This week it was confirmed by the UK Government that gyms in England will reopen as planned on Monday 12th of April 2021 – a long time coming for the fitness industry!
We understand that you’ve got a lot on your plate trying to get everything organised in time for reopening, and we’ve been busy helping gym owners get their systems ready so that they can focus on welcoming their members back instead of spending time worrying about admin and paperwork.
To help out, we’ve created a last-minute checklist to make sure you’ve covered everything ahead of Monday!
1. Make sure your customers feel confident returning to your gym.
The first (and perhaps most obvious) step is to make sure that all of your members are aware that you’re open for business again. Emails and text reminders are a great way to notify your members of your reopening times and the regulations that you’ll have in place from the 12th of April.
Several people may still feel nervous about returning to public spaces after staying at home for a year, so it’s key to show your members they can trust you to follow the government guidance and keep them safe. Monitor the number of people at your club at a given time and give your members a way of seeing how busy you are before they come down, so it’s easier to maintain social distancing (this is a popular feature of PureGym that we offer with ClubRight). Be confident that you’re doing everything you can as a gym owner to keep the people in your building safe.
2. Check that all members are unfrozen and their payments are up to date.
Next, you need to make sure that all membership payments are unfrozen and that your members are up to date with their payments ahead of time, so they don’t get any surprises when they turn up at your gym on Monday.
It also makes sure that you’re still able to collect payment and get back to bringing in a stable, recurring income!
3. PPE & Hygiene Protocols
Get your cleaning rota finalised before you reopen to avoid confusion and make sure you’ve assigned a member of staff to each cleaning task, so you can make sure things get done. Check your hand sanitiser stations are topped up, toilets are equipped with antibacterial hand soap and you have clear directions pointing your members to the hygiene stations.
Implementing a one-way system for moving around the gym floor? Mark out the flow of foot traffic so members know where to go and can avoid coming into contact with members outside their bubble. Providing PPE for your staff? Stock up on masks and face coverings, or make sure staff have their masks for when they come on shift. Doing temperature checks upon entry? Make sure your thermometers are charged up and ready to use.
4. Reactivate online joining.
There will be a lot of individuals that have decided they want to join a gym since lockdown began, so make sure your online joining process is turned on and check it’s straightforward for customers to join, pay and become a member of your club. Make sure your membership plans are available to purchase online and your payment provider is connected so you can start collecting money again.
Double-check that the joining page link is clearly shown on your website (perhaps by using a big “Join Now” button or banner) and continue to share it on social media so that you can capitalise on the number of people looking to join a gym.
Top Tip: Physically go through your online joining process as if you were a customer looking to join. Ask yourself: Do the links on your website and social media work? Is the process straight forward? Have you given the customer too much/too little choice? Is the design of the webpage consistent with your club’s branding?
You can do the same for your member experience. Neil, our Head of Sales, shares how you can optimise your online joining process in this blog post.
5. Don’t forget about virtual activities.
Just because your facilities have been able to reopen doesn’t mean you should forget about offering your services virtually. Indoor group exercise is not permitted in the second phase of lifting the lockdown in England, so if you wanted to offer classes they still need to be held be via Zoom. Plus, there will be a small number of people that prefer working out at home and engaging in online classes because it fits in with their lifestyle – which could be another income stream for your club. Learn how to use Zoom to grow your fitness business here.
The same goes for on-demand content. Sometimes individuals would prefer to access workout routines and exercise tutorials at home on their own time because of their busy lifestyle. Your business can seize this opportunity by recording your workout own videos and selling access to the content online, once again generating more revenue for your club.
We hope that helped you feel more prepared for reopening on Monday 12th April!
The ClubRight Team wish you every success in the coming months of returning to (some sort of) normal after what’s been an incredibly tough year for the fitness industry. Something that makes us different from other companies is that we genuinely care about supporting gyms, health clubs, personal trainers and more in doing things better and growing their businesses.
Whether you’re an existing customer of ours or not, we’re here to help you however we can in reopening and beyond. You can contact us via the Live Chat on our website if you have any questions about the topics covered in this post, or if there’s anything you’re not sure about.
Feel free to click below and schedule a five-minute phone call with one of our experts to chat about any challenges you might face how we can help.
