Health clubs and training studios that are not using software to manage their training program are missing out on opportunities to grow their business. Good personal training software will more effectively manage your club’s training program – saving you time with your daily operations. Good software will provide tools to involve more club members (or training studio clients) in the training program which will drive your member retention rates higher. And, good software will offer additional services to members to generate additional monthly revenue for your club.
The following are 11 must-have features to look for in personal training software:
1. Web-based software: The benefits of web-based software include: accessing the system from any computer; offering members and trainers access to their own personal web accounts, and providing services that can be sold to members.
2. Scheduling: Training software should make it easy to schedule appointments by the day, week, month and year, and apply session results such as a “Done,” “No-show” or a “Late-cancel.” Good software will track each member’s package session count and automatically email notifications to members when sessions are winding down. Additionally, look for the ability to log a prescribed workout for a given day while also viewing the details of the last workout.
3. Trainer payroll: Save time and remove errors by letting the software calculate trainer payroll. Look for the ability to have graded pay tiers for each trainer based on the number of sessions trained, and the ability to pay by the session or by a percentage of the session value.
4. Training analysis retention reports: Personal training software should easily identify those clients who have purchased a training package, and yet have not trained in over a week. The system should be able to send this group a re-engaging email, reminding them of the importance of working out with a trainer on a consistent basis. Another great feature is the ability to identify members that do not have a training package and collectively send them an email.
5. Trainer activity reports: Growing the training program requires solid information on what the trainers are doing. Training software should completely track what each trainer does. For each trainer and for any timeframe, administrators should be able to see how many sessions a trainer did, and the number of no-shows or late-cancels there were (at a minimum). This can help administrators spot red flags – for example, it will reveal that a particular trainer has excessive no-shows. Reports like these provide administrators and owners with the ability to easily monitor weekly operations – saving time and minimizing administrative mistakes to make a training program better.
6. Virtual workouts: Trainers should be able to post weekly workout prescriptions for members. Members should then be able to access those workout prescriptions from a computer at home or anywhere else. This is a great service to offer as reinforcement to the primary one-on-one personal training, or to offer to members who are not yet ready to work with a trainer, but would pay for a service that included professional guidance.
7. Videos: Software should make educational training videos viewable by members – preferably through each member’s own web account. Videos can provide invaluable reinforcement for primary learning with a personal trainer, and can help members learn the fundamentals needed for more advanced exercises. This would be a great service to sell to your members, generating additional revenue for the facility.
8. Fitness assessments: Training software should track and record fitness assessments, providing comparison to prior measurements taken. Before-and-after pictures of members are also very useful. Another important software feature would be to easily identify members who have not been assessed, or those who are due for an assessment, and to email them reminders that also review the benefits.
9. Trainer log-in: All trainers should have web access to the software to: view their personal schedule; log session results; track their payroll, and to have contact data for each of their clients.
10. Member log-in: Members should be able to log-in to: track upcoming scheduled appointments; view fitness assessments; view videos; track workouts, and view prescribed workouts from trainers. This is a great service to sell to members for a nominal fee of $5 per month.
11. Segregate training revenue and expenses: All financial reports should be able to easily extract the financials associated with personal training, providing the ability to monitor the growth of the program.
Taken collectively, these features provide all the software tools needed to help your training program grow. The 11 must-have software features will:
• Save you time by making the tracking of your daily operations easier
• Drive your member retention rates higher by making it easier to communicate and to engage your members
• Generate additional revenue for your facility by providing great additional services that your members can purchase. Look for the features described above to give you all the software tools you need to provide the best personal training program possible for your members and clients.
Larry King is the Founder and CEO of Shape.Net Software. He can be contacted at 800.381.2082, or by email larryking@getshape.net, or visit www.getshape.net.
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