‘unclip'. And I agree though I see the risk as minimal. Even on bikes using MR we have a few ‘bouncers' — those that will just never put the kinds of resistance we instructors are trying cue — and as such are at risk for getting a pedal in the back of their leg. So I just don't do it.
Yet, what I liked most about John's post is that he has come back around to an important issue. It clearly got us talking with our fingers which means — hopefully — we gave it some thought. We don't always need to be finding something new so much as reinforcing something good. And that got me thinking.
As I have moved from beginner to journeyman to experienced to grizzled veteran, I've learned a few things.
Embrace and learn from those that take the time to compliment you/your class. Lately there have been many more of my riders — some regulars some new — that have taken the time after class to come to me with an acknowledgement of well delivered class. “Your best yet” said one just yesterday. The irony was that I'm doing nothing really new. In fact I used a playlist favorite of mine that has been collecting dust in my iPad for a while. When I think about it I've not really put anything new together in quite some time. Oh, I've got a pile of audio podcasts printed out waiting for me to take action. But I believe the truth is that the riders in my regular classes are enjoying my growth as an instructor far more than hearing Katy Perry's new tune. Or another way to climb.
People resist change. We already know we cannot please everyone in class every time. So if you are committed to bringing new everything to your class, every class, you may be setting yourself up for failure. Your regulars have an expectation of what you're going to deliver before they walk into the studio. Try your new stuff out when you sub.
You are who you are. If you have been teaching well attended, prime time classes then it is very likely that your success has more to do with you, than what you play and cue. While I don't recommend getting stale I do strongly urge you to stay true to your style.
I will use John as an example of what I mean. Recently he posted about a technology, Harmonic mixing, that blends tracks of the same musical key. His frustration was that others could put together better mixes than he. Ok, I guess. First, that is his opinion of his playlists and probably not an issue for his riders.
Next, while his integration of harmonic mixing may have a subtle effect (positive or negative) on what the riders hear, John is teaching to full room because he is John. A great smile, always happy to see his riders, has a plan for the workout and best of all, his voice over the mic during his cues are about the best I've heard. Right up there with the late Jim Karanas. Which segues nicely to.
Know your strengths and play to them. Maybe wife Amy and Chris Hawthorne put together mixes that he thinks flow better. Good for them, that is their strength, among many others, 🙂 not his. We all chose to get to the front of the room. On stage is what I call it. So face it, you like the affirmation. What gets you applauds is what your strengths are. If you are a new instructor then you may still be searching for key performance parameters. I use the word performance intentionally because that is what we do. It's not just about the workout but how you deliver it. Your performance.
One last thought on strengths. The best of the best are quite adept at getting their riders attention and holding it. I cannot stress this enough, go watch them. How? Maybe at your club there is the one instructor that ‘packs em in'. Attend conferences. IDEA here on the left coast is dedicated to instructor continuing education. SCW has monthly conferences around the country. Find one near you.
Know when to say when. If you are teaching more than an average of a class a day it will be very difficult to keep the fire burning hot. Motivating ain't easy. If you are teaching your third class of the day it will soon become obvious to your riders that you are not feeling the love. Teaching indoor cycling for living is tough and — in my opinion — not sustainable at pro levels. Unless teaching that many classes is standing between you and the street, consider what your optimum number is per day as well as per week.
Do continuing education. You can always get better. Our craft is one of caring, connecting, nurturing, prodding and sweating. But none of that is possible if you don't base it on sound fundamentals. Indoor cycling is about doing cardio vascular training on an indoor cycle. Knowing as much as you can about training both, will never hurt. Add your personality, a touch of some stuff you picked up from the pros and you've got a winning recipe.
We don't always need to be finding something new, so much as reinforcing something good.
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Originally posted 2017-11-20 09:00:51.
