We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mora Babineau & Elizabeth O’rourke a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mora Babineau & Elizabeth O’Rourke, thanks for joining us today. Quality control is a challenge almost every entrepreneur has had to focus on when growing – any advice, stories or insight around how to best ensure quality is maintained as your business scales?
We mentioned earlier that Pilates certifications should take at least one year, and more if you’re also getting certified on the Pilates equipment. In order to maintain quality control, we keep this high level of quality instruction. We have had to be very patient and understand that quality takes time! We have primarily ‘home-grown’ our instructors. They start as clients or come to us as instructors-in-training so we are a part of their certification journey; this does take more time and is a longer process, but it pays off immensely in the end. Most of our staff have all completed the same certification (Balanced Body) so this additionally, keeps us all on the same page in terms of the quality of Pilates education. We also set a recommended path for instructors, with the end goal being getting their comprehensive certification and taking the NCPT test (Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher). We support our instructors in completing this level of certification.
Our Cape Cod studio location is now a training facility (Balanced Body Authorized Training Center), so this provides us with additional resources and to continue to train current staff and potential staff from within our four walls. Having a close connection with the person and their training only elevates the quality of our team.
Additionally, we routinely offer in-service workshops for our team to continue to expand our knowledge base and grow together. We hire other professionals to come to the studio to cover a new Pilates topics.
Something to keep in mind – be selective in who joins your team! We will not take just any certified instructor, aside from their certification they have to fit in with our overall vibe and approach! We have had plenty of highly certified instructors that just don’t fit our ‘vision’, and we will not sacrifice integrity, professionalism and personality!
A few tips: don’t scale to fast, monitor who is joining your team, slow and steady wins the race! It is imperative that you hire the right people to join your team and to empower them. As a business owner, you cannot do everything and be everywhere, so hiring the right staff will allow your business to grow and to maintain the quality of your product.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
We have been Pilates studio owners for almost 17 years! Our first boutique Pilates studio opened in Warren, RI in 2008. We opened our second studio location in July of 2023 and became an Authorized Training Center for Balanced Body in 2024. For those of you who don’t know what Pilates is, it is a system of exercises, developed by Joseph Pilates back in the early 1920s, using special equipment designed to improve physical strength, flexibility, and posture and enhance mental awareness. Pilates has evolved over the years taking in to account anatomy, kinesiology, and proper body mechanics. Having an Authorized Training Center allows us, as experienced, certified professionals to train other people to become instructors. Our team of instructors has grown to 14 certified instructors between the two studios and we currently have 4 apprentices (instructors-in-training). We have an apprentice program for instructors-in-training to work with us to get their practice hours. We recently launched a mentorship program for instructors-in-training and other Pilates professionals, who do not live locally, so we can guide and help them from afar. Finally, we’re launching a CEC (continuing education credits) program for certified instructors to maintain their certification with us!
We have always stayed true to just teaching Pilates! We mainly provide Pilates instruction to clients either in a private session or small group class, utilizing the pilates reformer and other specialized Pilates equipment. The noise in the marketplace makes you think you need to offer something new each week, we believe clients like repetition and consistency, they thrive on certainty. And once you build their trust you can guide them to new experiences and new offerings.
With Pilates experiencing a recent ‘boom’ and increased interest, a lot of ‘watered-down’ certifications have popped up to meet the demand of needing instructors. Becoming a certified Pilates instructor should take at least one-year, and this cannot be rushed! We have always prided ourselves on highly certified instructors that put in the time and the work! In return, we have created an amazing supportive community for our clients; a safe, inclusive space that is clean and organized. We like to say “come for the workout, stay for the community”. We provide a safe space for all bodies to move!
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
This is where the software system you choose it hugely important for client communication! We have text ability to reach out to our clients after their classes and sessions to see how they’re feeling! We have both welcome and nurture sequences set up for clients via our email software. Clients receive a detailed welcome email on how to find us, what they need to bring, etc. in addition to their welcome text message. Clients then receive specific follow up emails after their first session letting them know how to reach us, all of our offerings and our community events.
We send out newsletters on specific pilates topics or studio events.
One of the best ways to foster brand loyalty is with a milestone program. Our clients receive a welcome gift on their 2nd class, then again they receive studio47 logo gifts at 25, 47, 100 and 250 sessions (yes we have clients with over 600 visits!!!).
Our software also alerts us to client birthdays so they receive a birthday gift for showing up on their special day.
Aside from emails and milestone programming, we have cute studio wear with our logo on it, that clients buy and proudly wear.
We do community events, we do collaboration events with other local businesses and we do client appreciation days 1-2 times / year! The sense of COMMUNITY is key for brand loyalty!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
COVID was 100% a major pivot for our studio. Not only was the studio shut down for 12-weeks, where we had to scramble to learn zoom, offer online classes, keep in touch with our community, deal with the landlord and rent, etc. etc. But when we were able to re-open, where we normally could accommodate 16 clients in our mat/barre studio space and 5+ clients on Pilates equipment in our other studio space (plus instructors!), after COVID we were only allowed to have 4 clients in each space, so this was very limiting and the math just wouldn’t work. We had toyed with the idea of getting rid of our mat and barre programming on and off for a few years, COVID basically made the decision for us and we created group reformer classes. This shift was amazing for business. The reformer is a wonderful piece of equipment that is so addictive! We also realized clients love to be able to ’touch equipment’, it feels elevated and special, paired with a highly certified instructor in a small-group, chill environment with lots of individual attention it was a perfect combination! We went from 5 reformers to 11 over the next few years!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.studio47pilates.com
- Instagram: @studio47pilates
Image Credits
https://www.lindseymaephotography.com/
Lindsey Mae Photography