Retro Fitness CEO Talks About his Experience on Undercover Boss

With nearly 100 clubs nationwide, Retro Fitness is not an independent club. However, the lessons that CEO Eric Casaburi learned during his recent appearance on CBS' hit show, Undercover Boss, can be helpful to club owners of any size.

E9Retro Fitness, a franchise offering a state-of-the-art workout experience in a checkerboard-and-hair-band atmosphere, has thrived despite an economic recession to the tune of 90-plus clubs, more than 300,000 members and more than 1,200 employees. Concerned the company he founded in 2004 might get too big before he could assess its performance at the micromanagement level, Eric Casaburi decided this year to appear on the CBS reality show Undercover Boss to see if his vision of top-notch customer service was in fact being executed by frontline staff. A heavily disguised Casaburi visited six Retro Fitness locations under the ruse that he was in a contest with a chance to win his own health club. As he was shown how to conduct tours and mix smoothies, the incognito CEO found both inspiration (the emotional life stories of several employees prompted Casaburi to ultimately distribute some $250,000 among them) and exasperation (one foul-mouthed employee would lose her job during the show's "reveal" segment). After the episode aired April 26 to an audience of nearly 9 million, Paul Steinbach caught up with Casaburi to find out what he truly learned.

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