Health clubs and training studios that are not using software, or are not using quality software, are missing out on tremendous opportunities to grow their business. In the health club industry, we all look for ways to manage and grow our companies. Yet, this challenge becomes more difficult if you are not utilizing all the tools needed for this task.
For example, complete software can help your club by:
• Communicating with members who have not checked into your facility in two weeks;
• Communicating with members that have not trained in seven days;
• Scheduling members with trainers, and tracking the sessions used;
• Tracking inventory of products;
• Analyzing buying habits of members. And, those are just some of the ways in which complete software can contribute collectively to the growth of your business.
In order to work most effectively and efficiently for your club, a complete software program should include the following functions, reports and tools:
• Membership Tracking: Track and record membership information. Easily find members that are expiring in current and future months. See new members, cancelled members, renews and reopens for any time period to analyze the growth of your business. Utilize digital contracts with signature capture.
• Check-In: Check members in using cutting-edge technologies, such as a laser scanner or biometric fingerprint reader. Screens provide your front desk with the ability to easily identify members who owe money, or to remind them of services that are being offered.
• Member Web Accounts: Members can login to their own personal accounts where they can view: their membership information; fitness assessments, along with processed and upcoming training sessions; register for classes online, and workouts prescribed by trainers. Members can even track and analyze cardio and strength workouts, and view videos.
• Personal Training and Scheduling: Track training packages purchased; trainer payroll, and weekly sessions, processed by members or trainers. Schedule members with trainers and track sessions. Identify members who are not training or who have not trained in seven days and send an email blast to all.
• Fitness Assessments: Provide easy-touse tools to measure a member’s progress by recording measurements over a period of time. Measurements can include blood pressure, body fat, various body measurements, push-ups, and before-andafter images.
• Point-of-Sale: Process product purchases, track inventory; employ a quick, laser-scan process; track member purchases. Review reports that detail product profit margins for selected time frames.
• EFT: Process monthly paying members electronically via credit cards and electronic checks to make your monthly billing process very easy.
• Prospecting: Track and record prospects and log all prior communications and contacts with prospects.
• Retention Tools: Identify members who have not checked into your facility in over two weeks; those who have not trained in seven days; those who have not had a fitness assessment in two months; those who have upcoming birthdays, and email blast them all. Also, identify prior guests of your facility to communicate the benefits of joining to them.
• Analytical Reports: Calculate statistics for each member, such as average monthly check-in; average monthly training sessions; average monthly class attendance. Identify highusers and low-users of your facility and communicate with them accordingly. Track weekly employee hours, track the employee time clock, and track facility usage by day and hour.
• Methods of Payment: Process and track the following payment types: credit cards, eChecks (bank debits), pre-paid accounts, gift cards, gift certificates, cash and paper check.
• Videos: Provide videos, including: how-to videos on executing various workouts, and personalized videos for individual members.
• Miscellaneous: Track and record gift cards and keep track of card balances. Allow members to pre-pay their account so that counter purchases, for water and health bars, are easy.
Collectively, all of these functions, reports and tools will improve your club’s daily operations; provide ways to improve your retention, and offer additional, valuable services to your members. If you do not have software that is complete and offers these types of abilities for your business, your daily operations will be time-consuming and error prone. Don’t miss out on your club’s opportunities to market to prospects; improve retention rates, and offer more revenue-generating services. Look for software that is complete so that your daily operations will be a smoother process in your quest to grow your business to the next level. Look for a software vendor that has a good track record of working with clients to provide customized solutions based on specific requests.
Larry King is the Founder and CEO of Shape.Net Software. He can be contacted at 800.381.2082, or by emaillarryking@getshape.net, or visit www.getshape.net.
