Behind The Design
A new series featuring the amazing people who design and craft all our Pilates Equipment!
This month we’re featuring the Customer and Technical Support Department.
Throughout the year our Behind the Design series has taken you “inside” our manufacturing processes and given a glimpse into the people who are responsible for the great products we make. This month we’re doing it a bit differently and taking a look at our Customer and Technical Support Department. Why? Because they are a critical component in supporting, maintaining, and promoting positive relationships with the most important part of our business – you, the customer.
I know what you’re saying; “we all support our customers”. So, what makes Balanced Body so different?
I think it’s all about how we see our customers.
The largest part of our business is made up of Mom and Pop (mostly Mom) type studios. This means most of our sales are one Reformer at a time and we know if these customers are successful, we can be successful.
Additionally, we know that we are a key factor in providing opportunities – through education and outreach – that may not otherwise be available to many of our customers. Providing this opportunity excites and motivates all of us.
We also understand our unique and quirky relationship with our customers. Even though instructors are our typical customers, it is their customers that we need to satisfy. In a sense, their customers are our customers. We need to provide a product that highlights the skill of our instructors while creating a rewarding experience for their clients at the same time.
For me, as the CEO and founder for Balanced Body, my job is to serve your needs, so, if you were to look at BB’s org chart, you would see that I work for you and that everything flows from there.
In the bigger picture, we feel we have a responsibility to the Pilates Community, Society, and our planet. In the next year, we plan to double our solar power capacity to approximately 2,000 panels. We support and embrace diversity in society and the workplace, and we are supporting refugee programs in addition to the Arts programs.
The bottom line, we always strive to take a 360° look at our customers and do whatever we can to contribute to their success. And our Technical/Customer Support people are absolutely key in that regard.
Meet Balanced Body veteran and Technical Support Guy Extraordinaire Joe Weiss and learn what he finds so rewarding working with our customers
Ken Endelman founded Balanced Body in 1976 after a Pilates instructor visited his furniture store in Hollywood, California and asked him to build an improved version of a Pilates Reformer. At the time, there were less than a dozen Pilates studios worldwide.
After several months studying the Pilates methodology and the original apparatus built by Joseph Pilates, Ken designed a modern Reformer that was reliable, safe and user-friendly for contemporary practitioners. This resulted in a new career for Ken, and a revolution in the mind-body exercise community. Under Endelman’s leadership over the past 45+ years, Balanced Body has grown into the world’s largest resource for Pilates equipment and education.
Endelman has collaborated with Pilates educators, studio owners, fitness club operators, physical therapists, athletic trainers and home users to create equipment that combines Joseph Pilates original designs with our modern understanding of human biomechanics. His innovations have been awarded over 43 patents in the United States and hundreds more worldwide.
Balanced Body’s motto – Movement Changes Lives – supports Endelman’s goal to make Pilates a part of everyone’s lives. Today, Balanced Body promotes the benefits of Pilates at more than 20 conferences per year. Endelman has authored articles on a wide variety of topics relating to both technical and business aspects of Pilates equipment and programs, was a 2018 guest lecturer at the University of Hong Kong School of Science and Technology and is a frequent presenter at Pilates and fitness conferences around the world.
A longtime member of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science and the Pilates Method Alliance, Endelman has completed in-depth educational seminars with a number of renowned Pilates senior master trainers. He is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles. He’s also passionate about building a sustainable company for future generations —and “walks the talk” by cycling to work nearly every day!
