Your focus as a gym owner should be helping your customers to achieve their goals, retaining them and making sure they tell their friends about your club. Many set out with this intention, but eventually become sidelined by the many responsibilities of running a business. Most end up spending the first few hours of their working day making sure their schedule is organised, chasing late payers and organising new memberships.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. The answer? Empower your customers to take control. It’s time to work smarter and build a business that thrives and changes lives.
In a society where we’re spending in excess of six hours on our smartphones every day, making sure your customers can manage their memberships and bookings from their phones should be a priority – whether that’s in their mobile web browser or via an app.
Not only is it more convenient for them, but it’s also more efficient for you (or whoever is responsible for their club admin). After all, it’s your job as a gym to help them achieve their fitness goals – something that requires time and attention that would originally be spent on boring admin tasks such as chasing payments and booking them into classes.
At first, you might feel a bit nervous about handing over that responsibility to your customers but with the right system in place, pushing back will be a breeze.
For example, ClubRight allows you to specify which memberships you make available to purchase online which is ideal for clubs with tiered memberships. You can specify which classes are bookable online and if you have a class that’s in high demand, you can use an automated waiting list to fill cancellation spots without you having to lift a finger.
It may not sound like a huge time saving but think about all the little admin tasks involved with filling a class cancellation. Traditionally the instructor would be making phone calls, sending emails and even text messages to previous attendees to try and get that space filled so that they don’t lose out on money.
The same goes for last-minute changes in operation, such as an instructor calling in sick, a change in club opening times or perhaps a change in location if you run an outdoor bootcamp. From ClubRight, you can send a bulk communication via email, text message or even a push notification to the right people so that they don’t get any surprises when they turn up for their workout.
As humans, we have a natural desire for control. So, by giving your customers the simple and convenient tools they need to manage their fitness experience, they’ll be happier. Of course, there may be a small number of customers that aren’t as tech-savvy and would prefer to make bookings or changes to their membership face to face, it’s going to be far more manageable than having to do that for every single one of your customers.
When you allow your customers to have some control over their purchasing decisions, it connects the business and the consumer. They’ll experience a greater sense of satisfaction and achievement from their purchases, and they will take more responsibility for a purchased service’s success or failure – a concept that is especially useful for a gym. When customers view themselves as in control they’ll often take more risks, such as trying a new class or renewing with a more comprehensive membership option.
To summarise, there are many benefits to empowering your customers to take control. As long as you have a user-friendly way to make it possible, you’ll be able to save a significant amount of time on club admin while simultaneously increasing loyalty and growing your business. When your customers’ buying decisions are self-motivated, growth will follow.
Want to empower your customers to take control of their fitness experience? Speak to ClubRight. We understand the day-to-day challenges of owning a business in the fitness industry and we’re committed to helping you reclaim the time you usually spend on gym admin and refocus it on more important tasks: growing a business that thrives and changes lives.
